Mass General Global OB/GYN

Massachusetts General Hospital Global OB/GYN addresses women’s health care needs throughout the world.

"When in distress, everyone is our neighbor" was first uttered in 1810 by Dr. Warren and Dr. Jackson in their call to found a public hospital that became Massachusetts General Hospital. While Mass General’s neighbors were initially the citizens of Boston and New England, our concept of "neighbor" has grown over the past 200 years to include everyone in distress, regardless of their home.

Our Mission

Mass General Global OB/GYN integrates three core missions to address the unmet promise of health care for all women throughout the world by:

• Providing care
• Organizing education and trainings
• Conducting research and leading innovation

We strive to ensure that our efforts are guided by the locally relevant needs of our partners and the women they serve and are guided by a professional responsibility and leadership opportunity to help address the unmet promise of health care for all women throughout the world.

Our Work

Global OB/GYN at Mass General carries out our mission by:

• Providing collaborative, safe and sustainable service to underserved groups in resource-poor settings both domestically and abroad
• Training future leaders in both the US and in the countries where we work in global and underserved women’s health through bidirectional educational experiences for both US and in-country faculty and trainees
• Enhancing knowledge about the diagnosis and management of obstetrics and gynecologic diseases unique to resource-poor settings both domestically and abroad
• Conducting innovative and locally-relevant scientific studies to widen the evidence base for the care of women in resource-poor settings both domestically and abroad

Active Research Collaborations

Bangladesh

• Implementing cervical cancer screening in urban slums (Annekathryn Goodman, MD)
• Identifying simple accurate methods to establish gestational age before and after birth (Mariam Naqvi, MD)

Botswana

• Evaluating cervical length as risk factor for preterm birth among HIV-infected women (Ingrid Liff, MD)

Ghana

• Retrospective review of trial of labour after cesarean section (Adeline Boatin, MD)

Rwanda

• Community health worker administered self sampling for cervical HPV testing – feasibility project (Thomas Randall, MD)

Uganda

• Feasibility study of wireless maternal and fetal monitoring (Adeline Boatin, MD; Jessica Haberer, MD)
• Managing delivery after cesarean section: a prospective cohort study to assess rates of adverse outcomes and qualitative study to understand pregnant women’s behaviors (Adeline Boatin, MD)
• UPIM:Postpartum Infection at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital—epidemiology, microbiology and outcomes (Lisa Bebell, MD; Adeline Boatin, MD)
• Vital Sign Assessment amongst inpatient obstetric patients (Adeline Boatin, MD; Jessica Haberer, MD)

Sample Training Initiatives

Chittagong, Bangladesh

• Scientific Seminar on Gyn Oncology: Case-based discussion of gynecologic oncology treatment

Mbarara, Uganda

• Gyn Care Initiative: Ensure MRRH providers have the adequate training to provide safe and effective abortion and post-abortion care; to ensure MRRH has essential equipment to provide safe and effective abortion and post-abortion care; and to create mechanisms to ensure on-going quality in the provision of safe and effective abortion and post-abortion care

Hinche, Haiti

• Midwives for Haiti: Training skilled birth attendants