(Providence, RI) – Women & Infants Hospital has announced that Methodius G. Tuuli, MD, MPH, MBA, Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women & Infants Hospital; Executive Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Care New England Health System, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). NAM membership is a prestigious honor, reflecting the height of professional achievement.
The formal notice from Victor J. Dzau, MD, President, National Academy of Medicine, states, “Your election reflects the high esteem in which your peers and colleagues regard you. As an NAM member, you are now part of a group of truly distinguished individuals who have made important contributions to health, medicine, and science.”
Members of the Class of 2023 were elected by current members through a process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. Only 100 individuals are selected each year. The Academy says Dr. Tuuli was elected “For employing large multicenter trials and cohort studies, in the U.S. and globally, to generate evidence for clinical practice and policy to prevent adverse obstetric outcomes including surgical site infection after cesarean, management of labor, and medical complications in pregnancy while building research capacity and mentoring diverse scholars.”
Established originally as the Institute of Medicine in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine addresses critical issues in health, science, medicine, and related policy and inspires positive actions across sectors. NAM works alongside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and to conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions. With their election, NAM members make a commitment to volunteer their service in the activities of the national academies.
Dr. Tuuli earned his Medical Degree from the University of Ghana Medical School in 2001. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, earning a Master of Public Health degree in 2003 with a concentration in maternal and child health. He completed residency training in Obstetrics & Gynecology at Emory University in 2008, and fellowship training in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Washington University in 2011. Dr. Tuuli completed the Business of Medicine Physician MBA program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in 2020. A board-certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician, his research is focused on the prediction and prevention of adverse obstetric outcomes. He currently leads three NIH-funded multicenter trials on intravenous versus oral iron for the treatment of anemia in pregnancy in the U.S., the use of a novel intrauterine negative pressure device for the management of postpartum hemorrhage, and optimizing glycemic control in overweight and obese patients with gestational diabetes. In addition, he leads a recently awarded Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health grant to develop a model for integrating community-based maternal support services into perinatal care to address care coordination and social determinants of health and test the impact on perinatal health equity. He has 226 publications in high-impact journals including the NEJM, JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, and the Lancet.
In his role as Chief of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital, Dr. Tuuli has been focused on improving quality and eliminating disparities in perinatal outcomes. He also is the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The Warren Alpert Medical School and holds the Chace-Joukowsky Professorship in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brown University.
Dr. Tuuli and other new members will be formally welcomed to the NAM during next year’s annual meeting in October 2024.
About Women & Infants Hospital
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology, and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the ninth-largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,700 deliveries per year. Women & Infants is a Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, a U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology, and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology ranked number 11 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Medical Schools specialty ranking.
Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence in Perinatal Biology and in Reproductive Health by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high-risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology, and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network, Neonatal Research Network, and Pelvic Floors Disorders Network, as well as the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group.