Our
Research
Our coalition members are engaged in research that advances equity in drug testing practices for parents and newborns.
Our research includes both qualitative and quantitative work examining how inequitable testing practices affect the health and wellbeing of parents and newborns. We have published peer-reviewed manuscripts and have presented our work at several national conferences.
Browse this page to learn more about our work, and please feel free to connect with us for any comments or questions!
Manuscripts
Published March 8, 2023
Incidence of Newborn Drug Testing and Variations by Birthing Parent Race and Ethnicity Before and After Recreational Cannabis Legalization
Sebastian Schoneich, MD; Melissa Plegue, MA; VictoriaWaidley, MD; Katharine McCabe, PhD; Justine Wu,MD, MPH; P. Paul Chandanabhumma, PhD, MPH; Carol Shetty, MD; Christopher J. Frank, MD, PhD; Lauren Oshman, MD, MPH
Key Finding: This retrospective cohort study of 26,366 live births from 2014 - 2020 showed that clinicians ordered more newborn drug testing for Black newborns compared to White newborns (7.3% vs 1.9%)
Published May 7, 2024
Youth Perspectives on Cannabis Use During Pregnancy
Christopher Whitlock, Claire Chang, Regina Onishchenko, Madgean Joassaint, Emily Madlambayan, Lauren Oshman, Christopher Frank
Key Finding: 666 adolescents from the MyVoice cohort responded to an open-ended survey delivered via text message. Adolescents were concerned about the risks of cannabis during pregnancy and wanted their doctors to counsel patients about these risks. Contrasting with the perception among pregnant people, more than one in three youth felt that cannabis use during pregnancy should be considered as child abuse or neglect.
published July 22, 2024
Structural Racism in Newborn Drug Testing: Healthcare and Child Protective Services Professionals' Perspectives
Carol Shetty, MD, Lauren Oshman, MD, MPH, VictoriaWaidley, MD, Emily Madlambayan, Madgean Joassaint, BS, Katharine McCabe, PhD, Courtney Townsel, MD MSc, Justine Wu ,MD, MPH, Christopher J. Frank, MD, PhDP. Paul Chandanabhumma, PhD, MPH
Key Finding: In this qualitative study, we interrogated dominant power structures by interviewing health care and child protective services professionals. Participants recognized structural racism as a driver of disproportionate newborn drug testing for prenatal substance exposure and identified beliefs, knowledge deficits, and skill limitations as barriers to dismantling power structures that impede system level change.
to be published Aug 2024
Racial Disparities in Newborn Drug Testing after Implementation of Question-Based Screening for Prenatal Substance Use
Alexandra Soos, Missy Plegue, Adam Darwiche, Lauren Oshman, Christopher Frank
Key Finding: A retrospective cohort of 32,802 live births from July 2014 to July 2022 at Michigan Medicine before and after 2018 adoption of verbal substance use screening showed that universal implementation of verbal prenatal substance use screening reduced racial disparities in prenatal drug testing but not newborn drug testing. Clinician responses to patients struggling to stop using were variable, particularly for patients using cannabis. There is a need to standardize and incorporate evidence-based treatment.
Workshops
Mobilizing Primary Care Researchers in AntiRacist Research Practices.
North American Primary Care Research Group Annual Meeting (NAPCRG), Phoenix AZ, 11/21/2022.
Wu Justine, Chandanabhumma Paul, Countryman Kristina, Oshman Lauren.
Applying social justice frameworks to advance antiracism and health equity research: Approaches, challenges and opportunities
NAPCRG Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 11/2/2023.
Chandanabhumma Paul, Sen Ananda, Oshman Lauren, Wu Justine
Oral Presentations
​
Prevalence of Newborn Drug Testing and Variations by Birth Parent Race and Ethnicity at an Academic Medical Center.
North American Primary Care Research Group Annual Meeting, Phoenix AZ, 11/21/22
Oshman Lauren, Schoneich Sebastian, Waidley Victoria, McCabe Kate, Chandanabhumma Paul, Wu Justine, Plegue Missy, Shetty Carol.
Citation: Annals of Family Medicine, 21 (1): 3620, January 2023.
Variations in Prevalence of Newborn Drug Testing by Birth ParentRace and Ethnicity at Michigan Medicine.
Perinatal Research Society Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, 9/11/2022.
Plegue Melissa, Schoneich Sebastian, Waidley Victoria, Wu Justine, Oshman Lauren, Chandanabhumma Paul, Frank Christopher.
Structural Racism in Newborn Drug Testing: Healthcare and Child Protective Services Professional Perspectives.
Pediatric Hospital Medicine Conference Research Day, Philadelphia, PA, 8/3-8/6/2023.
Shetty Carol, Costa Amanda, Waidley Victoria, Madlambayan Emily, Joassaint Madgean, Schoneich Sebastian, McCabe Kate, Townsel Courtney, Wu Justine, Frank Chris, Oshman Lauren, Chandanabhumma Paul
Structural Racism Impacts Newborn Drug Testing: Comparing the Perspectives of Birthing People and Professionals.
North American Primary Care Research Group Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 11/2/2023,
Shetty Carol, Chandanabhumma Paul, Oshman Lauren, Huizinga Jamie, Wu Justine, Waidley Victoria, Costa Amanda, Joassaint Madgean
Citation: Annals of Family Medicine, 21 (3): 5042. November 2023.
Application of community-engaged, anti-racist praxis to achieve racial equity in newborn drug testing.
American Public Health Association’s 2023 Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 11/14/2023.
Chandanabhumma Paul, Shetty Carol, Schoneich Sebastian, Townsel Courtney, Oshman Lauren, Wu Justine.
The Equity in Newborn Drug Screening (ENDS) Study: How Family Medicine Teams Can Mobilize for Change with Antiracist Methods and Practices
Brown Family Medicine Primary Care Innovation Series, Providence, RI, 5/20/2024.
Oshman Lauren, Chandanabhumma Paul, Wu Justine.
Poster Presentations
North American Primary Care Research Group, Virtual Conference, 11/19-23/2021.
Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Annual Meeting. Indianapolis, IN, 05/01/2022
North American Primary Care Research Group Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, 11/21/2022.
Diversity in Medicine Conference, Ann Arbor, MI 03/12/2022
Society for Research on Adolescence Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, 04/14/2023.
American Society of Addiction Medicine 55th Annual Conference. Dallas, TX, 4/4-7/2024.
American Public Health Association 2023 Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 11/14/2023.