Erika Werner, MD, MS, division and fellowship director of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and associate professor of epidemiology at The Brown University School of Public Health, in connection with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital, was recently awarded a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) last week.
The organization, whose mission is to conduct and support research on many of the most common, costly, and chronic conditions to improve health, awarded a five-year $2.5 million grant which will allow Dr. Werner and her team to work with four other centers focused on diabetes in pregnancy (MGH, Yale, Northwestern, and Kaiser) across the country, to identify better ways to diagnose glucose metabolism abnormalities in pregnancy, in an effort to optimize maternal and child health.
While the study began October 1, participant recruitment will likely begin next year at several Care New England prenatal clinics. Individuals involved in the study will be asked to wear small devices to monitor their glucose continuously for several days during their pregnancy.
In addition, Dr. Werner was also awarded a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) five-year, $7 million grant last month, to investigate health disparities.
This grant is in collaboration with RTI, Brown University’s David Savitz, associate dean for research, and professor of epidemiology, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics, as well as the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute, in a research effort to better understand the developmental origins of health disparities, or differences in developmental outcomes between socially advantaged and disadvantaged groups.
The study entitled, “The Prenatal and Childhood Mechanisms of Health Disparities", is designed to recruit a diverse cohort of pregnant parents in the first trimester and follow them throughout pregnancy and during the first year of life.
“Specifically the study will recruit 2,000 pregnant women, 500 of whom are Black or African American, and 500 of whom are Hispanic or Latina, to better understand how socioeconomic and race/ethnic disparities during pregnancy and in the first year of life, affect health-related behaviors, maternal neuroendocrine-immune, and metabolic responses during pregnancy, and children's health and development.”
Said Dr. Werner, “I would like to express my thanks to both agencies for their recognition and acknowledgement of this most important work and the clinical advancements that could result from these studies. I would also like to extend my sincere appreciation to all of my colleagues, research collaborators, Brown University, and especially the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovations Institute and Women & Infants Hospital for fostering an environment of academic and clinical excellence.”