Pulse

OB/GYN joins nationwide research network

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Local women now have the opportunity to contribute to research that can improve the standard of care for women and children during pregnancy.

The department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University was recently approved as a research site within the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (MFMU) Network, a national research network funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The network conducts research focused on reducing maternal, fetal and infant morbidity related to preterm birth, fetal growth anomalies and maternal complications.

Each of the 14 centers in the MFMU Network encompasses multiple hospitals. Thousands of women volunteers take part in these research studies (known as clinical trials) that are conducted simultaneously across this nationwide network.

“These are the clinical trials that really impact what we do in obstetrics because you need these large numbers — these large sample sizes — for this kind of research,” said George Saade, MD, Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Associate Dean for Women’s Health.

Research expands our understanding of diseases, but the MFMU Network goes a step further, focusing on practical application of this new knowledge.

“These are intervention trials, more than just for understanding mechanisms,” Dr. Saade said. “The result of these trials is supposed to change our practice.”

“Several things we do now routinely in obstetrics are a result of research that occurred in this network,” Dr. Saade said. He ticks off examples including elective induction at 39 weeks, administering magnesium sulfate to protect the fetal brain and giving corticosteroids to improve lung function in premature infants.

Dr. Saade gained extensive experience working within the MFMU Network when he was at the University of Texas. Medical centers compete every several years to be part of the MFMU Network. That process was finished before Dr. Saade joined EVMS in 2023, so EVMS Obstetrics & Gynecology was approved as a satellite site within the clinical center at Ohio State University.

The MFMU Network has multiple studies ongoing at any one time. Most are obstetrical studies that aim to prevent illness and prevent adverse outcomes either during pregnancy, during labor and delivery or after delivery. Patients are selected randomly to receive either the proposed intervention or the standard treatment.

“At the end of the day, everybody — including patients, nurses at the clinic, nurses on labor and delivery, ancillary staff and research staff — will have contributed to improving care in pregnancy and postpartum,” Dr. Saade said. “Because of the nature of the studies, we cannot tell if there is a direct benefit to the patient enrolled in the research themselves, but the results from these studies will impact future patients.”

Dr. Saade believes involvement in the MFMU Network and research in general is vital to the continued advancement of care.

“Doing these clinical trials is important to improve healthcare. We need to be doing more and more of them in healthcare,” he said. “These are not just something we do on the side. They are part and parcel of how we improve care.”