(Press-News.org) September 8, 2023 — As part of its active efforts to dismantle systemic racism and promote principles of equity and inclusion within its editorial processes and content, Obstetrics & Gynecology, the official journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, has devoted its entire October 2023 issue to addressing racism in reproductive health. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
A journal with such a rich history must root out inequity
"Let us be honest in admitting that the pages we have published in nearly 70 years have not always been a safe space for historically marginalized people, with serious implications," urges Ebony B. Carter, MD, MPH, the journal's Associate Editor for Equity, in an introductory editorial. "This includes impeding scientific progress in achieving reproductive health equity, limiting the careers of colleagues from historically marginalized communities, and advancing narratives that portend that mothers and pregnancy-capable people are culpable in their adverse outcomes."
Dr. Carter specializes in maternal–fetal medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She notes that "racism is woven into the fabric of every aspect of American society through intersectional systems of oppression," with medicine and academic publishing being no exception. "I have encountered multiple obstetrics and gynecology colleagues vehemently denying this fact, but to do so is to embrace the notion that disparate health outcomes for historically marginalized people in this country are a foregone conclusion."
A diversity of expertise and thought guided the development of the special issue
A transdisciplinary Steering Committee set aspirational goals for the special issue and held a live webinar to introduce them to readers and potential authors. It also created an Equity Rubric, published in the issue, to guide writing and peer review, and expanded the reviewer pool to include faculty who have the expertise to review scientific articles about health equity, now and in the future. Of 120 submissions, 27 were included. A sampling of topics:
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Antepartum Anemia and Severe Maternal Morbidity
Multilevel Community Engagement to Inform a Randomized Clinical Trial
Chronic Hypertension in Pregnancy and Racial–Ethnic Disparities in Complications
Obstetric Clinical Trial Diversity: Analysis of Trial Focus and Representation From 2007 to 2020
Historical Primer on Obstetrics and Gynecology Health Inequities in America
Strategies to Promote Maternal Health Equity: The Role of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives
Racial Disparities in the Infertility Journey
Why Causation Matters: Rethinking "Race" as a Risk Factor
Reproductive Justice in the U.S. Immigration Detention System
Transcending Language Barriers in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Structural Racism and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Through the Lens of Maternal Microbiome
The Power of Language in Hospital Care for Pregnant and Birthing People
Data Equity for Asian and Pacific Islander People in Reproductive Health Research
Bridging Health Disparities and Improving Reproductive Outcomes With Doula Programs
The Future of Research on Racism in Reproductive Health
The entire issue is open access. Dr. Carter expresses the hope that it will "serve as a primer for some, and a reference document for others, as we work to equip our field with the necessary tools to address and mitigate the effect of racism on obstetrics and gynecology."
[Read the Early Release of Special Issue Articles: Racism in Reproductive Health, Lighting a Path to Health Equity]
Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students in effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. We support clinical effectiveness, learning and research, clinical surveillance and compliance, as well as data solutions. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.
###
About Obstetrics & Gynecology
Obstetrics & Gynecology, the official journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), is a valuable resource for any physician specializing in women's health. This peer-reviewed journal is the most prestigious in its field. Each monthly issue provides readers with premier clinical research on current developments in obstetrics, gynecology, and women's total health care. The journal regularly features ACOG practice guidelines, editorials, current commentaries, and reviews, as well as periodic supplements.
About the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is the premier professional membership organization for obstetrician–gynecologists. The College produces practice guidelines for health care professionals and educational materials for patients, provides practice management and career support, facilitates programs and initiatives to improve women's health, and advocates for members and patients. It has more than 60,000 members in North and South America.
About Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare, tax and accounting, financial and corporate compliance, legal and regulatory, and corporate performance and ESG sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.
Wolters Kluwer reported 2022 annual revenues of €5.5 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 20,900 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.
END
Obstetrics & Gynecology devotes special issue to addressing racism in reproductive health
Input came from doulas, lawyers, midwives, nurses, obstetrician–gynecologists and subspecialists, patients, public health experts, and sociologists
2023-09-08
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Valleytronics is warming up at Brookhaven Lab
2023-09-08
UPTON, NY—Researchers at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Northrop Grumman, a multinational aerospace and defense technology company, have found a way to maintain valley polarization at room temperature using novel materials and techniques. This discovery could lead to devices that store and process information in novel ways using this technology without the need to keep them at ultra-low temperatures. Their ...
Refining biome labeling for microbial community samples: AI approach unravels hidden
2023-09-08
In a groundbreaking study published on July 26, 2023, in the journal Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology have introduced "Meta-Sorter," an AI-based method that leverages neural networks and transfer learning to significantly improve biome labeling for thousands of microbiome samples in the MGnify database, especially those with incomplete information. The Meta-Sorter approach comprises two crucial steps. Firstly, a neural network model is meticulously constructed using 118,592 microbial samples from 134 biomes and their respective biome ontology, boasting an impressive average ...
Exercise-induced hormone irisin may reduce Alzheimer’s disease plaque and tangle pathology in the brain
2023-09-08
BOSTON – Researchers who previously developed the first 3D human cell culture models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that displays two major hallmarks of the condition—the generation of amyloid beta deposits followed by tau tangles—have now used their model to investigate whether the exercise-induced muscle hormone irisin affects amyloid beta pathology.
As reported in the journal Neuron, the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)–led team has uncovered promising results suggesting that irisin-based ...
Immunogenicity and reactogenicity of co-administration of COVID-19 and influenza vaccines
2023-09-08
About The Study: In this study of health care workers who received a COVID-19 vaccine, an influenza vaccine, or both, co-administration was not associated with substantially inferior immune response or to more frequent adverse events compared with COVID-19 vaccine administration alone, supporting the co-administration of these vaccines.
Authors: Gili Regev-Yochay, M.D., of the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.32813)
Editor’s ...
Readmission rates after acute respiratory distress syndrome in children
2023-09-08
About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that childhood survivors of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are at high risk of readmission in the first two months after discharge. Future studies should evaluate whether post-discharge interventions (e.g., telephonic contact, follow-up clinics, and home health care) may help reduce the readmission burden.
Authors: Garrett Keim, M.D., of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.30774)
Editor’s ...
Ballet of the brain: Unlocking the choreography of movement
2023-09-08
The zebrafish brain, though simpler than its human counterpart, is a complex network of neurons that engage in a ceaseless dance of electrical activity. What if this neural ballet could reveal the secrets of how brains, including our own, control movement? A zebrafish study led by researchers at the Champalimaud Foundation offers a new lens through which to view the activity of neural populations, and to understand how the brain orchestrates motion.
Why we have a brain
“The brain’s primary function is movement”, explains Claudia Feierstein, lead author of the study ...
Bacteria generate electricity from wastewater
2023-09-08
“We engineered E. coli bacteria, the most widely studied microbe, to generate electricity,” says Professor Ardemis Boghossian at EPFL. “Though there are exotic microbes that naturally produce electricity, they can only do so in the presence of specific chemicals. E. coli can grow on a wide range of sources, which allowed us to produce electricity in a wide range of environments, including from waste water.”
In a paper published in the journal Joule, Boghossian’s team report a groundbreaking achievement in bioelectronics, advancing the capabilities of common E. coli bacteria to generate ...
Probing the unimaginable: New data help to understand the nature of aphantasia
2023-09-08
The ability to visualize faces, objects, landscapes, or even scenes from the past exists on a spectrum. While some can picture the layout of a city in minute detail and mentally walk through it, street by street, others have a perfectly blank internal cinema. In this case, we speak of aphantasia—the inability to voluntarily produce the visual mental image corresponding to an idea.
People whose aphantasia is congenital—i.e., not due to a stroke, brain injury, or psychiatric illness—become aware of their peculiarity reasonably ...
Artificial Intelligence: a step change in climate modelling predictions for climate adaptation
2023-09-08
As of today, climate models face the challenge of providing the high-resolution predictions - with quantified uncertainties - needed by a growing number of adaptation planners, from local decision-makers to the private sector, who require detailed assessments of the climate risks they may face locally.
This calls for a step change in the accuracy and usability of climate predictions that, according to the authors of the paper “Harnessing AI and computing to advance climate modelling and prediction”, can ...
Study hints at the existence of the closest black holes to Earth in the Hyades star cluster
2023-09-08
A paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society hints at the existence of several black holes in the Hyades cluster — the closest open cluster to our solar system — which would make them the closest black holes to Earth ever detected. The study results from a collaboration between a group of scientists led by Stefano Torniamenti, from the University of Padua (Italy), with the significant participation of with Mark Gieles, ICREA professor at the Faculty of Physics, the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Corpse flowers are threatened by spotty recordkeeping
Riding the AI wave toward rapid, precise ocean simulations
Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?
Pink skies
Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research
Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered
% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?
An app can change how you see yourself at work
NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals
New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China
Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds
Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea
New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea
Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes
Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others
Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke
Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition
Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life
Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy
Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming
Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly
Alcohol makes male flies sexy
TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income
Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression
Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring
Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs
AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders
First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes
Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows
Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission
[Press-News.org] Obstetrics & Gynecology devotes special issue to addressing racism in reproductive healthInput came from doulas, lawyers, midwives, nurses, obstetrician–gynecologists and subspecialists, patients, public health experts, and sociologists