“The company began because of my sister who I love so dearly that passed during childbirth,” Kamara shared in an interview with AFROTECH. “She died of pregnancy hemorrhage in Sierra Leone, where I’m originally from, and then my aunt died of preeclampsia in Columbus, OH. So those two deaths led to the forming of the company.”
He launched InovCares in 2020, and it operates as a “culturally sensitive virtual OB-GYN clinic” geared toward minority women and families. The company provides community support to mothers offering rewards for engaging in healthy activities including walks, prenatal classes, and postpartum classes through its mobile app.
Additionally, it offers telehealth services to connect mothers to providers as well as “specialized point-of-care testing” with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
“We’re using AI and machine learning to predict the risk of preeclampsia and other conditions of the child,” Kamara explained. “So we give our mothers a kit, and in this kit is an ultrasound and blood pressure monitor. This ultrasound connects to the app and comes with a cell phone, and then it comes with the directions in both English and Spanish because we’re in Texas.”
He added, “With the tech itself, all this data is pulled into the mobile app on the patient side as well as the provider side. Then we predict using AI for social determinants of health like housing, the risk of preeclampsia. And then connecting her to the right resources to ensure that the needs that we have — whether that is housing news, food insecurity — are addressed through our network of partners.”
“Identifying high-risk pregnancy issues — such as hypertension, obesity, stress — earlier with technology and interventions can help us, collectively, to potentially put a dent in the number of preterm and low birth-weight babies,” Dr. Mark Chassay, BCBSTX’s vice president and chief medical officer, said in the news release. “It’s important to find innovative solutions that scale and support providers and mothers with the latest knowledge for the best care.”
InovCares will provide services primarily in Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth and Rio Grande Valley regions, and the company has already initiated its efforts at HHM Health.
“With the relationship with Blue Cross, they are really a true partner because they really want to address this maternal mortality crisis in Texas, and it’s very staggering,” Kamara expressed. “So, they are really a true partner in collaborating to be a funder, one, and secondly to ensure that this is getting in the hands of the right practices that need it the most. So, HHM Women’s Health Center, they have such a robust integrative clinic, right. However … what we solve for them is bringing that technology infrastructure and edge that it needs.”
