NK Doctor to Serve on Immunization Expert Work Group

North Kingstown’s Brenna L. Hughes, a doctor and chief of the Women’s Infectious Diseases Consultative Service at Women & Infants Hospital, has accepted an invitation to become a member of the Immunization Expert Work Group of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

The Immunization Expert Work Group serves as an advisory group of ACOG’s Committee on Obstetric Practice, Committee on Gynecologic Practice, and Committee on Adolescent Health Care.

Hughes, also an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, “is recognized as an expert in reproductive infectious disease. As a member of this Work Group, the work she’ll be doing is necessary to ensure that patients and providers have the most up-to-date information to improve access have the most accurate opinions and initiatives when it comes to immunizations nationwide,” said Maureen G. Phipps, MD, MPH, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Women & Infants.

Dr. Hughes’ first meeting with the Work Group will be this spring.

The ACOG Immunization Expert Work Group was formed in 2010 following an ACOG immunization task force and the H1N1 pandemic to develop and deliver accurate immunization education and resources, and continues to demonstrate ACOG’s commitment to increasing immunization rates. The Work Group is made up of immunization and infectious disease experts who regularly report on their activities and are able to relay ACOG guidelines and opinions.

Dr. Hughes and her Work Group members will be asked to develop and review documents such as committee opinions, patient and provider fact sheets, physician scripts, letters, and other patient and provider immunization materials.