THIS-WIC Telehealth Solutions: Evaluation With North Carolina WIC Clients

Telehealth can reduce barriers and increase access to care, and it can be applied to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is a federal nutrition assistance program that helps low-income women with children up to age 5. There is a large volume of research that supports remote patient monitoring, and the most benefits are found when telehealth is used for communication and counseling. The USDA awarded Tufts University a grant to test and evaluate the use of telehealth innovations in the delivery of USDA's WIC program. Tufts University then offered the USDA/Tufts Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) grant opportunity to WIC state agencies across the US. THIS-WIC selected 7 WIC State Agencies to receive grants, and the NC state agency is one recipient. The THIS-WIC team at Tufts University is leading the evaluation of these telehealth solutions in collaboration with funded WIC State Agencies.

THIS-WIC aims to generate evidence from NC's telehealth solution to inform how the telehealth solution supports WIC services compared to usual in-person care. The NC telehealth platform includes a mobile-optimized website, meaning that it functions as an app without requiring the amount of memory and data that apps use. Evaluation findings will inform stakeholders about the platform's benefits and how viable it is to sustain and adapt more widely.

Inclusion criteria

• pregnant women
• postpartum women
• parent/guardian of a participating infant or child in the WIC program

Study participants will be clients at local WIC agency sites where either the telehealth solution is offered or where only usual care is available (control).

Exclusion criteria

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