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Today is #WorldHealthDay! We’re highlighting the World Health Organization's theme ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’, which urges governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths and to prioritise women’s longer-term health and wellbeing. Associate Professor Kirsten Palmer from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Clinical Sciences at Monash Health is an obstetrician and maternal fetal medicine specialist. Here’s what she had to say on the topic. “Pregnant women have long been excluded from participating in clinical trials. This has led to a lack of evidence to ensure they receive the best care. There has also been a global lack of investment in the development of new medications for use in pregnancy, which has resulted in the stagnation of advances to improve outcomes for women impacted by hypertension in pregnancy and preterm birth, which are major causes of maternal and perinatal death and disability, along with many other conditions. At Monash, we’re addressing this inequity by creating a pregnancy clinical trials team to achieve ‘healthy beginnings and hopeful futures’. “This team is currently supporting over 16 clinical trials at all stages of pregnancy. Through our collaborations with Monash Health and the Hudson Institute of Medical Research, we have developed a translational pipeline of therapeutics, which includes the world's first trial of melatonin for fetal neuroprotection in the setting of fetal growth restriction, early stage research progressing sulforaphane for preeclampsia and creatine for fetal protection from birth asphyxia. All these treatments are developed with a global focus to ensure our outcomes are accessible to women around the world, being all heat stable, orally available and cheap. “Women who experience the poorest outcomes in pregnancy are often those who lack access to care. We have been exploring approaches to improve women's access to high-quality care and how digital technologies can support this. We have already been able to show that telehealth-integrated care can support access to care without compromising care outcomes. “Models of care integrating digital health will likely be crucial in supporting women following birth to support hopeful futures through improved access to perinatal mental health support, as well as education and care to minimise the long-term poorer health outcomes women can have after pregnancies complicated by hypertension, diabetes, or preterm birth.” Learn more about World Health Day 2025 Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures' campaign: https://lnkd.in/d8nVsj82
