OPERA – Optimal Pregnancy Environment Risk Assessment

An international group of researchers, care providers, foundations and agencies dedicated to women at risk for preterm birth.

OPERA is an international, interdisciplinary program of women’s health researchers, care providers, foundations and international agencies dedicated to discovering and disseminating inexpensive and accessible tools to diagnose those women at risk for preterm birth (PTB) or other adverse pregnancy outcome as early as possible in pregnancy and to promoting effective interventions to mitigate these risks. OPERA’s initial efforts focus on risk diagnosis in populations of vulnerable women in any jurisdiction. OPERA receives support from WUN and the March of Dimes (MOD) and is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO).

OPERA is building a sustainable international organization that will provide guidance and support for studies of cohorts of pregnant women in order to develop evidence to 1) determine how to assess risk for preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes simply, inexpensively and as early as possible in pregnancy, 2) identify the women in the highest (20%) at-risk group (with 80% precision), and 3) share this information with other studies, care-providers and interested parties. OPERA is not a funding organization but instead provides support in terms of special skills, study design, data evaluation and sharing, guidance, advocacy, informs about best practices and communicates discoveries and achievements to partners and target audiences.

Activities

2019

Three new Co-Directors have been appointed:

• Dr Gerlinde Metz, PhD, Department of Neurosciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
• Dr Richard Saffery, PhD, Murdoch Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
• Dr Craig Pennell, MBBS, PhD, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.

Publications: 11 in total; three most significant:

• Olson DM, et al. (2019) Recent Canadian efforts to develop population-level pregnancy intervention studies to mitigate the effects of natural disasters and other tragedies. J Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, Jan 10:1-7. PMID: 30626455.
• Ettinger A, et al. (2019) Contemporary environmental stressors and adverse pregnancy outcomes. In, Handbook of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology: Integrating Research and Practice. (K. Evertz, L. Janus, R. Linder, eds.) Springer.
• Linder R, et al. (2019) Early care networks in Germany and initiation of the Pforzheim Studie. In, Handbook of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology: Integrating Research and Practice .  (K. Evertz, L. Janus, R. Linder, eds.) Springer.

External Funding:

• Canadian Institute of Health Research Planning and Dissemination Grant. Applying Lessons Learned from Research on the Health Effects of the 2016 Alberta Wildfire: A Strategy for Knowledge Exchange and Research Dissemination. 2019. Principal Investigator: Professor Stephanie Montesanti, U Alberta, David Olson, U Alberta.

• Alberta Innovates Summer Studentship. Testing the Leukocyte Migration Assay in Chongqing, China. 2019. Summer Student: Jenelle Chen, University of Alberta, David Olson, University of Alberta.
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research. “Prevention of preterm birth (PTB) and fetal inflammation (FI): the pharmacology and toxicology of targeting interleukin (IL)6 with HSJ633, a small peptide allosteric IL6 receptor antagonist.” 2019-2024. David Olson, University of Alberta.

Scholarly events: 10 in total; three most significant:

• “OPERA and Indigenous Health: What is OPERA and why does it want to be involved in Indigenous people” Invited symposium presentation to the DOHaD 2019 Satellite, “Social Determinants and the Health of Indigenous Peoples.” Darwin, Australia. October 18.
• “Lessons learned from the MommyBabyFMM study.” Presentation at the CIHR-sponsored public forum, Knowledge Exchange Forum: sharing lessons from research on Alberta wildfire 2016. Fort McMurray, Alberta. Nov 9.
• “Adverse pregnancy and newborn outcomes and risk related to maternal stress.” Hindustan College of Science and Technology, Murthra, Uttar Pradesh, India, February 23.

OPERA welcomed new WUN+ Partners – Bea van den Berge from Government of Flanders, Ashley Aimone from University of Toronto/ Moi University, Kenya  and representatives from City of Pforzheim, Germany: Rupert Linder, Thomas Berner, Brigitte Joggerst.

Publications: 7 in total; three most significant:

• Nesari M, Olson JK, Vandermeer B, Olson DM. Does a maternal history of abuse before pregnancy affect pregnancy outcomes? A systematic review with meta-analysis. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2018 Oct 16;18(1):404. doi: 10.1186/s12884-018-2030-8, 2018.
• Olson DM, Breamault-Phillips S, King S, Metz GAS, Montesanti S, Olson JK, et al. Recent Canadian efforts to develop population-level pregnancy intervention studies to mitigate effects of natural disasters and other tragedies. J DOHaD, 2019 10:1-7.
• Brémault-Phillips, S., Pike, A., Olson, J. K., Olson, D. M. Expressive Writing as a Spiritual Practice to Promote Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth

2017

OPERA members are involved in a CIHR-funded study to develop a predictive tool for risk and an intervention to improve resilience, decrease stress and thereby improve pregnancy outcomes for the pregnant and pre-conception women evacuated from Fort McMurray due to the 2016 wildfire. Partners include The Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM)

Publications: 6 (not listed)

Scholarly events:

• Dr Olson met with Professor Felipe Vadillo-Ortega in Mexico City at UNAM to discuss OPERA regional meeting.
• Dr Olson met in Edmonton with Wildfire team members and members of communities to develop study plans.

External Funding:

Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Wildfire Grant, “Intervention to improve the perinatal outcomes following the 2016 Alberta wildfires: administration, effectiveness and community implementation.” 2017-19, Professor David Olson, University of Alberta

2016

A China Opera Workshop was held in Chongqing on 12 November 2016. Eight Chinese universities, five foreign universities and 75 people attended.

2015

The OPERA group held its first meeting on March 23-24, 2015 in San Francisco. The purpose of this meeting was to:

• discuss and generate enthusiasm to achieve the goals of OPERA, to appreciate why early assessment of risk is important;
• identify what is meant by populations of vulnerable women and to listen to some of their stories;
• hear about mechanisms of risk and what we can learn from them regarding development of risk assessment tools;
• learn more about the studies in progress and how they are assessing risk for preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes;
• identify a few intervention strategies that may mitigate risks;
• discuss how to move the OPERA agenda forward toward a sustainable program that provides genuine benefit for women, their babies and care providers.