Medical Board
Medical Board
Ask the Expert

 

Dr. Thomas R. Easterling
Dr. Easterling received his MD from University of North Carolina Medical School. He is a national expert in the field of hypertension in pregnancy. A professor at the University of Washington Medical School joining the staff in 1985, Dr. Easterling has received numerous awards including: the Young Investigator's Award of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy, the Society Award for the Society of Perinatal Obstetricians for research on the hemodynamics of preeclampsia, and was honored by the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology for conducting one of the four most significant studies of 1999 regarding early antihypertensive treatment to prevent preeclampsia. He and his team at the University of Washington are members of the NIH-sponsored Obstetrical Pharmacological Research Unit network investigating the use of medications in pregnancy. Dr. Easterling continues an active clinical and research practice at the University of Washington and is a co-founder of the Preeclampsia Foundation.
 
Back to top
 
Dr. Phyllis August
Since 1996, Dr. August has been the Chief of the Division of Hypertension, Cardiovascular Center and a professor of medicine at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College. A 1977 graduate of the Yale Medical School, she did her residency in internal medicine and her fellowship in nephrology and hypertension at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. She is also a practicing physician who brings much clinical evidence to her study of hypertension in pregnancy.
 
Back to top
 
Dr. Peter von Dadelszen
Peter von Dadelszen, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Maternal-Fetal Medicine) at the University of British Columbia and a consulting perinatologist at Children's and Women’s Health Centre of British Columbia (CWHCBC)

A New Zealander, Dr. von Dadelszen studied medicine at the University of Otago, Dunedin, where he also did his postgraduate work. He continued his specialty training in the United Kingdom, studying under Professor Chris Redman at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and later in Toronto where he completed his fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine.

His appointment at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is that of a clinician-scientist, with 60% of his time dedicated to his research interests in preeclampsia and pregnancy hypertension, from basic science to clinical epidemiology. He is currently investigating the mechanisms involved in the development of preeclampsia, as well as a possible disease-modifying therapy.

Dr. von Dadelszen is currently the President of the North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy (NASSHP) and the President of ERIPED (Equipede Recherché Interdisciplinaire sur la Pre-Eclamspie et ses Determinants), Canada’s preeclampsia research alliance.

Peter is married to Laura Magee, an obstetric and general internist at UBC and CWHCBC. They share the leadership of the pregnancy hypertension research group at CWHCBC.
 
Back to top
 
Dr. Ananth Karumanchi
S. Ananth Karumanchi is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Nephrology and Molecular and Vascular Medicine Divisions at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He holds a second appointment as a Senior Scientist with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He received his M.D. from the University of Madras, Chennai, India. He is a recipient of the Carl W. Gottschalk Research Scholar Award from the American Society of Nephrology, the Hope Award from the Preeclampsia Foundation, the Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Hypertension, and recently (October, 2007) named a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator.
 
Back to top
 
Dr. Marshall Lindheimer
Dr Lindheimer, a board certified internist and nephrologist, is a Professor emeritus in the departments of medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago, where he currently chairs the advisory board of its NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center. His clinical interests focus on the management of pregnant women with kidney disease and hypertension, while his research career has stressed renal physiology, volume homeostasis, and blood pressure control in normal and abnormal pregnancy. He is also a consultant to the World Health Organization participating in their Global Program to Conquer Preeclampsia, and advising them in the areas of clinical trials and the implementation of best care policies in developing nations.  Dr Lindheimer is one of the founders of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy, and has served both as its secretary-treasurer and president. His 350 plus publications include seminal basic science observations, clinical studies, numerous text chapters and author- or editorship of seven texts, including the most recent editions of Chesley's Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy, and Barron & Lindheimer's Medical Disorders During Pregnancy. Dr Lindheimer is a recipient of the Chesley Award for Research in Hypertension in Pregnancy.
 
Back to top
 
Dr. James N. Martin, Jr.
Dr. Martin is a professor of OBGYN, Director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and Chief of Obstetrics for the Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. His clinical expertise lies in the management of complicated pregnancies, particularly related to hypertensive disorders. Dr. Martin is the author of more than 400 scientific communications, many which address issues related to preeclampsia-eclampsia and atypical forms of this disease such as HELLP syndrome. He is one of the founders and a past president of The North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy, is past president of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and is Secretary of ACOG National. His research in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy began during his residency training at the University of North Carolina Hospitals and continued while completing a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at Texas Southwestern/Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas.

Back to top

Dr. Suzanne Oparil
Suzanne Oparil, MD, is Professor of Medicine and of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, where she is also Director of the Vascular Biology and Hypertension Program.

Dr Oparil received her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, New York, where she was first in her class. She completed her residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and a fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

She is the current President of the American Society of Hypertension, a past-President of the American Heart Association (and still an active volunteer at both the national and affiliate levels), and the first woman past-President of the American Federation for Medical Research. She also has leadership roles in the Association of American Physicians, American Society for Clinical Investigation, Southern Society for Clinical Investigation, American Physiological Society, Clinical Physiology Advisory Committee, and Inter-American Society of Hypertension.

Dr Oparil has a career interest in the fundamental mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and in using the information to develop novel treatments. Just one example is her research that led to the development of the ACE inhibitors, the most commonly used class of drugs for the treatment of high blood pressure and heart failure.

Dr Oparil is author and coauthor of more than 1,000 abstracts, book chapters, and journal articles in Circulation, New England Journal of Medicine, and American Journal of Hypertension, among others.
 
Back to top
 
Dr.B. Denise Raynor
Dr Raynor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Emory School of Medicine. She also has an associate position in the Department of Psychology at Emory University. Now on leave of absence, she is studying for an MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Raynor received her MD from Vanderbilt University and completed her residency at Thomas Jefferson University. After general ob/gyn practice in rural North Carolina, she completed her Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowship at the University of Florida and then joined the faculty at Emory in 1994. Dr Raynor has been the Residency Program Director, Director of the Ultrasound Division, and the Perinatal Center at Grady Memorial Hospital. For Dr Raynor, her role as an educator has been important and she continues to mentor numerous residents and fellows, both past and present. Her research has included both basic and clinical studies in preeclampsia as well as fetal behavior, prenatal diagnosis, and pregnancy subsequent to cesarean with numerous publications. Dr Raynor is currently serving as the President of the North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy (NASSHP).
 
Back to top
 
Dr. John T. Repke
Dr. Repke is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Penn State College of Medicine - Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He is a nationally recognized expert in Maternal-Fetal medicine and is listed in "Best Doctors in America". His expertise is in the study of prevention and management of hypertension in pregnancy and preeclampsia. In addition to editing a textbook on Obstetrics, Dr. Repke has published over 135 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and over 50 review articles and book chapters. He is a Past-President of the North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy. A 1974 graduate of Georgetown University, Dr. Repke obtained his medical degree in 1978 From New York Medical College. His internship, residency, fellowship and other professional positions have taken him to Johns Hopkins Hospital (1978-1992), Harvard Medical School-Brigham and Women's Hospital (1992-1998), the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he chaired the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1998-2002, and to Penn State, where he has chaired the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology since 2002.
 
Back to top
 
Dr. James M. Roberts
Dr. Roberts is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Director of Magee-Womens Research Institute. Dr. Roberts has received national and international recognition for his work on preeclampsia. He was the recipient of the Chesley Award for lifetime achievement in the study of hypertension in pregnancy, is the author of more than 160 publications and is a reviewer for numerous medical and scientific journals. Other honors include election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy Sciences, the Alexander Award from the NICHD for career mentoring and being appointed an ad eundum member of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has served on scientific review boards of the National Institutes of Health, the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Food and Drug Administration and the March of Dimes. He has held posts with the NICHD Maternal Fetal Medicine Network, the Canadian Institute of Health Sciences Research, the Perinatal Research Society, the North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy, the Society of Gynecological Investigation and the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy.

Back to top
 
Dr. Baha M. Sibai
Dr. Sibai is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.  His academic leadership and contributions to research, in the dissection of the hypertensive diseases of pregnancy and other basic problems associated with obstetrics and gynecology, has awarded him national and international recognition in the field of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, particularly in the area of hypertension in pregnancy.  His contributions have organized the treatment plans of many physicians. Dr. Sibai’s international notoriety in preeclampsia and eclampsia evolved as a result of his authorship or co-authorship of over 350 peer-reviewed publications in national and internationally circulated publications.

Back to top

Dr. Roberto Romero
Roberto Romero, M.D. is Chief of the Perinatology Research Branch and Program Director for Obstetrics and Perinatology in the Division of Intramural Research of NICHD/NIH and Professor of Molecular Obstetrics and Genetics at Wayne State University.
Dr. Romero trained at Yale University in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the sub-specialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Subsequently, he joined the faculty and became the Director of Perinatal Research. In 1992, he became Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wayne State University and Chief of the Perinatology Research Branch at NICHD/NIH.
Dr. Romero is widely regarded as one of the most prominent intellectual leaders in modern obstetrics. Over the last 25 years, his work has focused on the early diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy, the prenatal diagnosis of congenital anomalies and the study of the mechanisms of disease responsible for pregnancy complications and fetal injury with a special emphasis in preterm labor. Dr. Romero’s work has changed the practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology worldwide.
An author of over 600 peer reviewed publications and several books, including a medical best seller (Prenatal Diagnosis of Congenital Anomalies), Dr. Romero is the recipient of countless awards and recognitions by his peers, including the President’s Achievement Award from the Society for Gynecologic Investigation, Research Excellence Awards from the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, The Erich Saling Award from the World Association of Perinatal Medicine, The Ian Donald Gold Medal for contributions to Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is also the recipient of six Doctorate Honoris Causa from universities all over the world, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Dr. Romero’s work in premature labor has focused on the role of infection and inflammation in spontaneous preterm labor and delivery. His research team described the involvement of cytokines and chemokines in the initiation of human labor and the fetal inflammatory response syndrome, as well as the preterm parturition syndrome. The Perinatology Research Branch uses high-dimensional biology to understand the mechanisms of disease in preterm parturition and fetal injury of the preterm neonate. .

Back to top