The Mirvie team is back from attending the largest meeting of pregnancy health leaders of the year, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), which took place in San Francisco at the beginning of February. Such an energizing meeting to reconnect in person after 3 years!
With specialists in the field from all over the country and worldwide, the conference was well attended, and reports during the week indicated that it was one of the largest SMFM conferences in several years! The energy and enthusiasm for being back in person and seeing long-lost friends and colleagues was palpable.
Over the course of the week, we had the opportunity to speak with many experts about preeclampsia, hypertension in pregnancy, and the lifelong impact of these pregnancy complications across the lifespan. We were privileged to attend the Preeclampsia Foundation’s Thought Leaders Symposium early in the week, which brought together experts in the field to discuss the future of preeclampsia prediction and prevention.
High blood pressure in pregnancy was also top of mind for the general conference. In the last year, the field of obstetrics has already undergone a major change, as we now know that keeping blood pressure lower than guidelines previously suggested can decrease the risk of preeclampsia for moms who have high blood pressure outside of pregnancy (chronic hypertension).1 We’re looking forward to seeing what’s next in this area of study, and it’s very exciting to see meaningful positive change towards prevention of preeclampsia for those with chronic hypertension while we continue to work toward prediction and prevention opportunities for all pregnant people!
In addition, our Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Michal Elovitz, also led a session on the path to preserve research in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and shared her personal experiences over her long and successful career as a women’s health researcher. It was inspiring to see Dr. Elovitz and other leaders in the field giving back to the next generation of physician-scientists and sharing their career highs, challenges, and strategies for success.
We then wrapped up the week by inviting our advisors and study investigators to join us for a cocktail hour. After a busy week at our booth raising over $1800 for the Preeclampsia Foundation, we were ready to relax and unwind! We are so appreciative of our many collaborators who took time from their busy week to drop by, say hello, and toast to a successful and inspiring week at SMFM. Cheers to continued progress over the rest of 2023 and beyond! We can’t wait to see what the future holds.
