Orange Square Receives Prestigious Grant

Along with Supplemental COVID-19 Funding from the National Institutes of Health

Orange Square Receives Prestigious Grant along with Supplemental COVID-19 Funding from the National Institutes of Health

This Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities will allow Orange Square to develop a postpartum tool for underserved women:

Orange Square is leading a grant to develop a web based mobile app to address a critical need in self-care for women who have recently given birth, especially for underserved women who do not receive adequate postpartum care. The original funding to develop and assess a prototype program was granted in September 2019, and additional funding focusing on the impact of COVID-19 for birthing women was received in October 2020. 

“We are honored to be able to work on this important project and are enthusiastic about the opportunity to work within communities in Rhode Island to learn from birthing women and birthing care providers. Our strength is in building a human centered tool that meets the user’s needs,” said Kristine Merz, President and Founder of Orange Square and Principal Investigator on the study. 

The grant will provide funds to gain a thorough understanding of the current evidence, and combine that knowledge with real-world feedback from birthing women and care providers. These efforts will help to ensure the development of a prototype that blends best practice with the on-the-ground needs of birthing women. 

Too often there are reports of poor outcomes for women and their babies which occur during the postpartum period. More than half of all maternal deaths occur from one day to one year after birth and many of these could be avoided with better information about and access to care after giving birth. Underserved women are disproportionately affected by maternal mortality and morbidity and there is a need to better understand their areas of greatest concern. 

“Community-based research that builds on current evidence by including clinical best practice and the voice of the audience is critical for building tools and programs for communities. It sounds simple, but the community voice is too often neglected in the research process” said Lisa Marceau, Staff Vice President for Digital Research Solutions, HealthCore and Co-Principal Investigator. 

This study is a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Grant funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health. Orange Square, an award winning strategic design firm, is collaborating with the Digital Research Solutions team at HealthCore to develop this important program.

To learn more, download our PDF.


This project is supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43MD014923. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessari­ly represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.