Tita, Carlo, and Team Win Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Award

UAB CCTS, Apr 15, 2024

A-PLUS co-leads Alan Tita, M.D., Ph.D. and Waldemar A. Carlo, M.D. Photography: Andrea Mabry
Alan Tita, M.D., Ph.D. and Waldemar A. Carlo, M.D.

The Clinical Research (CR) Forum, a non-profit membership association of top clinical research experts and thought leaders from the nation’s leading academic health centers, presented the Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Award to two outstanding studies at the Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awards on April 2nd at the Paris Hotel Las Vegas, and for the second year in a row, CCTS investigators were recognized for their achievements.

This year, the CRF awarded the study entitled “Azithromycin to Prevent Sepsis or Death in Women Planning a Vaginal Birth (A-PLUS),” led by Dr. Waldemar Carlo, Professor of Pediatrics, co-Division Director of Neonatology and Edwin M. Dixon Endowed Chair, and Dr. Alan Tita, Professor and Senior Vice Chair for research and innovation in UAB’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Department. The A-PLUS trial represents a landmark study with global reach enrolling more than 29,000 women in seven low- and middle-income countries with significant health disparities. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2023, the project created an evidence base for a low-cost intervention that can be used to reduce maternal sepsis and deaths in underserved regions on a global scale.

The CR Forum presents its annual Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awards to highlight outstanding research advances that involve both innovation and impact on human diseases. A complete list of the 2024 Top Ten Award Winners can be found at www.clinicalresearchforum.org.

“This year’s award winners demonstrate the immense value of our nation’s investment in clinical research, and the direct impact of that work on the health of millions of people in the United States,” said Harry P. Selker, MD, MSPH, CR Forum Board Chair and Dean of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Tufts University. “For many, these innovative studies and related clinical trials may represent the only hope for surviving a life-threatening disease. They also pave the way to advance new therapies and treatments that improve public health.”

The Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Award is presented to the top two studies that show creativity, innovation, or a novel approach that demonstrates an immediate impact on the health and well-being of patients. The study, “Azithromycin to Prevent Sepsis or Death in Women Planning a Vaginal Birth,” is one of this year’s honorees.

Contribution of Health Care Practitioner and Maternity Services Factors to Racial Disparities in Alabama

Oct 9, 2023

A Qualitative Study

Toluhi, Angelina A. MD, MPH; Richardson, Molly R. MPH, PhD; Julian, Zoe I. MD, MPH; Sinkey, Rachel G. MD; Knight, Candace C. PhD; Budhwani, Henna MPH, PhD; Szychowski, Jeff M. PhD; Wingate, Martha S. DrPH, MPH; Tita, Alan T. MD, PhD; Baskin, Monica L. MS, PhD; Turan, Janet M. MPH, PhD

Obstetrics & Gynecology 142(4):p 873-885, October 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005326

The authors attempt to uncover the factors related to practitioners and health care services that lead to inequities in maternal health in Alabama.

Congratulations to our MHIGH director Alan Tita, MD, PhD for his induction today into the National Academy of Medicine!

UAB Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health, Oct 7, 2023

Congratulations to our MHIGH director @atitapatterns for his induction today into the National Academy of Medicine!

Fouad elected to exclusive NIH advisory committee

Heersink School Medicine News, Mary Ashley Canevaro, September 26, 2023

Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH

Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH, senior associate dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the Heersink School of Medicine and director of the Minority Health and Health Equity Research Center, has been elected to the National Institutes of Health’s Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) Working Group on Diversity.

The ACD Working Group on Diversity seeks to develop effective diversity-related strategies for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on research. Some of their priorities include enhancing access and opportunities for the biomedical research workforce to nurture a diverse community, identifying strategies to address underfunding of minority health and health disparities research, and advancing programs that enhance recruitment and retention of individuals from wide-ranging backgrounds. The group also advises on policy and procedural changes relating to addressing disparities in research, training, and professional development.

Fouad sits among a small, selected group of experts from nationally renowned institutions, including Yale University, Hopkins Medicine, University of Michigan, and New York University, among others.

Congratulations to Tomeka Walker on being selected as a 50 Under 50 Alumni Award honoree by Miles College

UAB P³OPPY Study, Sep 8, 2023

Congratulations to Tomeka Walker on being selected as a 50 Under 50 Alumni Award honoree by Miles College. @p3equatehern
https://donate.miles.edu/campaigns/tomeka-walker

UAB Center for NICHD Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research is continued through new funding and partnerships

UAB, Aug 11, 2023

Congratulations to Dr. Carlo & Dr. Chomba & colleagues on the competitive renewal of the Global Network for Women’s & Children’s Health Research!

Read more about the ongoing research partnership, supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD of the NIH ➡️https://bit.ly/3qlwWJI

The funding for UAB’s site of the ongoing program, Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research, has been competitively renewed for a seven-year term by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health.

Written by Emily Liming Johns, Heersink School of Medicine

Tita represents the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health during trip to South Africa

UAB Heersink School of Medicine, June 15, 2023

Dr. Tita, Dr. Wong, and the AHRI team
Dr. Tita, Dr. Wong, and the AHRI team

Alan T. N. Tita, M.D., Ph.D., director for the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health (MHIGH) and associate dean for Global and Women’s Health, recently visited South Africa to attend the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC) 2023 and visit the facilities of the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI).

“I attended IMNHC 2023 in Cape Town to present our RCT (A-PLUS) of azithromycin to prevent maternal sepsis in low/middle-income countries (LMICs) and used the opportunity to visit UAB faculty, Drs. Emily Wong and Adrie Steyn, and host organization, AHRI,” said Tita. “I also met leaders of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. There is a lot to follow up on as we continue building important partnerships in South Africa.”

At IMNHC 2023 in Cape Town, Tita witnessed the release of “Improving maternal and newborn health and survival and reducing stillbirth – Progress report 2023,” among other important updates on priorities for maternal and newborn health. The report, released by the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), highlights global progress on maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, and stillbirths as well as efforts to meet targets for these challenges. Besides networking on future opportunities, Tita met Albert Manasyan, M.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Pediatrics, located in Zambia, who also attended the conference.

CHAP trial awarded Clinical Trial of the Year

by Hannah Echols, UAB News, May 24, 2023

Alan T. Tita, M.D., Ph.D.
Alan Tita, M.D., Ph.D.,

The Chronic Hypertension and Pregnancy trial, led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, received the David Sackett Trial of the Year award from the Society for Clinical Trials. The prestigious award is given to a clinical trial that improves the lot of humankind and provides substantial and beneficial change to health care.

The CHAP trial evaluated the effects of prescribing blood pressure medication to pregnant women with mild chronic hypertension. Results published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April 2022 showed treatment improved pregnancy outcomes without compromising the baby’s growth and overall health, which was a primary concern for physicians for years. CHAP results have since led to changes in national guidelines.

“Chronic hypertension causes serious and life-threatening complications for pregnant women and their babies,” said Alan Tita, M.D., Ph.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine, principal investigator for the CHAP trial, and lead author of the NEJM paper. “Between 70 percent and 80 percent of pregnant women with chronic hypertension fall into the ‘mild’ category, where there was not a medical consensus for treatment.”

The CHAP consortium — including over 60 collaborating clinical sites across the United States, with clinical and data coordinating centers in the UAB departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Center for Women’s Reproductive Health and the department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health — launched the CHAP program in 2014 with funding from the National Institutes of Health’s Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. From September 2015 to March 2021, CHAP enrolled more than 2,400 pregnant women with mild chronic hypertension whose blood pressure was greater than 140/90 mmHg but less than 160/105 mmHg.

Casey named holder of the John C. Hauth Endowed Professorship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine

UAB Heersink School of Medicine, May 19, 2023

Brian Casey, MD

Brian M. Casey, M.D., has been named as the holder of the John C. Hauth Endowed Professorship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UAB Marnix E Heersink School of Medicine. The appointment was approved by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees during the April meeting.

The creation of the endowed position was approved by trustees in November 2015 to honor emeritus professor John Hauth, M.D., who directed the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine for more than 10 years.

“It is an extreme honor to hold Dr. Hauth’s Endowed Professorship here at UAB,” said Casey. “Dr. Hauth helped build and bring our division to national prominence and, to me, serves as an outstanding example that I aspire to every day.”

Casey is the director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the vice chair for obstetrics. He is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine. Before coming to UAB, Casey spent 23 years on faculty at Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern.