Grant: Foundation Grant

This program will be led by Dr. Shi Wu Wen, epidemiologist, senior scientist of Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), and Professor University of Ottawa Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Dr. Mark Walker, Obstetrician, Professor and Chair University of Ottawa Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, senior scientist OHRI, and Scientific Director of BORN (Better Outcomes Registry & Network) Ontario. We both have spent our careers conducting research in Perinatal Epidemiology to improve the short- and long-term health of mothers and their children nationally and globally. Our team is highly synergistic with Dr. Wen in public health, study design, and research methodology, and Dr. Walker in clinical science, study implementation, and knowledge translation. In 2001, we created the Obstetrics & Maternal Newborn Investigations Research Group and in 2009, BORN Ontario, a provincial perinatal registry to collect pregnancy, birth and infant information in Ontario. We have conducted novel cohort studies and randomized control trials, and are advisors to local, provincial, national and international policy-makers. Our research has changed clinical management, health services, and public health policy. To help in our research, we have built national and international collaborations. In this program, we will conduct follow-up studies and knowledge translation activities using existing cohorts/registrations, and will design new novel observational and interventional studies. Our work is a high priority because it will improve the health of mothers and babies and positively affect the short- and long-term health of generations to come.