Seminar Series
Title:
Pharmacoepidemiologic study of peri-conceptional and pregnancy exposures and maternal-child health outcomes
Presenter:
Dr. Azar Merhrabadi
Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Dalhousie University
Time and Date
12pm – 1pm
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Location
MS Teams: Join the meeting now
Synopsis:
Pediatric and perinatal pharmacoepidemiology has been defined as the application of epidemiological methods to study the utilization and effects of medications, vaccines, supplements, biologics and medical devices in pediatric and pregnant populations. This presentation introduces our field and identifies several methodological challenges that are unique to our field and reviews several methodological approaches to studying peri-conceptional and pregnancy exposures and maternal-child health outcomes. The concepts covered will be applied to several examples from Dr. Mehrabadi's work on high-dose folic acid use for neural tube defect prevention, influenza vaccine use in pregnancy, and the safety and effectiveness of labour induction. The presentation will end by identifying future opportunities for research in pharmacoepidemiology.
Bio:
Dr. Azar Mehrabadi, PhD, is a perinatal epidemiologist with expertise in maternal, fetal and newborn health research. Dr. Mehrabadi is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Dalhousie University. She completed a PhD at the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health, and a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University’s Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health. She is Principal Investigator of two CIHR Project grants, one focused on addressing the safety and effectiveness of high-dose folic acid supplementation for the prevention of neural tube defects, and another addressing the safety and effectiveness of labour induction among populations excluded from randomized clinical trials. She is co-Principal Investigator of the CIHR-funded Canadian Mother-Child Collaborative Training Platform (CAMCCO-L), which aims to train the next generation of scientists in the field of medication use in pregnancy.