March 1, 2023
The research team led by Alan Tita, MD, PhD, will be honored with a 2023 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Award by the Clinical Research Forum (CR Forum) at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 2023. Dr. Tita is the senior vice chair for Research and Innovation in the UAB Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, associate dean for Global and Women’s Health at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, and director of the UAB Center for Women’s Reproductive Health. He is a CCTS Co-Investigator for Maternal/Fetal Medicine.
The Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards honor groundbreaking achievements in clinical research from across the nation. The competition seeks to identify major advances in the biomedical field resulting from the nation’s investment in health and welfare. The Top 10 award recipients are selected by a CR Forum panel from among clinical research studies published in peer-reviewed journals in 2022. They are based on the degree of innovation and novelty involved in the advancement of science; contribution to the understanding of human disease and/or physiology; and potential impact upon the diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of disease.
Tita is being honored for his leadership in the CHAP (Chronic Hypertension and Pregnancy) study, the most comprehensive trial of chronic hypertension in pregnancy ever undertaken. “The Chronic CHAP trial addressed a decades’ old question regarding not only the safety but benefits of treating chronic hypertension during pregnancy and led to immediate changes in national guidelines” said Tita. “This award recognizes the power of clinical research and collaboration that took literally more than a village. I am grateful to the CR Forum and to all the investigators, staff, healthcare workers and of course the patients that made this trial successful.”
“The Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards honor and celebrate the innovation, tireless efforts and profound contributions that clinical researchers and advocates have made on the health and wellness of humanity,” said Harry P. Selker, MD, MSPH, Chair of the CR Forum and Dean, Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Tufts University. “We congratulate the 2023 winners for their outstanding efforts.”
About the CHAP Study
The Chronic Hypertension and Pregnancy Project (CHAP) is a multicenter, randomized trial that enrolled 2,408 pregnant women with a primary aim to evaluate the benefits and potential harms of pharmacologic treatment of mild chronic hypertension in pregnancy, a decades-old question that has remained unanswered. Results of this trial were published by the New England Journal of Medicine. CHAP involves several academic centers and hospitals across the United States, leveraging the Center for Clinical & Translational Science’s Partner Network.
About the Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awards
Recognizing the need to celebrate our nation's clinical research accomplishments that involve both innovation and impact on human disease, the Clinical Research Forum conducts an annual competition to determine the ten outstanding research accomplishments in the United States. These major research advances represent a portion of the annual return on the nation's investment in the health and future welfare of its citizens.
About the Clinical Research Forum and the Clinical Research Foundation
The mission of the Clinical Research Forum is to provide leadership to the national and clinical translational research enterprise and promote understanding and support for clinical research and its impact on health and healthcare. For more information, visit www.clinicalresearchforum.org.
The Clinical Research Foundation is the charitable arm of the Clinical Research Forum. As a 501(c)(3), gifts to the foundation support the Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awards and are tax deductible.