Tulane, Ochsner Health and RH Impact awarded $16.5 million grant to deal with Louisiana’s high maternal mortality rate

Tulane University, Ochsner Health and the community nonprofit RH Impact have been awarded a seven-year, $16.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to ascertain a research center of excellence focused on finding solutions to deal with Louisiana’s disproportionately high maternal mortality rate.

The brand new Southern Center for Maternal Health Equity shall be one in all 10 newly announced Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence nationwide funded by the NIH’s Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) initiative.

The middle will develop and evaluate revolutionary approaches to cut back pregnancy-related complications and deaths and promote maternal health equity within the Gulf South. Additional collaborators include Dillard University and the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Louisiana has one in all the very best maternal mortality rates within the country with 39 out of each 100,000 moms dying during or shortly after childbirth. In Louisiana, Black pregnant and postpartum persons are 3 to 4 times more more likely to die from complications related to pregnancy in comparison with their White counterparts, in line with CDC data.

Despite the dire state of maternal health within the Gulf South, few large-scale, national efforts include this region, and addressing the continuing maternal health crisis isn’t possible without centering Black pregnancy. The Research Center will incorporate community priorities, vision, and expertise into multilevel research projects across the region and train graduate students and early profession researchers to deal with inequities, returning the outcomes on to the impacted communities.”

Emily Harville, PhD, co-principal investigator, perinatal epidemiologist at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

In comparison with other high-income countries, the US has a high rate of maternal deaths, with greater than 1,200 such deaths occurring in 2021. Every year tens of 1000’s more Americans experience severe pregnancy-related complications, which may raise the danger of future health concerns, including hypertension, diabetes and mental health conditions. There are stark disparities in these maternal health outcomes by racial and ethnic group, age, education, socioeconomic status and geographic region.

“The establishment of the Southern Center for Maternal Health Equity provides an unprecedented opportunity to bring together experts from quite a lot of disciplines to explore and implement interventions and modifications to healthcare delivery. These shall be driven by community needs and start to deal with the basis causes of poor maternal and perinatal outcomes in addition to gaps in care,” said co-principal investigator Joseph Biggio, MD, MS, system chair and repair line leader of Women’s Services and system chair of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Ochsner. “The project has the flexibility to enhance outcomes not only for individuals who are currently within the reproductive age range but in addition has the potential to offer positive impact and alter for future generations.”

“Our team at RH Impact is worked up to partner with Tulane University and Ochsner. This chance will enable us to explore and propel birth equity research to make sure equitable care, treatment, and outcomes for birthing people,” said co-principal investigator Susan Perez, PhD, of RH Impact, a Black woman-led organization that creates transnational solutions to optimize Black infant health, maternal health, and sexual and reproductive well-being.

The NIH centers of excellence include 10 research centers, a knowledge innovation and coordinating hub and an implementation science hub. Together, these institutions will work to design and implement research projects to deal with the biological, behavioral, environmental, sociocultural and structural aspects that affect pregnancy-related complications and deaths. They are going to deal with populations that have health disparities, including racial and ethnic minorities, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, those living in underserved rural areas, sexual and gender minority populations and folks with disabilities.

Harville said the project will emphasize a community-based approach that can seek to fulfill latest and expecting moms where they live. Strategies include training medical professionals and hospital staff to cut back biased treatment, identifying community supports for girls after they leave the hospital, and implementing distant home monitoring systems in maternal healthcare deserts and other areas with low access to health care.

“No projects that we’re aware of have such a unified academic, clinical, and community partnership,” Harville said. “Constructing on an existing portfolio of research and technological innovation, the research center will test and implement community priorities and insights into actionable and effective strategies for improving maternal health.”

Research centers will partner with community collaborators, comparable to state and native public health agencies, community health centers and faith-based organizations. Moreover, the research centers will support training and skilled development of maternal health researchers, including those from backgrounds underrepresented within the biomedical research workforce.

The middle advances the mission of Healthy State, a daring project that features Ochsner, Tulane and other healthcare, research and nonprofit institutions. By engaging organizations across the state, Healthy State collaborators work together to tackle the leading causes of poor health to understand a healthier, more equitable state and create profound impact for Louisiana residents.