The Program for Maternal and Child Healthcare focuses on studies that seek to improve the quality and safety, equity, effectiveness, and outcomes of healthcare for women and children.
Faculty from across the Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern University, such as the Departments of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical Social Science and Preventive Medicine; the Simulation Technology and Immersive Learning program; the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (Laboratory for Human Biology Research), School of Communication and the McCormick School of Engineering, are engaged in extramurally-funded research. Research projects are being conducted with numerous clinical partners including Prentice Women’s Hospital at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Children’s Memorial Hospital, the Pediatric Practice Research Group, and the Chicago Pediatric Quality and Patient Safety Consortium. Current research foci include food allergy in children, asthma, chronic stress in pregnancy, quality and safety in pediatric and obstetrical healthcare, and the National Children’s Study – Greater Chicago Study Center.
News & Events
Ruchi Gupta, MD MPH was interviewed this week on the NPR program “On Point” about food allergies in children. Click here to listen to the exciting interview via WBUR!
On February 12, 2013, Dr. Ruchi Gupta, Director of the Program for Maternal and Child Healthcare appeared on WGN News Midday Segment Focus on Family to talk about children and the dangers of food allergies, as well as highlights from her new book The Food Allergy Experience. Watch her via WGNtv.com.
Dr. Ann Borders was an invited participant for the Illinois Big 5 Leadership Team, one of 5 leaders in perinatal health invited from Illinois for the March of Dimes Big 5 Preterm Birth Prevention Summit. The meeting took place in January of 2011.
Press Release
Dr. Ann Borders was the recipient of the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition, Loretta Lacey Maternal and Child Health Advocacy Research Award for 2011. This award is provided to an individual who conducts research and uses the findings to advocate for improvements in maternal and child health.
The Loretta Lacey Maternal and Child Health Advocacy Awards are in honor of the late Loretta P. Lacey, RN, DrPh (1944-1994). Her career spanned from being a public health nurse to Assistant Chicago Commissioner of Health to academia. Her greatest achievement was to institute the expanded breast and cervical screenings free of charge through the City of Chicago and the Cook County Bureau of Health Services. Dr. Loretta Lacey spent 25 years in the maternal and child health field as researcher, teacher, administrator, and most importantly, as an advocate. She is remembered each year through these awards.
The awards in the categories of researcher, health care provider, and community advocate are presented each year at the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition’s Annual Luncheon. This year’s luncheon took place on June 7th at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Chicago, IL.
Since 1988, the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition has been fighting to improve the health of all women, babies, young people and families in Illinois. As an organization, they bridge the gap between policy makers and those affected by their decisions. Through education, they empower people to make healthy choices that strengthen families and communities.
Program for Maternal and Child Healthcare in the Media:
This new research about food allergy led by Ruchi Gupta, MD MPH is discussed in the opening segment of the Colbert Report. Watch via ColbertNation.com:
Dr. Ruchi Gupta recently appeared on WTTW's Chicago Tonight to further speak about her her recent study on Food Allergy Prevalence and Distribution that appeared in Pediatrics. Watch hervia WTTW.
Still making headlines, Dr. Ruchi Gupta was recently featured on PBS's Newshour regarding her recent study on Food Allergy Prevalence and Distribution. The study surveyed 40,000 American households to find that neary eight percent of children (roughly six million) in the United States have a food allergy. View the interview via PBS.
Dr. Ruchi Gupta's soon to be published study on Food Allergy Prevalence and Distribution in the US made it on to NBC Nightly News. The manuscript will be coming out in Pediatrics in June. Find out more via NBC.com.
Dr. Ruchi Gupta, Director of the Program for Maternal and Child Healthcare, recently appeared on CBS to talk about how violence can trigger asthma in children. This is part of her study to better understand neighborhood factors impacting asthma in high risk neighborhoods from kids living in those neighborhoods. The study, Student Asthma Research Team (START) uses photo voice and video voice techniques, and culminated with the kids developing two public service announcements that will be used in the Uptown community to improve the neighborhood knowledge around what asthma is and what people can do to help kids with asthma in the community. This study is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Watch her via CBSChicago.org.
A grant was recently awarded to Dr. Ann Borders from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for a study entitled Chronic Stress in Pregnancy: Self-report, Biomarkers, and Birth Outcomes. The aims of this study are:
To develop, using IRT modeling, an optimized stress in pregnancy scale to measure self-reported stress;
To determine the association between self-reported stress, measured by the optimized stress in pregnancy scale, and stress biomarkers (CRH and salivary cortisol); and
To determine the association between self-reported stress, measured by the optimized stress in pregnancy scale, and preterm birth.
Dr. Ruchi Gupta was interviewed by Chicago Tonight regarding Chicago Neighborhood Asthma Prevalence. You can watch her via Youtube.
Publications
Chen MJ, Grobman WA, Gollan JK, Borders AEB. The use of psychosocial stress scales in preterm birth research. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2011 Nov;205(5):402-34. Epub 2011 Aug 4.
The Prevalence, Severity, and Distribution of Childhood Food Allergy in the United States. Gupta RS, Springston EE, Warrier MR, Smith B, Kumar R, Pongracic J, Holl JL. Pediatrics. 2011 Jun 20. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:21690110
Erythromycin prior to endoscopy in acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding: A meta-analysis. Szary NM, Gupta R, Choudhary A, Matteson ML, Arif M, Hammad HT, Bechtold ML. Scand J Gastroenterol. 2011 May 11. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:21561232
Development, validation, and uncertainty measurement of multi-residue analysis of organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides using pressurized liquid extraction and dispersive-SPE techniques. Sanyal D, Rani A, Alam S, Gujral S, Gupta R. Environ Monit Assess. 2011 Jan 6. PMID:21210211
A specific, robust, and automated method for routine at-line monitoring of the concentration of cellulases in genetically modified sugarcane plants. Gupta R, Baldock SJ, Fielden PR, Grieve BD. Appl Biochem Biotechnol. 2011 Feb;163(4):528-39. Epub 2010 Dec 8. PMID:21136205
Message from the Director Ruchi Gupta, MD MPH
Welcome to the Program for Maternal and Child Healthcare at the Center for Healthcare Studies, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. The Program for Maternal and Child Healthcare is dedicated to improving the health and healthcare of women and children by conducting health services and outcomes research through community-based participatory research and partnerships with healthcare providers and organizations. Our mission is realized through successful inter-disciplinary collaboration with researchers, health care leaders, clinicians, policymakers, patients and families, and community members. The Program also offers important opportunities for training in health services and outcomes research focused on women and children.
This website is designed to educate our visitors and to disseminate our ongoing research projects, resources, and achievements, related to advancing the health and healthcare for women and children.
Thank you for taking the time to visit our website and we look forward to hearing from you.
