Epidemiology and Global Health
Work in this area aims to use epidemiological and quantitative research methods to track the number of people who suffer from cardiovascular diseases related to pregnancy complications, and its determinants.
An example of work in this theme is the Maternal and perinatal Health Research collaboration, India (MaatHRI), a hospital-based research platform in India, a country with the second highest burden of maternal and perinatal deaths; each year, about 5 million pregnant women in India experience a life-threatening complication.
MaatHRI aims to
- Regularly collect data on how many patients are affected by both known and emerging life-threatening pregnancy complications
- conduct large epidemiological studies to find the evidence needed to provide the right treatment for pregnant women, improving outcomes for them.
- develop research capacity and skills in the collaborating hospitals in India
MaatHRI was initially built as a pilot, but it has expanded and standardised over 18 months, from May 2017 to September 2018. It is already yielding research results which are of use to clinicians – the data from the MaatHRI platforms shows that remote interpretation of cardiac ultrasounds performed by trained local obstetricians still identifies cardiac abnormalities in pregnant women, and could be used for screening for cardiac problems. The MaatHRI platform’s data also allowed researchers to carry out a randomized intervention trial to find the best way to identify pregnant women who were at high versus low risk of developing preeclampia or eclampsia.
Read the studies:
- Maternal and perinatal Health Research Collaboration, India (MaatHRI): methodology for establishing a hospital-based research platform in a low and middle income country setting Nair M. et al, (2021), F1000Research, 9, 683 – 683
- Focused Cardiac Ultrasound to Guide the Diagnosis of Heart Failure in Pregnant Women in India. Alsharqi M, et al, (2022) Dec;35(12):1281-1294. doi: 10.1016/j.echo.2022.07.014. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35934263/
- Randomized Interventional Study on Prediction of Preeclampsia/Eclampsia in Women With Suspected Preeclampsia: INSPIRE. Hypertension. (2019) Oct;74(4):983-990. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.12739. Epub 2019 Aug 12. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31401877/