UMMC physician gets national award

The Preeclampsia Foundation in Minneapolis, Minn., announced today that Dr. James Martin will receive the foundation's Hope Award for his lifetime achievement in preeclampsia research.

Martin, a Jackson resident, is professor of ob-gyn at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and director of maternal-fetal medicine. The foundation will present the award on Oct. 24 in Chicago.

According to the foundation, preeclampsia is the most frequent complication of pregnancy accounting for 15 percent of all premature births and 76,000 maternal deaths worldwide.

Martin's career spans 30 years during which he has changed the way physicians throughout the country treat preeclampsia. He's written more than 500 papers on the subject, three books and 71 book chapters. He is a past president of the North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. He served 12 years as District VII chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He's been on the UMMC faculty since 1981.

Leslie Weeks, chair of the foundation's board of directors, said, "Patients who have known him comment that it is his compassion and reassuring demeanor, coupled with his intellect and competence that make him most worthy of this award."