Igbinosa Appointed as 2022 NIH/NICHD Women's Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Scholar

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is a proud host for the Women’s Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) program. Funded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Stanford is one of 15 program sites nationally that offers this program to up-and-coming physician-scientists. Through the WRHR program, the selected junior faculty scholar works to increase their basic, translational, and/or clinical research capacity through training, education, and mentorship. The program provides 2-3 years of support for career development for outstanding junior clinician-scientists.

This year, we are proud to announce that Dr. Irogue Igbinosa has been awarded the WRHR scholarship. Igbinosa graduated from University of Houston, earned her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, and completed her residency at Louisiana State University School of Medicine Baton Rouge. After residency, Igbinosa was an AAMC-CDC Public Health Policy Fellow able to serve in the CDC Emergency Operations Center and was a member of U.S. Zika Pregnancy and Birth Defects Taskforce dedicated to research and resources for health care providers regarding the treatment of pregnant women and infants. Subsequently, she worked in private practice in Oakland, California, and ultimately decided to pursue training and research in maternal-fetal medicine.

For the past 4 years, Igbinosa has served as a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow here at Stanford Ob/Gyn and we are excited to have her continue with us. During her fellowship, her research interests included maternal morbidity and mortality, health disparities, anemia, and infectious diseases in pregnancy. Igbinosa has published a variety of peer-reviewed articles and was a recipient of the 2020 Maternal & Child Health Research Institute Clinical Trainee Grant for her study “Pilot Trial for the Prevention of Anemia in Pregnancy.”

Dr. Paul Blumenthal, recruitment officer for our WRHR program shared, “We are delighted that Irogue will join us as our WRHR Scholar this year. The field of candidates gets more competitive every year, and her proposal and overall plan stood out due to the timely, clinically impactful line of investigation, the likelihood of potential future follow-up studies, and the possibility of effecting practice change. I look forward to her emergence as a prominent clinician-scientist in our field.”

As a WRHR Scholar, Igbinosa will pursue a multi-faceted approach to narrowing the gaps in anemia-related health disparities. Antepartum anemia in pregnancy is a global public health issue and contributes to postpartum hemorrhage, blood transfusion rates, and severe maternal morbidity. In partnership with community-based organizations, she plans to conduct qualitative assessments with historically marginalized groups of pregnant people to understand patient perspectives and experiences regarding the role of nutrition and anemia in pregnancy. She will also conduct clinical trials comparing treatment options for iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy.

Moreover, Igbinosa is currently and will continue to be involved with several quality improvement initiatives at hospital and statewide levels to improve the screening, detection, and treatment of iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy. Overall, her goal is to provide more evidence-based data to help patients and their respective clinicians provide optimal care for anemia in pregnancy.

"I look forward to building upon the foundation of my research established during my Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship. I am thankful for the multidisciplinary mentorship and Stanford's commitment to training clinician-scientists with a commitment to reproductive health,” says Igbinosa.

The WRHR at Stanford Program bridges clinical care with excellence in basic, clinical and translational research to address the national shortage of qualified investigators in this discipline. The program includes a structured training plan of sufficient duration to achieve independence; individualized didactic education based on skills, competencies, and needs; extensive team-based mentoring; hands-on research; and protected time with immersion in a vibrant research community. Learn more about the program here.