Jackson State University has received $2.5 million in first-year funding to establish the Delta Mississippi Center of Excellence (CoE) in Maternal Health, which will evaluate innovative approaches to reduce pregnancy-related complications and deaths and promote maternal health equity. The center is part of NIH’s Implementing a Maternal Health and Pregnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) initiative. The JSU center will receive more than $17 million over a seven-year period to address maternal health disparities in the Mississippi Delta (subject to availability of funds and satisfactory progress).
Compared to other high-income countries, the U.S. has a high rate of maternal deaths, with more than 1,200 such deaths occurring in 2021 – the most recent year for which data are available. Each year tens of thousands more Americans experience severe pregnancy-related complications, which can raise the risk of future health concerns, including high-blood pressure, diabetes and mental health conditions. There are stark disparities in these maternal health outcomes by racial and ethnic group, age, education, socioeconomic status and geographic region.
Mary Shaw, Ph.D., chair and professor of JSU’s Behavioral and Environmental Health Department in the College of Health Sciences, is the principal investigator leading the Center of Excellence research collaborative. Girmay Berhie, Ph.D., professor/principal Investigator of the Public Health Informatics and Analytics program, is the co-principal investigator for the JSU center.
The collaborative includes principal investigators Beryl Polk, Ph.D., of the Mississippi State Department of Health; James Tucker, M.D., of The University of Mississippi Medical Center; Henning Tiemeier, M.D., of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Nakeitra Burse, Ph.D., owner and CEO of Six Dimensions, LLC; the Mississippi Delta Community Hospitals and Clinics; and various community and faith-based organizations.
Shaw said, “Mississippi, in general, has an alarming maternal mortality rate, but especially in rural areas such as the Delta, where access to care is critically deficient. Fortunately, Jackson State is among 10 nationwide Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence that will collaborate with community organizations to implement and evaluate strategies to address health disparities, promote maternal health equity, and save lives.” The JSU center is a community-focused collaborative “For HER” (Health, Education and Research).
The center will also support the training and professional development of early-career investigators, doctoral students, and postdocs who are interested in maternal health research, including those from backgrounds underrepresented in biomedical research. The training component of the center will be led by Bizu Gelaye, Ph.D., of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Henning, Girmay and Shaw.
NICHD, the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the National Institute of Nursing Research co-lead the IMPROVE initiative, with involvement from several other components at NIH.
The centers of excellence include 10 research centers, a data innovation and coordinating hub and an implementation science hub. Together, these institutions will work to design and implement research projects to address the biological, behavioral, environmental, sociocultural and structural factors that affect pregnancy-related complications and deaths. They will focus on populations that experience health disparities, including racial and ethnic minorities; socioeconomically disadvantaged populations; those living in underserved rural areas; sexual and gender minority populations; and people with disabilities.
Funding for the centers was awarded after a competitive peer-review process.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, will serve as the data innovation and coordinating hub. Led by principal investigator Andreea Creanga, M.D., Ph.D., this hub will support data collection, ensure high-data quality and provide data-science expertise. The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, will serve as the implementation science hub. Under the direction of principal investigator Meghan Brooks Lane-Fall, M.D., this hub will help to promote the integration of research findings and evidence into public health, clinical practice and community settings.