Research and Innovation

We are involved in groundbreaking research and advancements in maternal heart care to improve your care and outcomes. Here are some examples of our revolutionary work:

• Researching health disparities (differences) among minority pregnant women with heart conditions and actively working toward health equity.
• Conducting basic research to evaluate women with heart conditions during pregnancy within our Maternal Pregnancy Heart Program. This increases our collective knowledge so that we can continually improve care for all expectant women with heart disease.
• Improving care for women with heart conditions after pregnancy.
• Creating standards of care for other hospitals in the nation and world to follow when caring for women with congenital or acquired heart conditions who want to start a family.

Relevant research studies and efforts

Here are some of the research studies and trials we’re conducting to help improve care and outcomes for pregnant women with heart conditions like you.

• Diastolic dysfunction during labor: Exploring physiology and impact on perinatal outcomes. Principal investigator: Katherine Bianco, MD; co-investigators: Kathleen Minor, MD, Danielle Panelli, MD, Yair Blumenfeld, MD, Maurice Druzin, MD, Abha Khandelwal, MD, Clemens Ortner, MD, Cesar Padilla, MD.
• Pre-existing Depression as Risk Factor for Preterm Birth in Patients with Cardiac History. Beshar I, Panelli D, Bianco, K. 
• Addressing Postpartum Contraception Practices Utilizing a Multidisciplinary Pregnancy Heart Team Approach. Hayley E. Miller, MD, Samantha C. Do, MD, Giovanna Cruz, Danielle M. Panelli, MD, Stephanie A. Leonard, PhD, Anna Girsen, MD, PhD, Christine J. Lee, RN BSN, Abha Khandelwal, MD, MS, Kate A. Shaw, MD, Katherine Bianco, MD.   
• Maternal Myocardia Bridge and Perinatal Outcomes. Joudi N, Panelli D, Khandelwal A, Schnittger I, Ansari J, Bianco, K.
• The Heart Outcomes in Pregnancy Expectations for Mom and Baby (HOPE Registry), national clinical trial.
• Impact of Bromocriptine on Clinical Outcomes for Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (REBIRTH). U.S. National Institutes of Health sponsored trial.
• GO MOMS (Global Outreach–Mobile Obstetrics Medical Simulation). Educators and physicians are trained in low-resource environments around the world to implement and sustain simulation-based training (SBT) programs for obstetrical complications.

Learn more about our research studies >