$5M awarded for PMOS will improve pregnancy care for women with the condition
Credit: Aflo Images from アフロ（Aflo）
The Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI) has been awarded $5M from the Medical Research Future Funds (MRFF) to transform pregnancy care for women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), who are currently missing out on the care they need.
The Holistic Antenatal Pathways and Empowerment Pregnancy (HOPE) PMOS Pregnancy Program will help ensure that the 13 percent of reproductive-aged Australian women with PMOS no longer fall through antenatal care gaps, with the condition currently recognised in only 2-4 percent of pregnancies or in one in five that have the condition.
Women with PMOS are at a significantly higher risk of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and preterm birth. Preventive interventions for high-risk pregnancies are applied effectively in the general population, but current antenatal care fails to identify women with PMOS, putting mothers with PMOS at even higher risk.
“This transformative research addresses a critical public health issue, and will significantly improve the detection rate of PMOS in antenatal care which will reduce pregnancy complications and adverse outcomes for mothers and babies”, said MRFF grant Chief Investigators and Co-Leads, Professor Helena Teede and Dr Jillian Tay.
The HOPE-PMOS research team, including MCHRI PMOS researchers Dr Mahanz Bahri-Khomami and A/Prof Anju Joham, will build a comprehensive PMOS Care Pregnancy Model, co-designed with women and health professionals, to improve PMOS identification and explore preventive interventions, such as medications and lifestyle factors. They will integrate an unprecedented data asset of over 2 million pregnancies to determine the risk of pregnancy complications.
“We will be trialling the model across maternity hospital sites, and expect this model will improve identification, experience and outcomes for over 40,000 PMOS-affected pregnant women across Australia annually, “ said Professor Helena Teede, Director of MCHRI and an Endocrinologist at Monash Health, which has the largest public health PMOS clinic in Australia.
The model will integrate with Monash University’s National Maternity Learning Health System, enabling scale-up across Australian maternity services. The team also includes MCHRI experts, Prof Lisa Moran, A/Prof Aya Mousa, A/Prof Cheryce Harrison, A/Prof Joanne Enticott, A/Prof Sandy Reeder, Prof Emily Callander and Lorna Berry.
“The development of the 2023 International Guideline exposed critical gaps in preventing pregnancy complications in PMOS, and it was this evidence gap that inspired the development of our new model of care. Our aim is for women with PMOS to be identified early for potential complications, and to feel informed and supported throughout their pregnancy”, said Dr Jillian Tay, HOPE-PMOS Co-Lead, Senior Research Fellow at MCHRI and an Endocrinologist at Monash Health.
Prof Teede led the global process to rename PCOS to PMOS, a new name which now reflects the broad range of health impacts of the condition. It is the most common endocrine or hormonal condition in reproductive-aged women.
The AskPMOS App has 148K+ users in 195 countries and provides comprehensive, high-quality PMOS information and support tools that are based on the latest evidence. www.askpmos.org