November 20, 2024
Spotlight: Gregory Valentine, a neonatologist, collaborator and innovator
Most days, Dr. Gregory Valentine wishes he had more than 24 hours to realize his goal of overcoming health disparities amongst newborns around the world.
Valentine recently found himself in Africa for two weeks to follow up on his Prevention of Developmental Delay and Xylitol (PDDaX) trial in Malawi and develop a neurodevelopmental program that evaluates early nutritional practices for small and sick newborns in Ethiopia.
“What really hits me hard is when I go abroad, I see significant health disparities in the units, and I see babies dying from preventable diseases,” said Valentine. “Seeing a baby die from an entirely preventable cause of death is my motivation that drives me to figure out how I can prevent that from ever occurring again to any other baby.”
Valentine, a neonatologist at UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s Hospital, discovered his passion for pediatrics while studying abroad as an undergraduate at Baylor University.
“I remember leaving the orphanage in Romania and telling them I would come back, and they said that everyone always says they’re coming back but nobody ever does,” said Valentine. “It really just hit me that these orphans had these feelings of abandonment get reinforced every year, so from that point on I knew I was drawn to pediatrics and global health.”
Valentine gravitated towards neonatology while attending medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
He returned to Romania for one year during his Pediatrics and Global Child Health Residency at Baylor College of Medicine to work at an infectious disease hospital and help local orphans.
This work exposed Valentine to the procedural role of an intensive care physician and solidified his desire to work in neonatology.
“Small and sick premature babies have no say in where they are born or any issues that occur to them, so they are truly the most vulnerable population that really depend on us to care for them,” explained Valentine. “A baby that is born in the U.S. is more likely to survive than a baby that is born in a low-resourced setting and I don’t think that is how it should be.”
Valentine’s work at the UW includes teaching as an adjunct Associate Professor at the UW School of Dentistry and UW Department of Mechanical Engineering, serving on the Executive Advisory Board for the Engineering Innovation in Health (EIH) program and co-leading ALIGN (Advanced Learning and Innovation in Global Neonatology) within the Division of Neonatology at UW Medicine.
In addition to his regional work, Valentine has served as a consultant with the World Health Organization and is currently collaborating on several publications aimed at improving small and sick newborn care and quality indicators.
“All of these hats that I wear distill down to improving the care for small and sick newborns,” said Valentine. “The dental work is related to improving oral health in pregnancy that prevents preterm birth and the engineering work is about how to improve access to care and make healthcare more affordable in low-resourced settings.”
Valentine has engaged with the University of Washington Population Health Initiative at several key junctures in his work, including leading a Tier 2 pilot grant and mentoring graduate students in the Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program.
His Tier 2 pilot grant looks to expand on previous research by evaluating the effects of xylitol-containing chewing gum on the microbiome and inflammatory changes within gingival tissues of pregnant individuals in Malawi.
“In evaluating the mechanism of action for Xylitol through either a microbiome or an inflammatory effect … there is potential for a revolutionary change to how we improve and overcome health disparities related to premature birth,” said Valentine.
Through the Population Health Initiative Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program, Valentine and his colleague Dr. Krystle Perez worked with two graduate fellows to develop an innovative IV skin patch and an affordable, portable device for blood pH measurement.
Both projects aim to provide life-saving medical tools to medical providers in low-resourced settings and eliminate the financial barriers associated with maternal and neonatal healthcare.
“We can’t always prevent preterm birth, so for those babies that are born preterm there are already overworked and overburdened nurses that have limited resources,” explained Valentine. “In trying to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, it’s integral to develop innovations that can help those overburdened nurses care for these small and sick newborns.”
He emphasized the importance of funding opportunities like the UW Population Health Initiative and their ability to illuminate solutions towards systemic change.
“Without having opportunities to gather preliminary data with the Population Health Initiative, my group and others would not be successful in receiving larger grants that could advance the quality of care for pregnant people and their children worldwide,” explained Valentine.“The PHI grants really provide the opportunity to overcome preterm birth health disparities that many other grants cannot.”
As Valentine continues to work for systemic change in overcoming health disparities among newborns around the world, he reiterated the power of teamwork in making his dream a reality.
“One of the best parts of my job is collaborating with leaders in maternal and newborn health throughout the world,” said Valentine. “I find myself as more of a team developer, a collaborator, a networker. Having a great team of passionate, driven leaders is needed to overcome and devise novel solutions to pressing clinical problems, and we are fortunate to be at a world-renowned university where these connections can be easily made.”