Inaugural Lecture: Professors Laura Magee & Peter von Dadelszen

You can register for this Inaugural Lecture on Eventbrite.

Join us to celebrate a special milestone for our new professors and hear about their inspiring career journeys. Doors for this event will open on 16:30 (BST), with the lectures to commence at 16:50. A drinks reception will be held after the lecture.

Professor Laura Magee

Optimising the use of oral antihypertensives in pregnancy

Abstract

Uncertainty about blood pressure control in pregnancy has been long-standing. Is prevention of severe hypertension an outcome worthy of avoidance, or one to be identified promptly and treated? Do antihypertensives increase the risk of fetal growth restriction and associated complications, as has been long-feared? Addressing these questions has been the focus of my academic work, capitalising on various research designs. This journey began with self-designed obstetric medicine training (in Canada and the UK), a network of colleagues assembled along the way, the realisation of a definitive international randomised trial, and now replication of its findings and implementation in clinical practice, here and abroad. Outstanding questions include which drug(s) to use alone or in combination, and how to capitalise on other aspects of blood pressure measurement beyond level to improve outcomes.

Biography

Laura Magee is a general obstetric internist (Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, Royal College of Canada); Fellow ad eundem, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), UK; former Chair, Maternal Medicine Clinical Study Group of the RCOG; and immediate Past-President, International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy. In 2017 she joined King’s College London as Professor of Women’s Health, following academic consultant posts at St. George’s, University of London, UK (2015-2017), and the Universities of British Columbia (2000-2015) and Toronto (1996-2000), both in Canada. Laura’s research is focused on pregnancy hypertension, particularly antihypertensive therapy.

Professor Peter von Dadelszen

Assessing maternal risks in women with pre-eclampsia

Abstract

The most dangerous form of pregnancy hypertension, pre-eclampsia, complicates 2-3% of pregnancies and is a leading direct obstetric cause of maternal death. Arising from an imbalance between maternal supply to the placenta and fetoplacental demands, the maternal syndrome of pre-eclampsia involves a systemic innate inflammatory response. When pre-eclampsia complicates a woman’s pregnancy, assessing her condition through the lens of inflammation affords an ability to estimate objectively her individual risks of adverse maternal events – initially using the multivariable logistic regression-based PIERS (Pre-eclampsia Integrated Estimate of RiSk) models: fullPIERS (well-resourced settings) and miniPIERS (low- and middle-income country settings). When implemented per protocol, a community-deployed miniPIERS-based app was associated with improved maternal and perinatal survival in India, Mozambique, and Pakistan. Recently, we have developed and validated a machine learning-based model, PIERS-AI.

Biography

Peter von Dadelszen is a Professor of Global Women’s Health at King’s College London. A New Zealander (and now Canadian), Peter is married to Laura Magee, Professor of Women’s Health at King's, with whom he leads a pregnancy hypertension research group. With Laura, Peter was co-recipient of the 2014 International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy Chesley Award. Currently, they focus on pregnancy hypertension, fetal growth and stillbirth, from basic science to clinical epidemiology and health services research to global health, primarily through the PRE-EMPT, PRECISE, and PRECISE-DYAD initiatives funded by the Gates Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, and the Wellcome Trust, respectively. He has published over 400 papers and has an h-index of 65.