Advancing Maternal Health Equity through Telehealth: The MCEI Framework for Sustainable Integration

Itohan Comfort Egbedion; Chioma Veronica Opara; Vincent Uche Barrah; Okiemute Rita Obodo; Uduak David

doi:10.56201/ijhpr.vol.10.no6.2025.pg1.10

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Advancing Maternal Health Equity through Telehealth: The MCEI Framework for Sustainable Integration

Itohan Comfort Egbedion, Chioma Veronica Opara, Vincent Uche Barrah, Okiemute Rita Obodo, and Uduak David

Abstract

Persistent maternal health disparities across racial, socioeconomic, and geographic lines remain a critical equity challenge in the United States, particularly for Black women who experience maternal mortality at rates nearly three times higher than white women. Technology-enabled care delivery through telehealth presents a transformative opportunity to address these systemic inequities by expanding access to quality maternal healthcare services across traditional barriers. This paper reviews the Maternal Care and Equity Intervention (MCEI) framework, an innovative, scalable, equity-centered model for sustainable telehealth integration in maternal care systems. Drawing on a comprehensive review of telehealth applications across prenatal, emergency, and postpartum care, we examine how remote care technologies, when implemented with deliberate, equity-focused strategies, can improve access, reduce mortality, and support culturally competent maternal care. Sustainable integration of technology-enabled maternal care requires supportive policy frameworks, provider training, and community partnerships to ensure virtual care benefits all women, regardless of geography, race, or income, rather than reinforcing existing disparities.

Keywords

Telehealthmaternal mortalityMCEI frameworkhealth disparitieshealth equity

References

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Advancing Maternal Health Equity through Telehealth: The MCEI Framework for Sustainable Integration

Abstract

Keywords

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