Nebraska needs to look for ways to reduce preterm births and improve outcomes
It’s estimated that preterm births cost society more than $26.2 billion per year.
It’s a huge problem and lowering the number of preterm births is certainly a major goal that health professionals are striving to achieve. A preterm birth is considered to be anything less than 37 weeks gestation.
How to reduce the number of preterm births will be the focus of the next Science Cafe, at 7 p.m., Aug. 3, at the Slowdown, 729 N. 14th St. in Omaha. Jack Turman Jr., Ph.D., P.T., director of physical therapy education in the School of Allied Health Professions at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, will be the presenter.
Dr. Turman, an internationally recognized developmental neurobiologist, started at UNMC on July 1 after 15 years on the faculty of the University of Southern California, the top rated PT program in the country by U.S. News & World Report since 2004.
Since 2002, Dr. Turman served as founder and director of the Center for Premature Infant Health and Development at the USC Keck School of Medicine. He hopes that a similar center at UNMC will develop.
Some of the issues Dr. Turman will explore in his presentation include:
· Why the infant mortality rate for African Americans in Nebraska is nearly twice as high as the state’s overall infant mortality rate;
· How nearly one-third of brain development occurs in the final four weeks of a full-term pregnancy;
· How Nebraska’s goal is to reduce its preterm births by 5 percent.
Science Cafe is a free educational event sponsored by UNMC and other groups to increase the population’s science literacy. Hosted by UNMC, BioNebraska and the Nebraska Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, Science Cafes are held the first Tuesday of each month.
Free pizza, provided by the Nebraska Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, will be available for the first 50 attendees. For more information on coming and past Science Cafes in Omaha and Lincoln, visit www.unmc.edu/sciencecafe.