Texas has a new research collaborative focused on addressing the state's high rate of pre-term births.
March of Dimes – a nonprofit advocacy and research organization focused on maternal and infant health – launched the collaboration, which includes UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and UT Medical Branch in Galveston. The Texas Collaborative marks the organization's sixth Prematurity Research Center.
"It's really a historical moment for Dallas-Fort Worth and for the state of Texas," said Clint Abernathy, March of Dimes board chair and president of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance. "We have an 11% preterm birth rate in the state of Texas and this research center is meant to find innovative ways to help correct that."
In 2023, there were over 43,000 preterm births in Texas, representing about 1 in 9 babies. Abernathy said the point of the collaboration is to address that high rate by teaming up with expertise that already exists within the state.
"Whenever you have research that focuses in on those wonderful assets in the community in our future, it's very easy to tie into the mission," he said.
Dr. Katherine Spong, chair of UT Southwestern Medical Center's OBGYN department, leads the project with another doctor in Galveston.
"We at UT Southwestern certainly do a lot of research and create evidence for practice which is very, very important to us," Sprong said. "Having the ability to leverage the March of Dimes network is going to be really important for us and a huge opportunity for our young faculty members as well as our experienced faculty members."
While there is some overlap in what each of the March of Dimes research centers bring to the table, Spong said each center has unique strength to contribute to the research network.
At UT Southwestern, researchers and investigators are dedicated to improving pregnancy outcomes and reducing preterm birth from a variety of angles, Sprong said, including basic science and population health. She said the organization worked closely with March of Dimes to identify important areas of research UT Southwestern could offer.
The Texas collaboration is expected to contribute expertise and focus on nutrition and metabolism in pregnancy. Sprong said brings its own expertise and resources, but it can also benefit from what other institutions have.
"They may already have samples that are collected in a certain way," she said. "They may already information collected in certain way that we can then leverage to be able to answer questions together."
UT Southwestern performs about 13,000 deliveries annually. The clinical service it provides at Parkland Health and Hospital system – the Dallas County public hospital – is responsible for about 150,000 prenatal visits and 10,000 deliveries annually, making it the "busiest comprehensive maternity program" in the country, according to UT Southwestern.
March of Dimes said the scale of UT Southwestern's services offers access to a "large scale validation" group for testing and researching interventions.
In addition, the collaboration is launching at a time when there are a lot of changes happening in health care and academic research that affect funding.
"It is a time when there's a lot of instability in the world," Sprong said.
She said she hopes being connected to the March of Dimes network allows researchers to find answers faster for Texas and beyond.
"The opportunities for us to collaborate with other March of Dimes centers and [Prematurity Research Centers] is just transformational," Sprong said. "We're really excited about the opportunity."
Abigail Ruhman is KERA's health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at aruhman@kera.org.
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