Welcome Dr. Lina Santaguida !  

Dr. Santaguida is an Assistant Professor in McMaster’s Department of Research Methods, Evidence & Impact and will be joining the team.

Beyond a PhD from U of T, she has vast experience in methodology in systematic review, successful grants with CIHR, AHRQ and other agencies, ‘real world’ research experience including management of large projects, and a host of other skills.

A very warm welcome, Lina!  We look forward to working together with you to improve the health of women and infants! 

Dr. McDonald  enjoyed presenting at a number of forums these past months:

“Inter-hospital Rounds” Southern Ontario Obstetrics Network (SOON), St. Michaels Hospital, April 7th, 2017 – Toronto, ON

“Canada’s New Preterm Birth Network: UBC’s pivotal role in this opportunity for OB, MFM, Neonatology, Follow-up & Health Economics to Innovate Together”, as the keynote speaker at the University of British Columbia’s Academic Research Day, Vancouver, BC March 8, 2017

“Revisiting Antenatal Corticosteroids:  Tailoring the Timing of a Powerful Drug” UBC Obstetrics and Gynaecology 17th Annual Academic Day, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC March 9, 2017

“Improving Outcomes for Preterm Infants and their Families: A Canadian Collaborative Network”, Meeting with MFMs for input into variable collection, Evidenced Based Improvement in Care (EPIC) meeting, Canadian National Perinatal Research Meeting, Toronto, Feb 16, 2017

“Rethinking our Approach to Antenatal Corticosteroids: Educational Rounds”, Guelph General Hospital-  January 20, 2017

“Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening: Tips and Pitfalls from Our First 1000 cases at McMaster” Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) talk for Drs. Nwebube, Narine & Gai, Family Medicine and Midwifery, West Lincoln Hospital, Grimsby, ON January 18, 2017

“Antenatal Corticosteroids: To give or not give in the Late Preterm or Term Time Periods?” Neo/MFM Department Rounds, McMaster University, January 13, 2017

With a team of 100 clinicians, researchers, organizations, policy makers and patient representatives, Dr. McDonald was delighted to be part of the writing team for a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Preterm Birth Network Team Grant “Improving Outcomes for Preterm Infants and their Families: A Canadian Collaborative Network” November 1, 2016 – October 31, 2021.

Nominated Principal Investigator:  Dr. Prakesh Shah
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Sarah D. McDonald and 8 other co-PI, with 90 co-investigators.

Dr. McDonald was pleased to contribute as a Co-investigator to Dr. K. S. Joseph’s Successful Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Team Grant: Perinatal Healthcare System Improvement. Awarded October 2016 – October 2021.

Dr. Grabovac presented a poster presentation at the 4th Annual Canadian National Perinatal Research Meeting (CNPRM) of work done with Feng YY, Jarde A, Seo Y, Grabovac M, Powell A, Nwebube M, McDonald SD, “How often are progesterone, pessary and cerclage being used for prevention of preterm birth in primary, secondary and tertiary Canadian centres?”, which found that approximately 1 in 4 women at risk of preterm birth from a previous preterm birth or short cervix were offered prevention, while 1 in 6 was offered progesterone.  The conference was held in Montebello, QC February 14-17 2017.

Dr. Grabovac presented a plenary oral on “What is the safest mode of delivery for extremely preterm breech infants: a systematic review and meta-analyses?”, work she completed with Dr. Jehan Karim, a PGY-3 in our department who did a research elective with Dr. McDonald. Importantly, she and Dr. Karim found that Cesarean section is associated with an approximate 40% reduction in the odds of death and severe intraventricular hemorrhage in actively resuscitated breech singleton infants before 28 weeks.

Dr. Grabovac also presented an oral presentation of an interprovincial comparison of recent data, work done in conjunction with the provincial perinatal research programs through S Dzakpasu, N Chapinal, M Guo, C Woolcott, P Murphy and Dr. McDonald which found, increasing proportions of women from west to east begin pregnancy with excess weight or gain too much weight during pregnancy. Excess GWG was a larger contributor to LGA than either overweight or obese BMI. Similarly, the contribution of inadequate GWG to SGA exceeded that of underweight BMI.

Dr. McDonald was excited to be part of a CIHR grant from which came research entitled “Caesarean section and health care utilization in the offspring”. Alexander Nikolas MacLellan, Christy G. Woolcott, Linda Dodds, Bryan Maguire, Sarah McDonald, Stefan Kuhle. 4th Annual Canadian National Perinatal Research Meeting (CNPRM), Montebello, QC   February 14-17 2017.

What a fruitful week!