It’s not hard for cardiologist Anna Grodzinsky to connect with patients when it comes to cases of high-risk pregnancy: She’s been there herself.
“The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industrialized, wealthy nation,” says Grodzinsky, who was diagnosed with Type I diabetes as a child and bore the risk through her own pregnancies. “Cardiovascular conditions are the leading cause of maternal mortality in our country.”
Her passion for providing care in those cases prompted her involvement in a study of more than 1,000 patients at 36 hospitals nationwide, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Focusing on efforts to standardize optimal care patterns for patients with cardiovascular conditions during pregnancy, Grodzinsky says the research and development of the Heart Outcomes in Pregnancy: Expectations (HOPE) for Mom and Baby Study was “one of the most meaningful experiences of my career has been collaborating with my research colleagues. I am very hopeful,” she says, that the study’s results “will meaningfully help improve maternal outcomes in our country.”
Her road to medicine started even before her own condition was known. “I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was a toddler,” she says, but not very long after that, “I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in elementary school, and as I became older, cardiovascular disease prevention became a focus of my career.”
Read the full Ingram's profile on Dr. Grodzinsky.
