An internationally renowned maternal-fetal medicine expert took the stage at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute’s Sam Walton Auditorium on March 5 to discuss the challenges and breakthroughs shaping women’s and infant health worldwide.
Alan T.N. Tita, M.D., Ph.D., who serves as the Mary Heersink Endowed Chair of Global Health and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), visited the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to present the College of Medicine’s Dean’s Distinguished Lecture, “Out of the Deep South: TRIALS, Tribulations, and Triumphs Advancing Global Women’s Health.”
Tita shared insights from decades of clinical research, including the landmark Chronic Hypertension and Pregnancy (CHAP) study he led that changed obstetric care guidelines for treating hypertension during pregnancy. UAMS participated in the large multicenter study of nearly 30,000 women, which received Trial of the Year awards from the Society for Clinical Trials and the Clinical Research Forum following its publication in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2022.
Since 2009, Tita has served as principal investigator on obstetric studies supported by more than $100 million in total research funding.
During his lecture, Tita highlighted several additional clinical trials that have changed obstetric care guidelines, including research on preventing obstetric hemorrhage, reducing cesarean births through labor management strategies, and improving outcomes through better timing of delivery.
Tita was the invited guest of Paula Robertson, Ph.D., professor in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Biostatistics, who served on the CHAP trial’s data and safety monitoring board.
“Dr. Tita has devoted his life to improving the health of women and infants around the world. And his work is especially meaningful to us here in Arkansas, as we confront our own maternal health challenges,” said Robertson.
In her introduction, Roberson shared the origins of Tita’s journey.
Growing up in Cameroon, Africa, Tita witnessed firsthand the profound challenges women faced, particularly the tragic and preventable loss of young mothers to infection and complications of childbirth. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, maternal mortality rates can be more than 100 times higher than in high-income countries. Those disparities left a lasting impression.
As a young physician working in rural missionary hospitals alongside colleagues from around the world, he recognized that public health alongside clinical medicine could be a force multiplier. That early experience continues to shape his work today. He now co-leads the Cameroon Health Initiative, a partnership between UAB and Cameroon partners to improve health outcomes in his native country.
A scholarship took Tita from Cameroon to the United Kingdom for a Master of Public Health at the University of Leeds. He later came to the United States, completing his OB-GYN residency at Baylor College of Medicine and a Ph.D. in perinatal epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston.
Since then, Tita has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has authored more than 400 scientific publications and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians.
Tita emphasized that progress is only possible through strong partnerships and well-supported research networks. Over nearly three decades, UAB has participated in the National Institutes of Health Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network, which he noted has contributed to roughly a quarter of the evidence guiding obstetric practice today.
“You may hear a lot of what I’ve done,” Tita told the audience. “But it’s not really about me. It’s about the opportunities I’ve had in this country and in the Deep South to work with amazing people and teams.”
Reflecting on his journey, Tita described how early exposure to maternal deaths and infectious diseases like HIV in South Africa cemented his purpose and commitment to improving women’s health.
“My inspiration was my mother, a nurse,” Tita said. “These memories continue to define my approach. It became clear to me that we had to do something, especially for young women.”
Tita noted that the United States continues to have the highest maternal mortality rates among high-income countries and stressed the need to address social determinants of health, chronic disease, and the growing number of rural “maternity deserts.”
He also encouraged students, trainees, and early-career faculty in attendance to pursue ambitious goals while building strong collaborative teams.
“Know and plan where you want to go and keep that vision in mind,” he said.
Tita closed the lecture with an African proverb that has guided his work and philosophy on collaboration and life: “If you want to go fast, go alone,” he said. “If you want to go far, go together.”
A recording of Dr. Tita’s lecture is available here.
