Evidence-based medicine for maternal health care
The importance of good maternal health is increasingly evident, particularly for ensuring healthy progeny. To obtain evidence-based medicine (EBM), standardised state-of-the-art methodology for systematic reviews is required. For a global perspective, it is necessary to improve research skills throughout the EU and the developing world and to facilitate multinational collaborations. The EBM CONNECT (Evidence-based medicine collaboration network for guideline development, teaching and dissemination) project was initiated to promote EBM through such collaborations as well as knowledge transfer. Researchers focused on standardising and advancing research methodology, improving maternal health guidelines, incorporating non-English evidence, consensus development and statistical techniques. Researched areas include predicting conditions like pre-eclampsia and nutritional manipulation for better maternal health. In particular, researchers captured relevant data from Chinese and Spanish literature. The EBM CONNECT initiative was highly successful as all objectives were met and milestones achieved. Research activities have resulted in 15 peer-reviewed publications, an international presentation and 20 EBM workshops involving all partner institutions. A key aspect of this project was staff secondments at all seven partnering institutions to facilitate knowledge transfer and improve research skills. This endeavour was a huge success as all partner institutions undertook around 52 secondment months. Project activities have improved our understanding of factors affecting maternal health and contributed towards EBM for maternal health care. Moreover, EBM CONNECT has collaborated on a national and global level with policymaking groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). Such collaborations are expected to continue even beyond the end of this project and would help to further improve guidelines for maternal health care.
Keywords
Maternal health care, evidence-based medicine, research skills, multinational collaboration, health guidelines
