Innovating to Support Moms and Babies with Andrea Ippolito, Founder and CEO at SimpliFed: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Innovating to Support Moms and Babies with Andrea Ippolito, Founder and CEO at SimpliFed: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Saul Marquez:
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Saul Marquez:
Welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket everyone, Saul Marquez here. Today, I have the privilege of hosting Andrea Ippolito. She currently serves as the CEO and founder of SimpliFed, which provides tele-lactation and nutrition support to help new parents get access to breast feeding, support from the comfort and safety of their own homes from international board certified lactation consultants. She also serves as a lecturer in the College of Engineering and SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. At Cornell. she directs the Women’s Entrepreneurs Cornell program and also had the opportunity to testify in front of the US House of Representatives Committee on Small Business to push for additional support for diverse innovators in America. Prior to joining Cornell, Andrea served as the director of Department of Veteran Affairs Innovators Network within the VA Center for Innovation. In this capacity, she designs and oversaw the creation of a ten point five million dollar program that provides the tools and resources to VA employees to develop innovations that improve the experience of veterans and their families. She’s just an amazing contributor to health care with a really diverse background. And I’m really privileged to have Andrea here with us today to tell us about what they’re up to at SimpliFed. Andrea, thanks for joining us.

Andrea Ippolito:
Thanks so much for having me. Excited to be here.

Saul Marquez:
Yeah. So the work you’re doing and the work that you’ve done has has really been been focused on and that access point and quality of care access. And so I’m excited to learn more about SimpliFed and your other experiences. But before we dive into those, Andrea, tell us a little bit more about what inspires your work in health care.

Andrea Ippolito:
Yeah, well, I would say that an answer has evolved significantly over the course of my lifetime. So when I first got into working in health care, it was as a scientist and I was just so excited to apply some of the knowledge that I had and was learning as a biomedical engineer to build better medical devices. And in particular, the work focused on cardiovascular medical devices, which is one of the leading killers in the United States. So I was very focused on the engineering and scientific side of building devices, which are fantastic and game changing and life changing for the patients that it impacts. However, they’re in reality a very small part of the health care ecosystem. And so then I went to MIT to learn about that broader ecosystem. And it’s not just about the devices and the technology, but the systems that surround that technology. And I was infatuated with how those systems all come together to help support patients and caregivers. Now, of course, we know that fortunately and unfortunately, when you go down that arena of learning about health care systems, it becomes a quick game of following the money. And so learning about how those systems all interplay with each other has been fascinating for me. And so from there, I founded my first company as far as scheduling, which later sold to Athenahealth. And so that was a health I.T. play, but using predictive algorithms to predict no shows to medical practices. And so in that sense, in that phase of my career, it was very focused on understanding how we could increase access to health care for individuals.

Andrea Ippolito:
And now after I’ve had my daughter and she’s now about turn three and I’m actually pregnant with my second daughter,

Saul Marquez:
Congratulations!

Andrea Ippolito:
Oh, thanks. I’m pretty infatuated with how we can improve the system of care surrounding maternal, newborn and child health, because it’s an area that has been drastically under innovated in, underfunded, overlooked for decades. And after having my daughter May almost three years ago now, I just saw firsthand. It’s interesting and there’s a lot of data to support this with women in particular, healthy young woman. The first major interaction that they have with the health care system is often in and around birth. And I went from, just as an example, taking no medications ever, not having to schedule my primary care appointments because I was young and healthy and I was very thankful and lucky for that to having to take three medications a day and going to the doctor all the time because of different complications in and around birth. And I just saw firsthand how, frankly, just overlooked health care is in and around this arena for so many reasons. And I am privileged white woman. Never mind when you look black women where the maternal mortality rates are sadly extremely high, especially for such a country that’s developed as ours. And so we started SimpliFed to tackle some of these issues that we see in and around birth to better support moms and babies.

Saul Marquez:
Well, really appreciate the history there and the track record that you’ve had of finding those sleepy areas that need to have the stones unturned and innovation implemented to create success. And so now you’re focused on on this critical area where you’re right, a lot of moms are faced with underwhelming quality of care and so many unnecessary deaths and complications. To your point, what are we doing to make this better? So I’d love to dive into that and how SimpliFed is adding value to the ecosystem.

Andrea Ippolito:
So something that’s been very important to me throughout my career is that I’m not just adding to noise, but that I’m pushing a field forward. And so I first started that when I was part of and co-director of MIT Hacking Medicine, which this was now 11 years ago, which at the time was pretty revolutionary in the digital health arena. But we were bringing together engineers, entrepreneurs, clinicians, designers, scientists to hack and help create disruptive solutions in health care and medicine. And that’s where my first company came out of also other companies like Rubicon, M.D. and Killpack, which sold to Amazon for close to a billion dollars almost three years ago. And so we were this force and we were all grad students at M.I.T. But nonetheless, all these incredible startups came out of it. And a big thing with that is that we were all part of this ecosystem together, contributing to it, mentoring each other, helping us access capital together, accessing partners together. And then I went to the VA and I was part of and led and started the Innovators Network, which was all about developing health care solutions to better support and improve the experience for veterans and their families. So contribute to the ecosystem is just something I just feel so strongly about.

Andrea Ippolito:
And so what does that look like with SimpliFed? So we simply said we’re trying to increase access to lactation support and nutrition support. So whether you decide to breastfeed, use infant formula, both. Eighty three percent of moms do both. And we don’t we don’t want to create camps here. We believe that either solution, we want to normalize breastfeeding. We want to normalize infant formula. And most importantly, we want to get support to new parents in and around birth. And we do that via telehealth. So that’s our goal. That’s our mission. But we’re focused on. But to accomplish that goal, there’s so much more that needs to happen in the ecosystem to better support moms and babies for us to achieve that mission. One thing that we’re laser focused on is, first off, advocating for paid parental leave. There’s no way that we’re going to be able to accomplish our goal of increasing breastfeeding support and infant feeding support and or on birth to help improve confidence for moms and get them the resources they need until we get paid parental leave in this country. And that will give parents both the financial and physical freedom to breastfeed to accomplish our specific goal. But most importantly, it will give them the time to recover from the pretty intense, traumatic experience of giving labor.

Andrea Ippolito:
And I think going back to what I was saying earlier is that it’s so critical that we treat labor as a major medical event because it is so giving parents that protected time, especially moms, but both parents, we need to give them that access to paid parental leave, which gives them the financial flexibility, the time flexibility to focus on things like breastfeeding, but to recover as well. So that’s one thing that we’re doing is speaking out, talking about how can we get more support of paid parental leave. And there’s so many great organizations out there that we’re helping to bring transparency to. First thousand days is one of those organizations highly encourage you to check out their website? They do a lot of wonderful, wonderful advocacy in this arena. And so make sure to if you’re not right, your Congress woman or man to talk about how they can advocate for this. Because the good news about this policy is that it’s actually quite bipartisan. They just disagree on how to implement it. And so we’re getting closer. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer. So that’s one way that we’re contributing to the ecosystem. Secondly is we like to bring awareness for issues that previously are brushed under the rug that moms in particular don’t know where to turn.

Andrea Ippolito:
Maybe that’s on postpartum birth control, maybe that’s on constipation, whatever that is. They use topics that were previously taboo. We’re trying to get evidence based insights to parents because often right now they’re left guessing. And then the third thing I’ll say is that unfortunately, we’re seeing this right now at the COVid-19 vaccine is that there’s a lack of clinical trial, lack of research, a lack of evidence surrounding pregnant and lactating women. And there’s a long history of pregnant women and lactating woman being left out of clinical trials saying, oh, it’s too dangerous. Well, I get it to a certain extent. But on the other hand, I don’t we have so much health I.T. and technology now to do retroactive studies or for one. And to proactively sign up for registries so that we can get these insights to researchers, to clinicians, so that we can develop evidence based or evidence informed recommendations where the posture in the past has been to Heisman or push out pregnant and lactating women. And the reality is that time is gone. We have so many modern, technologically based ways that we can help include pregnant lactating women. So we do a lot of advocacy on that arena, too.

Saul Marquez:
Fascinating. You know, it’s really interesting. You guys, on the one hand, are sort of an advocacy platform. On the other hand, you help get things done for the women and families and kids that need it. Really appreciate you highlighting some of these policy level issues that need to be addressed and also employer level things that need to be addressed. That was you mentioned the thousand days, the website’s thousanddays.org. right?

Andrea Ippolito:
Yes, thousanddays.org.

Saul Marquez:
And it’s just amazing. And I appreciate you bringing that up. I think it’s a really interesting organization that really ties nicely with the work that Andrew and her team at SimpliFed is doing. It’s about the challenge around this. And those first thousand days, if you haven’t checked it out, check them out. Obviously, check out SimpliFed and all the work they’re doing, SimpliFed.com. Either one works. Just bringing focus to this critical issue is really the first step. So it’s really energizing to hear you focus there. And so talk to us about what makes simply Fed different than the other resources available out there for for women.

Andrea Ippolito:
Well, thanks so much for asking that question. So simply fed. We’re all about increasing access to lactation support and infant feeding support for new and pregnant parents, and I truly mean both new and pregnant parents. So we start working with moms and babies, even unborn babies, yet during pregnancy to start providing information, evidence based information to parents, particularly moms, about breastfeeding and feeding. So during the last semester of pregnancy, we like to start working with mom to understand what is breastfeeding. We make sure she knows what right she has available to her. That lactation support is something that is required to be covered by health plans and insurance, according to the Affordable Care Act. Also, you are required to get a breast pump covered by your health plan insurance according to the Affordable Care Act. So during pregnancy, we like to work with new parents to get their breast pump ordered, get it assembled. Between my mom and I, we have five engineering degrees and we had a heck of a time trying to put together the breast pump. And so it’s not intuitive. And especially when we were trying to put it together, when my daughter was screaming and she was dropping weight and oh gosh, it’s just such a stressful time and awful. You have to work with the babies before they’re born. And then a big differentiator is not only that, but we like to longitudinally work with moms and babies. It’s not just a one and done transaction, but after baby is born, we like to then support in search of asset allocation to to the home to get mom and baby the support they need right after baby’s born and then meet with mom and baby as much as they need until they reach whatever their respective goal is, whether that’s exclusive breastfeeding, whether that’s exclusive breastfeeding, using a breast pump, whether that is doing both.

Andrea Ippolito:
And like I said earlier, eighty three percent of moms do. So we we try to smash some of the taboo in and try to take away the stigma of being in one camp or the other. And whatever you decide to do for your baby is what that’s for, for you as a mom and also best for your baby. And we like to work with them on that journey. We like to think of it similarly as you work with a trainer. So when you go to a gym, you meet however much however often you go to the gym, meet with them, maybe weekly, maybe monthly, whatever that is, you work with a trainer to get in shape. That’s the way we like to think of our lactation support and the feeding platform that we provide as we meet with them to get them the information they need. Insights into the coaching lactation consultant or counselor. They’re incredibly qualified and they work with them. Meet Mom where she’s at and meet her goals. And then we meet with them at least twice a month, if not more.

Andrea Ippolito:
Maybe it’s for an hour an appointment. It’s just for a quick ten minute appointment surrounding a quick question. They have another differentiator of us is that we are all telehealth and we’ve always been all telehealth. And I used to work with the military and did research surrounding, launching and scaling Taliban over health systems of care for service members of post-traumatic stress. Then I worked at the VA and a lot of our projects were in telehealth and VA is a leader in telehealth. And so after I gave birth and seeing how hard it was to access these expert consultants or having to go and park and or take this little itty bitty newborn that doesn’t have the vaccines get into to a clinic. There’s so many germs, even before COVID-19, we just saw such an opportunity to leverage telehealth, and so that’s another big differentiator of us, is that we are all lactation. We use the best practices surrounding telehealth to increase access to breastfeeding and improving support from the comfort and safety of moms home. And what we have found is, of course, during covid-19 moms like it. But what we found is that moms appreciate it because it just gets them that better access, whether you’re in an urban area, would have to have gone in parked or take the subway or whatever. Or if you’re in a rural area and I actually live in a more rural area, this truly helps increase access to expert support.

Saul Marquez:
That’s wonderful. And Andrea, we’ve got a well, he turns four in February. So when my wife had the baby, we had no idea and we caught. So I don’t even know how it happened. But we found the lactation consultant. She came over and it was just like, wow, wow. It was it was just like our eyes open because you don’t know what you don’t know. And that breast pump was such a pain. My wife is also a biomedical engineer. And how do you figure these things out? So, you know, you you have touched on something so critical. And now in the time that we’re in with COVID so great to know that these options exist and and all the complications that a woman could could be faced with, it becomes challenging. It’s stressful. My wife was like doing the breast pump thing in her car and between appointments, it’s a challenge. So you’re touching on so many things that I know our listeners are probably like, yes, yes. Oh, my gosh, yes. So as people listen and think about, well, OK, you know, this is this is making a big difference. What can they do to help you and the work that you’re doing?

Andrea Ippolito:
Oh, well, goodness. Thanks for asking that. So the number one thing that you can do is if you know you’re pregnant or new moms, send them our website because it’s amazing how little frankly, there is awareness for this. And I would absolutely put myself in this camp. And and when my daughter was born, she was born early. She was born underweight. And I didn’t know the support existed. And I didn’t know things like my health insurance was required to cover lactation consultant appointments if I was breastfeeding. I also didn’t know, as you heard, how to put together the breast pump. And and I’m pretty usually very well informed on things, but I just had no idea. And so if you know of a pregnant parent or new parent, send them our website. We have a ten minute free consult because we want to be there for parents. And even if they can’t meet with us, we want to get them that support so that the best thing that you can do is first send them our website to support them and leave for those that also know a new and pregnant parent, send them food or takeout for a night or during their first month.

Andrea Ippolito:
I know it sounds so silly, but there is some very easy things that you can do that just brighten people’s day, like send them takeout order, maybe their favorite takeout and also just check in with them to see how they’re doing, how they’re feeling. I think everyone tends to ask how baby is doing, which is, oh, my goodness, the first priority of all parents out there. But mom is recovering and they’re probably not doing well because it is a pretty intense experience. And so checking in with mom to make sure she’s OK and or letting her share her birth story, it’s such an insane out of body literally experience when you 3D printing human. And so those are some small things. And then the last thing I’ll say to tie back to what we were talking about earlier is write a letter to your Congresswoman Harman and let them know how you feel about paid parental leave, because that’s truly going to help so many moms and babies in particular and provide equitable access to paid parental leave. The vast majority of women in this country, unfortunately, don’t get paid parental leave through their employer. And the majority of women, if you can believe this, are going back to work within two weeks, which is just insane. And so getting paid parental leave will provide that protected space, but also allowed the woman to recover physically and emotionally and then also allow them to to breastfeed and do so many things. So it’s not just free time by any stretch of the imagination. So that’s probably the best thing you can do for your mom and baby compatriots.

Saul Marquez:
Love it. And now that’s great. Pretty clear. Clear asks their share it. You know, there’s an opportunity to to help a friend, help a family member, help yourself, help your wife. This is just a great resource. And the thing that I love about it, too, is how simple it is. One of the things that a lot of us struggle, even as insiders in health care, is like, how much does this cost them? You don’t never know, and it’s crazy with you guys, it’s clear, and so I give you an opportunity to touch on that.

Andrea Ippolito:
Yeah. Thanks so much for asking. So we have a free 10 minute consult that we provide to any mom that wants to sign up and come to our platform. Then we also offer a 50 dollar, 30 minute appointment. And the good news is, is that after every appointment, we provide you with a Super Bow and what a Super Bowl, there’s frankly nothing super about it. Although you’ve got to love the name. It’s an invoice that you can give to your health plan to get reimbursed for lactation support. And so but I got to love that name, the Super Bow. So after every appointment, we provide a Super Bow so that you can then take that to your health line to get reimbursed. We also offer a longer appointment that is up to an hour and a half where that’s one hundred fifty dollars. And again, you can then submit that Super Bowl to get covered by your health plan. We recommend, if you’re worried about it, calling your health plan ahead of time to make sure to double check. They cover it. They are required by law to cover it. So normally when you submit it, they do cover it. But we do encourage folks ahead of time to call to make sure it does get covered by their health plan. And then that visit comes with a couple of follow up appointments as well. So that’s the beginning of how we like to work with moms.

Saul Marquez:
Love it. And it’s clear and then that you also accept HSA cards, right?

Andrea Ippolito:
Yes. And thanks for asking. It’s covered by HSA and FSA. And that’s another one of those benefits that I didn’t know and I don’t know about in either.

Saul Marquez:
Andréa, like we paid five hundred bucks for our lactation consultant and honestly didn’t even submit it, like, totally.

Andrea Ippolito:
And that’s money that you have and tax free. But I didn’t know this either. And every year I double check with our accountant, make sure people can do it. Yes, this is required that they can use it. And so HSA and FSA is another great resource that you can use to cover it. So there’s lots of lots of different options via your health plan or HSA or FSA of it.

Saul Marquez:
And you’ve done such a having been through a lot of these experiences and knowing how the system works. I love that you’ve done this for us, that you’ve put the reimbursement in, like, how do I take care of this? You’ve made it so clear. So I want to give you kudos for for how you’ve done this.

Andrea Ippolito:
Well, health care is sadly so confusing. And and it goes back to what we were talking about earlier, that to understand health care systems is to understand how to follow the money. And that’s an unfortunate part about health care, whereas health care should be designed around the patient and family experience. And so as much as possible, we try to be very transparent about how health care works. But nonetheless, it doesn’t need to be this confusing. And I think we all need to do a better job of people that are innovators and the health care and are building new technologies are a part of health care systems to thinking about how we can design health care experiences around the patient and family and caregiver experience so that they get healthier and happy and can be productive members of society of it.

Saul Marquez:
So as you think about the journey you’re on, I mean, you’re expecting another child, you’re building this company. What would you say is one of the biggest setbacks that you’ve experienced with simplified and what’s the key learning that that came out of it?

Andrea Ippolito:
Well, in terms of setbacks, we simply said one of the things that we’re always trying to figure out is how to communicate and how to get the word out there about simply fed and not just, I hate to say it, be beholden to to digital ads and just giving more money to Facebook and Instagram. So we’ve tried to think of pretty unique ways to partner our business to business, but it takes a while. And so we are always trying to think about new ways to get traction, but truly embed what we’re doing in communities with people that trust, with people that they can trust are recommending simply that. And so that’s why I went back earlier to recommend our platform. So that’s one of the biggest things that we’ve had to work through over this last year. Secondly is and this is not having to do a simply Fed, but just in general, in my career, I had to I left my PhD after a year and that and I went to go work in government. And I always I don’t know if I would use the word regret, but there’s always the sense of, like, I should have finished my PhD and because. But it was oh, it was so hard.

Andrea Ippolito:
And frankly, I was 30 when I started my PhD at MIT. And at that point I was just out of the game for a bit. And so it was hard. And so that was one of those times in my life where I felt like a failure. But but nonetheless, you end up seeing a different pathway. And and so I, I definitely went on a new pathway, not end up pursuing my PhD, but got to love the journey. And I don’t think I would. Where I was today, if I hadn’t have done that, so it was a setback at the time, but ultimately it put me on this pathway to be able to found SimpliFed.

Saul Marquez:
That’s fantastic. Appreciate you sharing that. And that’s just the way that you position what you’ve learned, how you folded that into the the Mittie Medicine Hackathon and scheduling everything that you’ve done. Right. I mean, everything has worked out. And so you always think back, though, and you think, how could I have done that differently? You know? So how about the other side of the coin? Andrea, what are you most most excited about today?

Andrea Ippolito:
So I am and this is going to sound strange. So I just recognize this. I mean, I am excited that the the struggle that working women are facing is finally getting the light of day. And now it shouldn’t have taken the pandemic to put that in such full view for people. But we know that woman, especially after having a baby, leave the workforce at crazy rates or they take a role that’s a step down and that’s OK. Right. we we need to normalize that, that it’s OK to take time outs or leave the workforce. Absolutely. But the reality is that the systems in this country aren’t set up to enable and support and buttress woman if they don’t want to take a time out. But because of a lack of paid parental leave or lack of childcare support there, there’s not the system in place that allow the women that do want to stay in the workforce. And unfortunately, the pandemic has brought that out into vicious light. So the reason why I said it sounds strange is because I’m at least happy that this is all coming to light and so that we as a nation, whether that’s at the federal, state or local level, can come together to help support working women.

Andrea Ippolito:
And I think that’s also important, whether that’s on things like advocating for paid parental leave. We know that we need to tackle that. But I’m excited that it’s having having its moment and so that we can actually design societal policies and systems and structure to better support working parents. The other thing I’ll say, and this is as a founder and CEO of a company, is that I’m actively fundraising right now and I live in upstate rural New York. And what’s been nice and I hate to use the word nice because we’re in the middle of a crisis and four hundred thousand people are dying and which is terrible and it’s a tragedy. And there’s now more awareness to being able to do things virtually, which is a little bit more flexible, frankly, for working parents. And so I’ve been able to have investor calls over Zoome when normally I would have had to traverse the country. And I’m pregnant and I have a kid. Yeah, yeah. And that’s expensive. But most importantly, I just can’t do that as a mom as much as I would like. And so I’m hoping we think of new ways of working that help support and retain all working parents, but in particular, working moms love it.

Saul Marquez:
Yeah. Now, that’s just fantastic. And kudos to you for doing this all while you’re expecting a new baby. You’ve got a three year old and just just incredible, very inspiring and so really appreciate you taking the time to be with us today, folks. A reminder, it’s SimpliFed.com. Check them out there. There’s so much to be done here. So we’re we’re glad you’re doing a lot of work here, Andrea.

Saul Marquez:
Leave us with the closing thought and the best place that the listeners could get in touch with you and talk about collaboration or just to connect.

Andrea Ippolito:
Closing thought is that if you are a working parent out there and you are struggling, you got this. It’s so hard. Just know that you’re part of a parent community that is wanting to support you. And I think the best thing we can all do is to share our struggles. And that way, other working parents don’t feel alone and like they’re the only ones that are facing this situation. So we got you, I believe in you. And so nonetheless, keep on keep it on. Would love, love, love to partner with any people organizations out there. And so you can get in touch with me Andrea@Simplife. And SimpliFed, we love our name. But it auto correct to simplified. So make sure you say Andrea at Simplifed. We’d love to find a way to partner or reach out to us on LinkedIn or Instagram as well. We closely monitor our Instagram and check us at it at SimpliFed baby on Instagram of it.

Saul Marquez:
Hey thanks for calling out that auto. Correct is so annoying sometimes and worse. Yeah I love it. Simply Fed Fed. Make sure that auto correct doesn’t fix your, your opportunity to connect here with, with Andrea and her awesome team. Andrea, thanks for what you do and. Thanks so much for spending time with us today.

Andrea Ippolito:
Thank you. I hope you have a good rest of your day, everyone.

Saul Marquez:
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