Caitlin Knox, a doctoral student in the Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, has been awarded a one year Dissertation Award from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ). This award entitled Pre-existing Diabetes and Pregnancy will support Caitlin’s stipend and dissertation research in her final year of her doctoral program.
The mission of the AHRQ is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. As a part of this mission, the AHRQ hosts a dissertation research grant program, which provides a one year award to full-time predoctoral students enrolled in accredited research doctoral programs in the US, Puerto Rico, and and other US Territories.
Knox’s study seeks to evaluate the comparative safety of the three most commonly utilized oral anti-diabetic drug classes in pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes in the scope of obstetric outcomes. Understanding the role anti-diabetic agents’ play in both maternal and infant pregnancy outcomes in light of the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus will permit for more successful treatment regimens for these women, ultimately resulting in more efficient use of health care resources and healthier mothers and infants.