< Back to Alumni List


Aaron B. Caughey, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Oregon Health and Sciences University School of Medicine
abcmd@berkeley.edu
2007-2010 Cohort
Project Title: "Cesarean, Vaginal, and Operative Vaginal Delivery: Outcomes, Preferences, and Costs"





About the Project:

The study examined maternal preferences towards the various modes of delivery and their associated outcomes as well as costs and outcomes associated with term pregnancy management.

Biosketch:

Aaron B. Caughey, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director, Center for Women’s Health at Oregon Health and Sciences University School of Medicine. He was previously an Assistant Professor in Residence in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Caughey earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He completed his residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Massachusetts General Hospital combined program and completed a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at UCSF. He then earned an M.P.H. with a focus on epidemiology and a Ph.D. in health economics at UC, Berkeley; his dissertation was entitled "Applications from Behavioral Economics to Decision-Making in Prenatal Diagnosis". Dr. Caughey was also a UCSF Women’s Reproductive Health Research Clinical Scholar from 2002-2007, and the Program Director of the Fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the Director of perinatal research, and the medical director for the Diabetes and Pregnancy Program at UCSF.

Dr. Caughey’s research interests incorporate methodology from clinical epidemiology, biostatistics, health economics, health policy, and the decision sciences to examine questions in predominantly three clinical areas: prenatal screening and diagnosis of birth defects and genetic disorders, how the management and outcomes of pregnancies at term change by week of gestation, and the risks and benefits of various modes of delivery including: spontaneous vaginal delivery, operative vaginal delivery, and cesarean delivery.

Recently, his focus has been on how the week of gestation at term interacts with mode of delivery, management, and outcomes of pregnancy including induction of labor, expectant management of pregnancy, and elective cesarean delivery and demonstrated that effects of induction of labor on the risk of cesarean delivery are likely overstated by traditional epidemiologic studies. His RWJF Physician Faculty Scholars Program project was entitled: "Cesarean, Vaginal, and Operative Vaginal Delivery: Outcomes, Preferences, and Costs."  Dr. Caughey examined maternal preferences towards the various modes of delivery and their associated outcomes as well as costs and outcomes associated with term pregnancy management. He incorporated these findings into decision-analytic and cost-effectiveness models to examine how various factors affect the optimal management strategy and cost-effectiveness of these various management schemes.


< Back to Alumni List