UMKC Leads Nationwide Study to Combat Maternal Deaths
The university received its largest National Institutes of Health funding to date to study pregnant women with heart conditions
BY STACY DOWNS
Anna Grodzinsky, M.D. (BLA '08/M.D. '09, M.S. '15) with patient PHOTO / BRANDON PARIGO
Keya Rhodes, a UMKC student studying early childhood education, was hospitalized for a week after delivering her third baby. She had preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy condition involving high blood pressure.
"My third child and I had aortic deficiencies and high blood pressure,” said Rhodes, who teaches with Head Start at Richardson in Kansas City Public Schools. “It was just a whole experience that I wasn't ready for.”
Her experience is why she wanted to be a part of the pilot phase of the Heart Outcomes in Pregnancy Expectations, or HOPE, for Mom and Baby in 2019 at Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for pregnant women. At the same time, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industrialized nation and is the only country whose rate is increasing. While only 2-4% of pregnancies are in people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, they account for more than a third of maternal deaths. These adverse events disproportionately impact Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan Native and Asian/Pacific Islander pregnancies.
"I want to show other African Americans and minorities that you can still live a normal life after pregnancy, before pregnancy and during pregnancy,” Rhodes said.
The HOPE pilot has led to something much larger. The University of Missouri-Kansas City Healthcare Institute for Innovations in Quality (UMKC HI-IQ) and clinical partner Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute are leading a nationwide four-year study of pregnant women with heart conditions to better understand and combat maternal deaths and illnesses. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $8.3 million to UMKC HI-IQ, the largest NIH grant the university has received so far.
The first-of-its-kind study will enroll 1,000 pregnant women with cardiovascular disease from 36 healthcare centers nationwide, to investigate their care and outcomes.
"Heart disease is responsible for more than a third of all pregnancy-related deaths in the United States, yet we lack research that has followed this patient population."
—Anna Grodzinsky (BLA '08/M.D. '09, M.S. '15), associate professor of medicine at UMKC and a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute
Anna Grodzinsky (BLA '08/M.D. '09, M.S. '15), associate professor of medicine at UMKC and a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, and Karen Florio, D.O., M.P.H., a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at both UMKC and the University of Missouri, co-led the pilot and are now co-leading the nationwide HOPE with principal investigator John Spertus, M.D., M.P.H., UMKC HI-IQ founder and director, clinical director of outcomes research at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, a UMKC professor of medicine and the Daniel J. Lauer/Missouri Endowed Chair in Metabolic and Vascular Disease Research.
“Heart disease is responsible for more than a third of all pregnancy-related deaths in the United States, yet we lack research that has followed this patient population,” said Grodzinsky. “The HOPE study will help us gain a better understanding of how we as providers can better care for these patients in a more standardized way in an effort to lower the risk of adverse outcomes.”
“The HOPE study will generate important new insights into the care of pregnant people with cardiovascular disease,” Spertus said. “We anticipate generating two key contributions: patient-level prediction models of adverse clinical outcomes and defining the structures of cardio-obstetrics care that are independently associated with better outcomes. Both lay the foundation for improving care for these high-risk patients.”
Keya Rhodes with her children PHOTO / BRANDON PARIGO
By the Numbers: HOPE for Mom and Baby Study
U.S. hospitals participating
Pregnant women with heart conditions enrolling
National Institutes of Health funding for the four-year study
of all pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are caused by heart disease.
Percent of pregnancies that involve women with pre-existing cardiovascular disease