Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy present ongoing challenges in how they are recognized, diagnosed, and managed. Through a rotating focus on specific disease areas, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s (MLSC) Women’s Health Initiative is supporting research on Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension to address these challenges and improve care for pregnant and postpartum patients. These efforts build upon the MLSC’s leadership in Women’s Health with more than $29 million in investments across 21+ Massachusetts institutions.
As part of a recent announcement of Women’s Health Initiative awards, the MLSC supported the Massachusetts Preeclampsia Research & Equity Consortium (MAPREC), a collaboration bringing together leading researchers and clinicians from six institutions located throughout the Commonwealth. MAPREC is connecting four distinct, but complementary projects led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Tufts University, Boston Medical Center (BMC), the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst, and UMass Chan Medical School.
MAPREC provides a structured platform for cross-site learning, model validation, and coordinated progress toward solutions for preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder which affects an estimated 3% to 8% of women who give birth worldwide. By connecting research projects that take different approaches to understanding the condition, MAPREC aims to generate a multi-dimensional picture of how preeclampsia is experienced, recognized, and diagnosed, while creating opportunities for findings from each project to inform the development and testing of future interventions.
Several MAPREC projects are leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the prediction, identification, and management of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy across diverse clinical settings. One team, led by Mark Clapp, MD, of MGH, Taylor Freret, MD, of BIDMC, and Mohan Thanikachalam, MD, of Tufts University, is developing and validating an AI model using electronic health record data from more than 180,000 births to predict severe postpartum hypertension before patients leave the hospital. Complementing this work, BMC investigator, Sheree Boulet, DrPH, is using data from 15,000 pregnancies to develop machine learning models that could support the identification of early- and late-onset preeclampsia.
Other projects are examining how a broader picture of each patient’s experience can support more equitable care moving forward. At UMass Chan Medical School, Feifan Liu, PhD, and Crista E Johnson-Agbakwu, MD, are developing risk prediction tools and a clinical dashboard that incorporate electronic health record data and social determinants of health. At UMass Amherst, Lucinda Canty, PhD, is analyzing qualitative interviews with Black women and nurses alongside electronic health records from 25,000 pregnancies to examine diagnostic pathways and disparities in preeclampsia. According to a report from the McKinsey Health Institute, Black women in the United States are 60% more likely to develop preeclampsia, and face a five times greater risk of death from the condition.
Together, these projects will inform the development and testing of multilevel interventions, including clinical decision-support tools, refined diagnostic criteria, and provider training strategies designed to enable earlier and more precise identification of preeclampsia. By examining the condition through both clinical data and the experiences of patients and providers, the consortium aims to develop solutions that reduce disparities and improve care for pregnant and postpartum patients across Massachusetts and beyond.
By bringing together complementary expertise and research approaches from across the Commonwealth, MAPREC represents a coordinated effort to address complex challenges in preeclampsia care. As the Consortium’s research progresses, its findings will help build a more comprehensive understanding of the condition and inform new approaches to identifying and caring for patients experiencing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
Click here to learn more about the MLSC’s Women’s Health Initiative.
