We are delighted to introduce Ms. Brenda Hayman, who has joined the team as a part time Research Assistant. She comes with a broad background of experience including technical writing and we look forward to working together!

Congratulations to Dr. Grabovac who has another opportunity for Knowledge Translation of research findings with an oral presentation which has been short listed for a possible award at the Society of Obstetrics & Gynaecology of Canada (SOGC) in June in Victoria on her breech systematic review that showed that cesarean section was associated with 40% lower odds of death and 50% lower odds of severe brain bleeds! Bravo, Dr. Grabovac, for your dedication to improving the health of women and infants!

Dr. McDonald is pleased to contribute to a CIHR Clinician-Investigator Team with Dr. Beth Murray-Davis, co-Principal Investigator (MW, PhD, McMaster), and other co-Principal Investigators Drs. Nir Melamed (MFM, Sunnybrook) and Howard Berger (MFM, St Michael’s).

The CIHR-funded McMaster-University of Toronto team grant includes:

Karizma (RC), Dr. Joel Ray (Mentor), Dr. Haroon Hassan (analyst), Dr. Nir Melamed (co-Principal Investigator), Dr. Beth Murray-Davis (co-Principal Investigator), Dr. Howard Berger (co-Principal Investigator), Dr. Sarah McDonald (Mentor), and 2 of our great research assistants.

Congratulations to Dr. Grabovac who had two more opportunities for Knowledge Translation of the team’s research findings recently with the publication of her letter to the editor, “Making it more safe for periviable infants” in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, as well as the acceptance of a third publication! Congratulations, Dr. Grabovac, on continuing to work with such passion and excellence to improve the health of women and infants! Your hard work is paying off!

Her letter to the editor is available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1701216317310022

We are delighted to welcome a new team member who will join the team in May, 2018.

Cezara Ene is finishing first year BHSc and will be starting as a Student Research Assistant over the summer.

We look forward to working together to improve the health of women and infants!

Several team members had the great opportunity to for knowledge translation of our research findings with presentations at the Canadian National Perinatal Research Meeting on February 14-17, 2018 in Banff, Alberta. Congratulations to:

• Dr. Marinela Grabovac on her oral presentation: “Interventions to try to prevent preterm birth in women with a history of conization: a systematic review and meta-analyses”
• Dr. Catherine Dagenais on her poster presentation: “What is the safest mode of delivery for extremely preterm cephalic/non-cephalic twin pairs? A systematic review and meta-analyses”
• Kristen Viaje on her poster presentation: “A clinical care pathway for obese pregnant women: a pragmatic pilot cluster randomized controlled trial”

Their conference abstracts are available at: http://www.cnprm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CNPRM-2018-full-program-rev-08-02-18.pdf

Congratulations also to Julianne Feng on her poster presentation “Mode of Birth for extremely preterm vertex singletons: systematic review and meta-analysis” at the Bachelor of Health Science Poster Day 2018 on March 26.

Thank you all for your work on knowledge translation of our research findings!

We are happy to welcome some new faces to the team in new year!

Leah MacDonald is joining as our new administrative assistant and Dr. Veronica Moramarco, a Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellow, will be doing research with the team.

We look forward to working with you to improve the health of women and infants!

Dr. McDonald enjoyed presenting a talk and workshop at the national Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) Continuing Medical Education (CME) 2017 entitled “Little BIG Talk: Progesterone and preterm birth” Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) Continuing Medical Education (CME) 2017. November 30, 2017. Toronto – ON and “Progesterone and preterm birth: Workshop”. Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) Continuing Medical Education (CME) 2017. November 30, 2017. Toronto – ON.

Dr. McDonald was pleased to give other presentations this fall:

“Evidence for progesterone in women with a previous PTB, or current short cervix” Southern Ontario Obstetrical Network (SOON) Alliance for the Prevention of Preterm Birth and Stillbirth (The Alliance), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, November 28, 2017 – Toronto, ON

“Progesterone for Prevention of Preterm Birth”. Family Medicine Forum (FMF) 2017, The College of Family Physicians of Canada. November 10, 2017 – Montreal, QC. (national conference)

“Revisiting Antenatal Corticosteroids: Tailoring the Timing and Use of a Powerful Drug”. McMaster University, Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynecology Grand Rounds, McMaster University Medical Centre, November 1, 2017 – Hamilton, ON

As a member of the External Advisory Committee, Dr McDonald enjoyed participating in the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System meeting in Ottawa Nov 21-22, 2017.

We warmly welcome Dr. Michael Yu to the team, who has joined us as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Perinatal Predictive Modeling. Dr. Yu has a medical degree from Tianjin Medical University in China, and a MPH and PhD from the University of Eastern Finland.

He brings a great depth of research experience and we look forward to working together to improve the health of women and infants!