UBC SPPH professor Dr. Patricia Janssen has been named a Leader in Digital Health in recognition of her contribution to the advancement of digital health in Canada through leadership, influence, involvement, and impact.
She is among ten female visionaries selected as Women Leaders in Digital Health 2024 by Digital Health Canada. This award recognizes those who are harnessing the power of IT to transform Canadian health and healthcare.
Dr. Janssen is Founder and CEO of SmartParent, a mobile health program offering expectant parents evidence-based prenatal and parenting education through text messaging. She is a perinatal epidemiologist and Senior Scientist at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Dr. Janssen leads a Centre of Research Excellence entitled Advancing the Science of Physiologic Birth. She is a past recipient of the YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Research in the Sciences and in 2020 was named one of the top 50 Changemakers in Public Health among alumni of the University of Washington School of Public Health. She was recognized by UBC in 2022 with a Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award for Service to the University and Community.
As CEO of SmartParent, Dr. Janssen has introduced the first prenatal and parenting education program in Canada delivered via text messaging. Today only 30% of Canadians attend prenatal education classes. SmartParent overcomes barriers to education including poverty, rural or remote location, fatigue of working parents, lack of instructors, and stigma among marginalized populations, with a solution that delivers critically needed information to people’s phones. In 2024, SmartParent reached a milestone of 22,000 users in BC.
“Texting provokes healthy choices by sending information to parents just when it is needed for decision-making during pregnancy and the first year of parenting. Parents can choose additional message streams to tailor the program to their own needs as well,” said Dr. Janssen. “SmartParent users have demonstrated fewer pregnancy complications, better mental health outcomes, and reduced length of hospital stay for newborns.”
Dr. Janssen’s long standing reputation as one of Canada’s leading perinatal epidemiologists, along with her 25 years of experience in nursing, has opened doors as she begins to scale the program across Canada. With a highly successful launch in Nova Scotia in 2024 and others underway in the Atlantic provinces and Ontario, Dr. Janssen has demonstrated her effectiveness as a changemaker. She leads through respect for and engagement with her colleagues, a commitment to serving marginalized populations, an ability to view a challenge from multiple viewpoints, and a fearless enthusiasm for innovation.
A version of this story originally appeared on the Digital Health Canada website.