Associate Professor Katie Margaret Groom

Biography

Katie Groom is Associate Professor of Maternal and Perinatal Health and the Hugo Charitable Trust Fellow at the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland. She is a Subspecialist in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at National Women’s Health, Auckland City Hospital.

Katie completed her MB BS medical degree at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College, London in 1995. She undertook her PhD studies ‘The Potential of a Cyclo-Oxygenase-2 Specific Prostaglandin Synthesis Inhibitor for the Prevention of Preterm Labour’ early in her career (University of London, 1999 – 2002) and subsequently entered specialist training in obstetrics and gynaceology in the United Kingdom. She relocated to New Zealand in 2004 and completed her specialist training before undertaking subspecialist training in maternal and fetal medicine and being appointed as a Senior Medical Officer and Subspecialist in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at National Women’s Health, Auckland City Hospital in 2011 and 2013 respectively. In 2011, she was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaceology, The University of Auckland. In 2018 she was appointed as Associate Professor of Maternal and Perinatal Health and the Hugo Charitable Trust Fellow at the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland.

Katie is passionate about improving health outcomes for mothers and babies through effective clinical trials research integrated into clinical practice as part of a learning healthcare system. She is an ANZ leader in clinical trials networks as current Chairperson of the Perinatal Society or Australia and New Zealand Interdisciplinary Maternal and Perinatal Australasian Collaborative Trials (IMPACT) Network and Chairperson of the National Executive Committee of the newly established New Zealand-wide ON TRACK Network for Better Health for Mothers and Babies. She has been an elected board member of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA).

Katie is a past member of PSANZ Board of Directors and a past Secretary of the Perinatal Society of New Zealand. She is a Medical Advisor to NZAPEC (New Zealand Action on Preeclampisa Charitable Trust).

Research | Current

Katie’s research focuses on clinical trials of therapies and interventions for the prevention and treatment of the major complications of pregnancy. She has led/is leading several multicentre randomised controlled trials including the TOCOX trial (rofecoxib for the prevention of preterm delivery), the EPPI trial (enoxaparin for prevention of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction), the STRIDER NZAus trial (sildenafil for the treatment of severe early onset fetal growth restriction) and the C*STEROID Feasibility Study (corticosteroids prior to planned caesarean section birth after 35 weeks). She is a member if the worldwide STRIDER IPD Collaboration, a pre-planned individual participant data analysis of four trials. She has been the local lead investigator for a number of Australasian clinical trials in perinatal health including the My Baby’s Movements Trial, ASTEROID study, MAGENTA trial and the APTS study.

Katie has a clinical and research interest in preterm birth and is currently supervising MD studies in ‘Optimising the Care of Women at High Risk of Spontaneous Preterm Birth’. She is the Clinical Lead for the National Women’s Health Preterm Birth Clinic and provides regional and national guidance on issues relating to the care of women at high risk of preterm birth. She is leading the development of a national Preterm Birth Alliance aiming to reduce rates of preterm birth across New Zealand and to optimise outcomes for those that deliver preterm.

Funding

Hugo Charitable Trust Fellow

Projects grants from Cure Kids, Auckland Medical Research Foundation, the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand, Mercia Barnes Trust, Lottery Health Research and Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust