Hot topics in maternal fetal medicine

Professor Catherine Williamson is Professor of Women’s Health at Kings College London and Honorary Consultant in Obstetric Medicine at St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospitals. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a NIHR Senior Investigator. In her clinical practice she manages women with medical disorders in pregnancy. Her research focuses on maternal and fetal aetiology, outcomes and management of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, gestational diabetes mellitus, severe hyperemesis gravidarum and endocrine disorders of pregnancy.

Asma Khalil is a Professor of Fetal Medicine and the Obstetric Lead at the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA). She gained her MD at the University of London in 2008. More recently, she has been elected as the Vice-President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Professor Khalil has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers, and many published review articles and chapters. She had been awarded many research prizes, both at national and international meetings, for example, the 2021 FIGO Women's Awards: Recognising Female Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Her research interests include twin pregnancy, congenital infections, fetal growth restriction and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.

Professor Khalil held a fellowship with the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and is committed to the implementation of clinical guidelines in practice. She is the Lead author of the ISUOG guideline on the role of ultrasound in twins and congenital infections. She also led the guideline team developing the FIGO guideline on twin pregnancies. She was a member of the NICE Guideline Committee updating the Twin and Multiple Pregnancy guidance. 

Dr Shawn Walker is a Consultant Midwife and NIHR Advanced Fellow. She is the Chief Investigator of the OptiBreech Trial, an on-going cohort of women planning a vaginal breech birth on an innovative care pathway, OptiBreech care, within which small randomised trials are nested to refine the care pathway. She currently co-ordinates the breech clinic at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, where her team has supported over 25 planned vaginal breech over the past 10 months. She is also a midwife Researcher in Residence at Imperial, with a remit to help other midwives develop clinical academic careers. 

Mr Abdul Sultan is a Consultant Obstetrician and UroGynaecologist with a special interest in  Pelvic Floor and Anal Sphincter Dysfunction at Croydon University Hospital, London and is Honorary Reader at the St George’s University of London. He trained and worked in South Africa, conducted training workshops in India and operated in fistula camps in Uganda, He completed his postgraduate training at St George’s Hospital with Professor Stuart Stanton. His research at St Mark’s and the Homerton Hospitals involved studying the effects of childbirth on the anal sphincters. This led to a landmark paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine and to a Doctorate. His pioneering work highlighted the deficiencies in training of doctors and midwives in detecting and repairing obstetric injuries to the anal sphincter.

He is the co-director of a tertiary referral urogynaecology Unit at Croydon University Hospital with subspecialty training and has an active research programme. He has over 250 publications in journals and textbook chapters. He has co-produced the first comprehensive textbook on perineal and anal sphincter trauma and just published the textbook on Pelvic Floor Disorders (2021). He is the co-director of the popular Perineal Trauma and Pelvic Floor Ultrasound courses since 2000. He has been awarded the prestigious overall “UK Hospital Doctor of the Year” award and is the recipient of the Croydon Medical Society Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Society of Urogynaecology Lifetime Achievement Award, and the RCOG Travelling Sims Black Professorship. In recognition of the education and training done in Ireland, he was awarded the Hon FRCPI degree.

Dr Fionnuala Mone is dual trained in fetal maternal medicine and prenatal genomics and is a Clinical Academic at Queen’s University Belfast. She is editor for Genetics in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, elected co-chair for the ISPD SIG on fetal imaging and phenotyping as well as board member for the British Maternal Fetal Medicine Society and  RCOG Scientific Impact Group.