Further, previous studies have shown traditional medically oriented prenatal care has minimal impact on improving pregnancy outcomes. The new project will look at whether more comprehensive and coordinated prenatal care strategies may improve pregnancy outcomes.
U-M researchers will tackle the issue of racial disparities from three perspectives: leaders, health care providers and patients.
Researchers have not typically looked at how the perspectives or principles of leaders at hospitals, government agencies and prenatal clinics can influence health care disparities. Government and private organizations have provided money to fund prenatal programs, but these have made little difference in the overall problem. In this new study, an interdisciplinary group of U-M researchers, led by Lynn Wooten, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the U-M Stephen M. Ross School of Business, will look at how leadership affects access to and improvements in prenatal care, as well as the leader's role in managing the racial gap in birth outcomes.
Providers, including obstetricians, nurses, midwives and social workers, come into contact with pregnant patients regularly. Are these providers injecting personal bias or stereotypes onto their patients that ultimately affect care?
Are their interactions with patients impacting whether the patient accepts the treatment recommendations? A project led by Ransom will evaluate and make recommendations on how providers can improve care and interact with all races and ethnicities. The team will evaluate possible augmented prenatal care strategies that coordinate traditional prenatal care with education, social services, technol
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Contact: Nicole Fawcett
nfawcett@umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan Health System
8-Oct-2004