Sorry for the delay in October’s Newsletter. Please enjoy reading about all of the amazing accomplishments across the department!

Best,

Dee E. Fenner, MD

The Ovarian Cancer Initiative at Michigan Medicine, led by Karen McLean, MD, PhD, has received a generous bequest from Beth J. Johnson.

Per her wishes, Ms. Johnson’s bequest will be used to support further program development in the Ovarian Cancer Initiative as well as the education and training of those focused on improving ovarian cancer care and outcomes. It is the culmination of her dedicated efforts and extensive volunteer work for the initiative. From serving as a mentor for ovarian cancer patients like herself to helping strategize the initiative’s official vision when it was in its infancy, Ms. Johnson, who died in December of 2017, left a lasting legacy.

Preeclampsia/eclampsia is a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide.

New research by Dr. Emma Lawrence and coauthors, funded by the Women's Health Innovation Fund, examines patient knowledge and experience with preeclampsia/eclampsia among women in Ghana.

State Perinatal Quality Collaboratives work in multidisciplinary teams to improve health care and health outcomes for mothers and babies.

In Michigan, there are 9 Regional Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (RPQCs), tasked with improving birth outcomes for moms, babies, and families through data-driven quality improvement projects that are tailored to the strengths and challenges of each region.

The Region 9 PQC, established in 2019, is led by the Department of OBGYN's own Lisa Kane-Low, PhD, CNM (Co-Chair), Julie Tumbarello (Fiduciary Representative), and Helen Joa (Project Manager).

The Region 9 PQC is currently working to grow their Collaborative base, strengthen partnerships, and develop projects that directly meet community needs. They have developed five work groups to actualize this work: Mom-Centric Models of Care and Support, Trauma-Informed Care, Home Visiting, Community Engagement, and Health Equity.

Recently, the Mom-Centric work group conducted four focus groups with 100% community participation to learn what birthing families want/need to have a safe and healthy birth. In addition, the Trauma-Informed Care work group developed a “Stress, Emotions, and Pregnancy” pocket guide to educate pregnant people on the effects of trauma on pregnancy and encourage meaningful conversations between providers and patients.

The Region 9 PQC invites you to join the next Collaborative meeting on Monday, November 2nd from 4:30-6pm, and to follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Questions? Contact contact@region9.org.

Several of our Division of Gynecology faculty members were published in the most recent edition of Contemporary OB/GYN.

Turn to page 13 to read about a rarely seen vulvar infection in "Perplexing condition in patient who underwent bone marrow transplant," by Drs. Natalie Saunders, Rosalyn Maben-Feaster, Kathryn Welch, Ebony Parker-Featherstone, and Hope Haefner.

Learn more about how providers and patients can work together to find the oral contraceptive option that best meets individual patients' needs and desires on page 22 in "Choosing the right pill," by Drs. Charisse Loder and Monica Rosen.

Tune in to watch Michigan Medicine Department of OBGYN experts Drs. Suzie As-Sanie, Erica Marsh, and Courtney Townsel, as they respond to questions from our patients about fibroids, including:

The Michigan Medicine Department of OBGYN continues to be at the forefront of innovative patient care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In their new article, Drs. Alex Peahl, Roger Smith, Vanessa Dalton and Michelle Moniz evaluate the patient and provider experience with newly adopted COVID-19 prenatal care model at Michigan Medicine and find that although new prenatal care approaches adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic are promising, modifications may be needed to promote equity and positive care experiences in the future.

In addition, several of our Michigan Medicine medical students have had abstracts accepted on the work from our departmental efforts emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic:

The Department of OBGYN celebrated National Midwifery Week with a wonderful Grand Rounds presentation in honor of Terri Murtland, our beloved former Director of Midwifery and friend.

“Our Village” is an informal support group for African American pregnant and postpartum women that meets every other week via zoom. This group, facilitated by Melisa Scott, CNM, nurse-midwife and lactation consultant, provides a safe space for African American expectant and new moms to learn from and support one another.

Dr. Dee Fenner gave the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS) Raymond A. Lee Lecture entitled "Advancing Women and Underrepresented Minorities in OBGYN" at the 2020 virtual Pelvic Floor Disorder Week meeting. The Raymond A. Lee Endowment is a named lectureship created by AUGS to honor one person annually who contributed to the development and surgical advancement of urogynecology and to further advance the knowledge and teaching of gynecologic surgery through ongoing AUGS educational programs.

In addition, our faculty had an impressive nine oral presentations! Congratulations to Drs. Dee Fenner, Megan Schimpf, Carolyn Swenson, John DeLancey, and their coauthors.

Our faculty and staff had one oral presentation and two posters at the 2020 Society of Family Planning Annual Meeting.

Meghan Seewald, Project Manager in the Department of OBGYN, gave a presentation, entitled, "The role of complexity and ambiguity in shaping attitudes about abortion and doctors who provide abortion care," on behalf of her team, including Lisa A. Martin, Amy Simon, John Whaley, Naser Javaid, Lisa H. Harris.

Poster: Public perceptions of physicians who provide abortion care. Meghan Seewald, Lisa A. Martin, Amy Simon, Lisa H. Harris

Poster: Family Planning and the Flint Water Crisis. Sheila Flaum, Meghan Seewald, Amani Echols, Leah Minadeo, Vanessa Dalton, Lisa H. Harris

Our faculty and staff had 5 oral presentations and 16 posters at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine 2020 Annual Meeting! In addition, Dr. Suzie As-Sanie received the best clinical abstract in endometriosis award for her paper entitled, "Efficacy and Safety of Relugolix Combination Therapy in Women with Endometrioses-Associated Pain: Phase 3 Randomized, Double‐Blind, Placebo‐Controlled Study (SPIRIT 2)."

Congratulations to Dr. Caitlin Clifford on winning the 2020/2021 Ansbacher Resident/Fellow Education and Research Award!

Dr. Clifford, under the mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Langen, will be provided with a $5,000 award to support her research project entitled, “EndoPat as a Predictor of Preeclampsia with Severe Features.”

Kayte Spector-Bagdady, JD, MBE, was selected by the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs to join a new University of Michigan COVID-19 council. The council will meet with President Mark Schlissel and Provost Susan M. Collins to bring forward ideas, discuss concerns and offer suggestions about the university’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Molly Moravek was selected to receive the Star Reviewer Award from Fertility and Sterility.

In addition, and Dr. Moravek officially took over as the Chair of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) LGBTQ Special Interest Group.

Congratulations to Dr. Courtney Townsel on receiving the 2021 Foundation for the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine Scholarship to support her proposed research training program and project “Placental Epigenetic Regulation of Fetal Opioid Exposure.” This is a highly competitive grant that will support Dr. Townsel for career development and research for the next three years.

Dr. Molly Stout, MSCI, Director of MFM and the Morton R. Lazar, MD Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Innovation, received funding from the Frankel Innovation Initiative to fund her project, “Fully quantitative Elastography to Predict Preterm Birth.”

In 2019, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) awarded seed grant funding for faculty research projects related to gender-based violence and sexual harassment. These projects were funded in partnership with the U-M Office of Research. This fall, faculty awardees will share their research progress with the broader community to examine how their scholarship is working towards the goal of ending gender-based violence and sexual harassment across contexts.

Tune in to see Department of OBGYN faculty member, Dr. Susan Ernst, present her work: "Understanding Student Experiences with Inappropriate, Disrespectful, and Coercive Healthcare and Physical Exams: A Mixed Methods Study."

The Departments of Family Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology are excited to offer faculty an opportunity to earn live CME credits related to the care of women, presented by experts at Michigan Medicine. Since the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled our annual Primary Health Care of Women conference, there will be a virtual conference on the afternoon of Thursday, December 3, 2020 from 2-6 PM.

Join to review the 2019 ASCCP guideline for cervical cancer screening, learn how to screen women with dense breasts, manage urinary incontinence, and develop strategies to care for homeless women!

Mark your calendars for the 2021 Annual Norman F. Miller University of Michigan Alumni Society Meeting. Next year's meeting will be held on Friday, September 24, 2021. Stay tuned for more details!

Last year the Wellness Committee had paper 30 Day Gratitude Journals for the month of November. This year, since we all are so good with the virtual scene, we will be using an app! Download the Gratitude App to document and share things that you are grateful for. Share your thankful moments via the app on our Workplace page or via email with others. We can’t wait to hear what you are grateful for!

The High Reliability Universal Skills Awareness Training course is an organization-wide initiative intended to equip all staff with skills and best practices related to improving teamwork and reducing errors. The deadline for faculty and staff to to complete this online training (via MLearning) is November, 30th. Currently, 62.3% of OBGYN faculty and staff have completed the course!

If you have questions, please contact Ashley Kirk.

This year’s Blood Battle against Ohio State is running from October 28th – November 25th.

To make an appointment to donate visit bloodbattle.org and click "Donate" or visit the American Red Cross’s website, www.redcrossblood.org and insert the sponsor code "goblue." Due to COVID-19, appointments are highly recommended and walk-ins will only be permitted as space permits. All presenting donors will receive a Blood Battle t-shirt and coupon for Washtenaw Dairy while supplies last. Donors will also be entered into a raffle for gift cards to local businesses and other great prizes!

The Michigan Medicine deadline to get your flu vaccine is Dec. 1, 2020! Currently, 59% of OBGYN faculty and staff have received their flu shots.

Vaccines are available at free flu clinics and Occupational Health Services here at Michigan Medicine.

If you receive your vaccination outside of Michigan Medicine, please send proof of vaccination directly to OHS. Please include your name and UMID in your e-mail. Ashley Kirk will provide a sticker for your ID badge!