Sonia Hassan, M.D., professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has been appointed associate dean for Maternal, Perinatal and Child Health effective Oct. 1.
For the past 5 1/2 years Dr. Hassan has served as the director of the Center for Advanced Obstetrical Care and Research at the Perinatology Research Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health, housed at the School of Medicine and the Detroit Medical Center. Within the School of Medicine, Dr. Hassan will oversee the Wayne State University Research Initiative in Maternal, Perinatal and Child health.
"The School of Medicine is a major center of maternal-fetal medicine and children's health research in Michigan and the United States," said Valerie M. Parisi, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., dean of the school. "Dr. Hassan's wealth of research experience and clinical expertise make her the ideal person for this position as we expand our footprint in translational science and clinical programming that impacts mothers, children and the unborn."
Dr. Hassan also serves as director of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship of the Perinatology Research Branch, Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center, and associate director of the Combined Maternal-Fetal Medicine-Medical Genetics Fellowship. She also is the principal investigator for the North American Fetal Therapy Network at Wayne State University.
"I am extremely honored and very excited to be working with the dedicated faculty and dynamic team of the School of Medicine and university in the area of maternal and child health," said Dr. Hassan, who has been a member of the faculty for 10 years. "There is a great deal of exciting and vital work being conducted in this area at the School of Medicine; many of these discoveries have and will continue to change the way medicine is practiced around the world. The research our faculty conducts is making a difference in numerous areas of health care."
Dr. Hassan is the lead author of a groundbreaking clinical study published earlier this year that detailed a new method for preventing premature birth in millions of women. The study showed that the rate of early preterm delivery (delivery at less than 33 weeks of gestation) can be reduced by 45 percent simply by treating the women at risk with a low-cost gel of natural progesterone from mid-trimester until term.
The Novi, Mich., resident said her immediate initiatives for the new position include planning and executing scientific objectives and goals that will further cement the WSU School of Medicine as a major focal point of maternal-fetal medicine and child health.
A native of Michigan, Dr. Hassan received her medical degree from the Wayne State University School of Medicine. She performed her internship and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and completed a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship at Wayne State University and Hutzel Hospital.
Her past awards include the Children's Research Center of Michigan Research Award for Fetal Growth Impairment and Maternal Microchimersim, the Young Investigator's Award and the Certificate of Merit Award from the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the J. Bay Jacobs 2007 American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Foundation Travel Award from the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society, the 2008 Academic Achievement Award, and the 2009 and 2010 Research Excellence Awards from the Wayne State University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She chaired the Prematurity Interest Group of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in 2009 and 2010.
The author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications relating to maternal-fetal medicine, Dr. Hassan's interests include the uterine cervix and cervical biology in premature labor, the use of progesterone in the prevention of preterm birth, the uterine cervix transcriptome, intra-uterine infection and its association with a sonographic short cervix, cervical insufficiency and labor at term, and longitudinal studies of biomarkers to predict adverse pregnancy outcome.