Cluster lead, Dr. Patricia Janssen has been recognized as a one of ten Women Leaders in Digital Health by Digital Health Canada for her outstanding contributions to advancing digital health in Canada through leadership, influence, involvement, and impact. The award celebrates individuals leveraging the power of IT to transform health and healthcare in Canada.
Dr. Janssen is the Founder and CEO of SmartParent, a mobile health program that delivers evidence-based prenatal and parenting education to expectant parents via text messaging. She is also a perinatal epidemiologist and Senior Scientist at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, leading a Centre of Research Excellence titled Advancing the Science of Physiologic Birth. Her accolades include the YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Research in the Sciences, recognition as one of the top 50 Changemakers in Public Health by the University of Washington School of Public Health, and UBC’s Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award for Service to the University and Community in 2022.
Under Dr. Janssen’s leadership, SmartParent has become Canada’s first prenatal and parenting education program delivered via text messaging, addressing barriers such as poverty, geographic isolation, working parents’ fatigue, instructor shortages, and stigma in marginalized populations. By delivering vital information directly to users’ phones, SmartParent has made prenatal education more accessible. In 2024, the program reached a milestone of 22,000 users in British Columbia.
View the piece on Digital Health Canada's website here.