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The year ahead is poised to be an incredibly exciting and productive time for the Preeclampsia Foundation and our mission to improve outcomes for mothers and babies. Please join us as we resolve to: 

  1. Work with dozens of companies and researchers developing better diagnostic and prediction tools. We are growing ever closer to understand the root causes of preeclampsia. This continuing research includes potential therapies that may give our babies the opportunity to safely develop, preeclampsia-free.     
  2. Register the pregnancy histories of 10,000 women in The Preeclampsia Registry. If you have not enrolled, we invite you to do so and refer others, even loved ones who have NOT suffered from preeclampsia. To accomplish Resolution 1, we will need #2!  
  3. Launch our redesigned mobile-friendly website. Did you know that over 60% of the Foundation's website visitors come from mobile or tablet devices? This upgrade will make all of our information more readily accessible and readable on your mobile devices for families on the go or sitting by hospital beds.    
  4. Launch our website in Spanish. Preeclampsia is a growing threat to the health of Latina moms, many of whom already have chronic hypertension. We want to ensure ALL women receive the education and support that they need across the United States and the globe. The Spanish website will contain our best health information and articles of interest.   
  5. Produce and provide the Patient Guide to Hypertension in Pregnancy via our website. The guide will present information from the new American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines in a manner organized for patients' understanding. The Foundation's guide will help define medical terms and explain the updated clinical care practices.

Preeclampsia is on the rise globally. The rate of maternal mortality has not improved in this country. Goals like these five 2014 resolutions will help decrease the number of patients facing lack of information, confusion and mismanagement---and set us on a path of good health for all moms. 

 

Thank you for bringing us to this place and continuing your support in 2014! 

A joint research team from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. and the Preeclampsia Foundation has been approved for a funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) for their study "Heart Health 4 Moms: Engaging Women with a History of Preeclampsia to Reduce their Risk for Cardiovascular Disease." The study is one of 82 proposals approved for PCORI funding on December 17 to advance the field of patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER) and provide patients with information that will help them make better-informed decisions about their care.

 

Janet Rich-Edwards, ScD, MPH, Director of Developmental Epidemiology, Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology, and Ellen Seely, MD, Director of Clinical Research, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension Division, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, will lead this three-year, $2.3M groundbreaking research project. The study will focus on education about the long-term cardiovascular risks of preeclampsia and provide tools for behavior change for women with recent preeclampsia to reduce their cardiovascular risk through an online lifestyle modification program (accessible by computer or smart phone).

 

The "Heart Health 4 Moms" program is the first of its kind designed specifically to inform young women with recent preeclampsia of their heart risk and help them to make lifestyle changes. The research study will test the program's use and impact on diet, postpartum weight retention, physical activity, blood pressure and patient awareness.

 

"We know that cardiovascular risk begins to diverge in the early years after a pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia, so there is a potential window of opportunity for prevention of cardiovascular disease through weight management, diet and physical activity," said Rich-Edwards.

 

"Our goal is to work with the Preeclampsia Foundation to develop an engaging, effective program that is widely accessible on the internet and can augment primary care to help high-risk women to change their trajectories and avoid cardiovascular disease," added Seely. 

"This project was selected for PCORI funding not only for its scientific merit and commitment to engaging patients and other stakeholders, but also for its potential to fill an important gap in our health knowledge and give people information to help them weigh the effectiveness of their care options," said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH. "We look forward to following the study's progress and working with Brigham and Women's and the Preeclampsia Foundation to share the results."

 

The "Heart Health 4 Moms" study and the other projects approved for funding by PCORI's Board of Governors on December 17 were selected from 624 applications submitted in response to PCORI's funding announcements. All were selected through a highly competitive review process in which patients, caregivers, and other stakeholders joined scientists to evaluate the proposals. Applications were assessed for scientific merit, how well they will engage patients and other stakeholders, and their methodological rigor, among other criteria.

All awards are approved pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract.

 

"Patient-centric research is at the heart of our mission," said Preeclampsia Foundation Executive Director Eleni Tsigas. "Recent survivors of preeclampsia are highly motivated to engage in this important intervention."

more about PCORI 

 

Congress Passes Legislation to Address Preterm Birth

In a rare move of bipartisanship, both political parties in the U.S. House and Senate came together to pass legislation aimed at improving the rate of preterm births in the United States. The legislation known as the PREEMIE Reauthorization Act, passed in November 2013, a month that marks Prematurity Awareness Month on the federal health observances calendar. 

 

Originally passed in 2006, the PREEMIE Act, brought the first-ever national focus to prematurity prevention. The law can be credited with establishing new research programs to address prematurity and its causes at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

 

Since 2006, according to the March of Dimes, approximately 176,000 fewer babies have been born too soon because of improvement in the preterm birth rate, resulting in healthier infants and potentially saving about $9 billion in health and societal costs.  

 

The Preeclampsia Foundation through its advocacy work in Washington, DC, joined the March of Dimes and other leading health care provider and patient organizations in asking Congress to support the legislation. 

 

Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of prematurity worldwide, accounting for approximately 15 percent of all premature births in the U.S. alone. The Foundation supports research and interventions that advance maternal and infant health. 

 

"Preeclampsia is directly associated with prematurity, and it's important that Congress invest in research that can identify these problems early, improve health, and address associated economic costs on our families and the overall health system," said Julie Allen, Government Relations Manager for the Preeclampsia Foundation. 

 

For information on your state's preterm birth rate, go the 2013 premature birth report cards

 


JANUARY 7, 2014


The 2014 season is here! Register your team today at www.promisewalk.org
for a walk near you!



Our "When I Wish" Annual Giving Campaign raised $20,052 to support research, education, and awareness. Thank you for making this possible! It's not too late to make your gift count.
 
 
SAVE THE DATE 
for
Our 10th Anniversary
Saving Grace - A Night of Hope
Friday, September 12, 2014
at The Depot
Minneapolis, Minn.
 
 
Mission Moment  
 
"When I wish, I wish for a cure to Preeclampsia, Eclampsia and HELLP Syndrome. I also wish that no one has to go through what my family and I went through. If the doctors had not caught it in time, my daughter and I would not be here today. I am a huge advocate for Preeclampsia [awareness and research], and I am holding out that one day in the very near future there will be a cure."
 
~ M. Hankins, Facebook
Upcoming Activities

New Orleans, LA
February 2-8, 2014

Erin Briska Fund Raising Event
Rock 'n' Roll USA Half Marathon
Washington, DC
March 15, 2014 
Florence, Italy
March 26-29, 2014
Chicago, IL
April 26-30, 2014
Toronto, CAN
May 14-18, 2014

Orlando, FL
June 14-18, 2014 

Minneapolis, MN
September 12, 2014

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