The Department of Ob/Gyn has a long-term dedication to alleviating reproductive health disparities through both clinical care and research programs using qualitative, quantitative and implementation science techniques. The Duke-NCCU BIRCWH program has established an innovative partnership between Duke and North Carolina Central University, a Historically Black College/University and has particular focus on investigating women’s health disparities.
Research by Sarahn Wheeler, MD, MHSc, focuses on race disparities in preterm birth and developing interventions to improve utilization of preterm birth prevention therapies. Dr. Wheeler aims to eliminate racial disparities in preterm birth, particularly among Black women. Dr. Wheeler is the director of the Duke Prematurity Prevention Program, a multidisciplinary clinical program that provides care to women at the highest risk for preterm birth. She has worked to integrate her research efforts into the clinical program, ensuring equitable access for all patients at risk for preterm birth. In her research, she has studied the impact of racial and ethnic variation in the cervical microbiome on preterm birth, understanding and eliminating barriers to accessing preterm birth preventive therapies among Black women, and identifying different employment situations as potential barriers to preterm birth prevention in Black women. Dr. Wheeler has also utilized her research funding to develop and sustain research partnerships with community-based organizations focused on maternal health, which are critical to ensuring her work addresses issues and concerns that are important to the Durham community.
Whitney Robinson, PhD, MSPH, specializes in epidemiologic methods for using “big data” to understand racial/ethnic and gender inequities in health and health care. Dr. Robinson is an Associate Professor in the Division of Women’s Community and Population Health. Her current research uses health care system data to figure out why Black women in the South are treated with hysterectomy at high rates at relatively young ages. She has found that both young Black and Latino women have particularly high burdens of bleeding and fibroid-related bulk symptoms at the time of hysterectomy and use alternative treatments like hormonal IUDs at relatively low rates. These findings have led Dr. Robinson to investigate care for abnormal uterine bleeding, the most common reason for hysterectomy, early in the disease process.
One current project is a qualitative study of patients with heavy menstrual bleeding to better understand their experiences with and desires for treatment. Other proposed work will use discrete-choice experiences and analysis of insurance claims to understand care trajectories and gaps in care for abnormal uterine bleeding. In addition, Dr. Robinson conducts research on best practices for detecting endometrial cancer, with a focus on Black women, a population with a high mortality burden and other population-based work where the life course and intersectionality are key concep
Featured publication: