In recent years, the Women’s Anesthesiology Division’s research activity has focused on improving pain relief and safety for high-risk patients. In addition to their own work, members of this division collaborate on projects with fellows, residents and medical students. Click on each division faculty’s name to learn more about their work at Scholars@Duke.
Division Chief Ashraf Habib, MBBCh, MHSc, FRCA, leads the clinical research in the division, focusing on optimizing labor analgesia and improving outcomes such as pain and postoperative nausea and vomiting in both the obstetric and general surgical population. Habib is nationally and internationally recognized for his work, and has held a number of national leadership positions and authored national guidelines, including the consensus guidelines for the management of postoperative nausea and vomiting, the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) consensus statement and recommendations for enhanced recovery after cesarean, the SOAP consensus statement for monitoring recommendations for prevention and detection of respiratory depression associated with administration of neuraxial morphine for cesarean delivery analgesia, and the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine and the SOAP consensus guideline on the screening, diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea in pregnancy.
Melissa Bauer, DO, is a national leader in the field of maternal sepsis. She serves as the chair for the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health/ American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Sepsis in Obstetrical Care Patient Safety Bundle. This patient safety bundle is planned for national implementation across a network of 48 states to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality from maternal sepsis. She additionally serves as the physician lead for the Institute for Healthcare Innovation Change Package that is distributed to state perinatal quality collaboratives to provide step-by-step instructions and resources to guide operationalizing implementation and metrics. Bauer is NIH funded and has been the lead author for the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health consensus bundle on sepsis in obstetric care, and The SOAP consensus statement on neuraxial procedures in obstetric patients with thrombocytopenia.
Terrence Allen, MB BS, FRCA, is studying mechanisms involved in preterm labor such as premature rupture of membranes and optimizing management of massive obstetric hemorrhage. Allen is also a member of the North Carolina Maternal Mortality Review Committee.
Jennifer Dominguez, MD, MHS, is investigating obstructive sleep apnea in pregnant women and aims to improve identification and treatment of this condition in the parturient. She is nationally recognized as a leader in this area and is currently the chair of the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine’s Obstetrics Committee. She has recently led a multidisciplinary group of experts that generated consensus guidelines for the management of obstructive sleep apnea in pregnant women.
Mary Yurashevich, MD, is studying mechanisms involved in persistent pain following Cesarean delivery.
Marie-Louise Meng, MD, is fellowship-trained in both obstetric anesthesia and cardiothoracic anesthesia. Her research focuses on cardiovascular disease in pregnant women and preeclampsia. Meng directs a multicenter registry of obstetric patients with pulmonary hypertension and collaborates with Duke and UNC Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists, conducting research about maternal morbidity in North Carolina. She also collaborates with members of the Department of Biostatistics to develop risk prediction tools to predict cardiovascular morbidity after pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia. Meng was the chair of the writing group and lead author of the American Heart Association scientific statement regarding anesthetic care of the pregnant patient with cardiovascular disease.