In Australia there is not an association that advocates specifically for obstetric anaesthesia, perioperative medicine and obstetric critical care, so overseas subspecialty meetings are important for obstetric anaesthesia research teams to highlight their work internationally.
Associate Professor Alicia Dennis, the Director of Anaesthesia Research at the Women’s, has just returned from the Obstetric Anaesthetists' Association (OAA) UK Annual Scientific Meeting in England where she gave seven different research presentations highlighting research work at the Women’s.
“This included being awarded an oral presentation spot for our cardiac magnetic resonance work, which is awarded to the top 10 scientific abstracts out of 190 submissions,” A/Prof Dennis said.
A/Prof Dennis also won first prize for Best Scientific poster (out of 180 scientific posters) for the MUMSIZE study.
The MUMSIZE study involved over 1400 women and was conducted in partnership with The University of Melbourne and six other University of Melbourne affiliated hospitals.
It investigated the associations between maternal obesity and outcomes for women undergoing caesarean birth including the time spent in the operating theatre, health economic costs of obesity, and maternal and neonatal risks of obesity.
A/Prof Dennis also attended the Society of Obstetric Anaesthesiologists and Perinatologists (SOAP) meeting in Boston where she had been invited to present talk on echocardiography in pregnant women based on the work being done at the Women's.