June 28, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network (MFMU) has awarded a five-year, $1.5 million grant to a team of high risk obstetric clinical researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center to conduct clinical trials to advance quality of care for pregnant women.
Dr. Jay Iams, vice chair for the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Ohio State’s Medical Center, is the principal investigator for the Medical Center’s clinical trials unit which has participated in nearly all of the MFMU multi-center studies.
The network has worked to improve care protocols for high risk pregnant women. As a result of research funded through the network, more than three dozen treatment strategies have either been affirmed or disproved.
In the past, trials have concluded that weekly progesterone injections substantially lower the risk of preterm delivery in women who have had a previous preterm delivery, and that omega-3 fatty acid supplements do not help prevent preterm delivery. Research also concluded treatment of mild gestational diabetes improves birth outcomes.
Ohio State is one of the oldest members of the elite MFMU network, having been accepted into the group in 1992. This year, Nationwide Children’s Hospital joined a similar network under the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, paving the way for additional collaborative work, according to Iams.
“With their recent admission into the Neonatal Research Network, we now have a powerful new opportunity to work together on research. We are fortunate to be one of only eight sites in the country with the combined means to do this,” says Iams.
To learn more about current research, contact: OSU Maternal Fetal Medicine, 614-293-5632.
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