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RightAnswer.com was awarded a Phase II SBIR grant (budget period Sept. 2017 – Sept. 2019) from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The two-year, $1 million+ grant funded the research and development of a mobile application that offers information about the risks of medications during pregnancy.

The ultimate goal of the project was to improve birth outcomes by providing healthcare providers with the expert teratogen information they need to care for pregnant patients and their unborn children.

RightAnswer.com was awarded a Phase I SBIR Phase grant (budget period Sept. 2015 – Sept. 2016) which supported the efforts of researching, designing, and developing a prototype mobile app that delivers current and authoritative information about the risks associated with the use of prescription and over-the-counter medications during pregnancy. During Phase I, research confirmed that a few existing databases do provide information on the fetal risks of specific medications during pregnancy but are not widely available to women or their healthcare providers and are thus underutilized.

Therefore, the focus of Phase II (budget period Sept. 2017 – Sept. 2019) was to make information from existing databases easy to retrieve and more broadly available via mobile devices. To accomplish this, the following key technology objectives were met:

• Information from the existing databases must be accurate, up-to-date, complete, presented in a consistent manner, and easily accessible.
• Information about adverse drug effects and safety must be presented in ways that make them understandable while providing the appropriate levels of detail so that professionals can provide the best advice.
• Novel business models must be developed to support the teams, resources, and tools required to integrate new knowledge as it becomes available, and perhaps most importantly, to increase access to the information.

Phase II was developed with input from experts at the University of Washington, including the dedicated expertise of those responsible for creating and maintaining the TERIS database.

Key Project Personnel:

• Glen Markham, RightAnswer.com, Inc.,
  Corporate Business Development Executive / Project Principal Investigator
• Glenn Hallett, RightAnswer.com, Inc., CTO, Project IT Director
• Ellen Hallett, RightAnswer.com, Inc., COO, Project Operations Director
• Dr. Janine Polifka, Ph.D., University of Washington, TERIS Database Manager
• Dr. Gary Hsieh, Ph.D., University of Washington, Assistant Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering

Disclaimer Required by Federal Law
Supported by the Grant or Cooperative Agreement Number, DD001127, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.

Financial Disclosure Required by Federal Law
1. Percentage of the total costs of the program or project which will be financed with Federal money (100%).
2. Dollar amount of Federal funds for the project or program was $1,032,625 over two (2017-2019).
3. Percentage and dollar amount of the total costs of the project or program that will be financed by non-governmental sources (0% and $0).

RightAnswer.com, Inc. was awarded a Phase 1 $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for the budget period Sept 30, 2015 – Sept 29, 2016.

In collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of University of Washington (UW) scientists, RightAnswer.com conducted research, design, and development of a prototype mobile app to improve drug safety that delivers current and authoritative information about the risks associated with the use of prescription and over-the-counter medications during pregnancy.

In the past three decades, the prevalence of medication usage during pregnancy in the United States has increased more than 60%. The implication of this increased usage is concerning, because roughly 40,000 infants are born each year with birth defects directly attributed to medication exposure during prenatal development.

Eliminating medications, even those with known teratogenicity risk, is not always feasible for pregnant women because of medical necessity, such as those needing medication to treat epilepsy. The mobile application is designed to help healthcare providers and pregnant women weigh the potential risks and benefits of medications immediately. They can also consider drug warnings, potential alternative therapies, stage of pregnancy, dosage, and route of administration.

A significant component of the project involved utilizing the TERIS (Teratogen Information System) database, which is located in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Services (DEOHS) at the University of Washington. The TERIS database provides up-to-date, authoritative information regarding the effects of drugs and chemicals on the developing embryo. It also contains evidence-based information on the developmental toxicity of more than 1,700 agents, addressing 95% of the most frequently prescribed drugs, and provided valuable information during the research and development stage of this project. The teratogenic risk of each agent is rated by consensus of an Advisory Board comprised of nationally-recognized authorities in clinical teratology.

Key Project Personnel:

• Glen Markham, RightAnswer.com, Inc.,
  Corporate Business Development Executive / Project Principal Investigator
• Sarah Albee, RightAnswer.com, Inc., Director of IT/IT Project Manager
• Dr. Janine Polifka, Ph.D., University of Washington, TERIS Database Manager
• Dr. Gary Hsieh, University of Washington, Assistant Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering
• Dr. Carol Collins, University of Washington, Clinical Associate Professor – Department of Pharmaceutics

Exploring the Design and Role of Mobile Apps for Healthcare Providers to Find Teratogenic Information (2017) — Abstract American Medical Infomatics Association®

Disclaimer Required by Federal Law
Supported by the Grant or Cooperative Agreement Number, DD001127, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.

Financial Disclosure Required by Federal Law
1. Percentage of the total costs of the program or project was financed with Federal money (100%).
2. Dollar amount of Federal funds for the project or program was $150,000 over one year (2015-2016).
3. Percentage and dollar amount of the total costs of the project or program financed by non-governmental sources (0% and $0).