5 Questions with Our New Editor-in-Chief

Get to know our founding Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Melissa Medvedev, as she answers 5 questions about her research experience and becoming involved with the journal.

What is your research background?

My interest in maternal and newborn health started during my MSc degree in Global Health Science at the University of Oxford. After completing clinical training in pediatrics and neonatology, I obtained a PhD in Epidemiology and Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). I was fortunate to be awarded several research grants early in my scientific path, which allowed me to establish an international network of collaborations and later launch my career as an independent investigator. I have served on faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco since 2016.

What is your current research focused on?

My research focuses on risk prediction and the evaluation of maternal, newborn, and early childhood interventions to promote survival and prevent disability. Most recently, I co-led a randomized controlled trial evaluating the mortality impact of kangaroo mother care initiated before clinical stabilization relative to standard care among neonates at five hospitals in Uganda, with an accompanying economic evaluation. I am also involved in several projects focused on developing health system planning and costing tools for hospital-based newborn care in resource-constrained settings, including medical devices, infrastructure, and human resource requirements.

What are you most looking forward to in your role as Editor-in-Chief?

I’m looking forward to helping build a unique platform for sharing and critically discussing innovative solutions and approaches to improve women’s healthcare throughout the lifespan. My goal as Editor-in-Chief is to make npj Women’s Health a highly accessible and multidisciplinary forum for translational, clinical, and public health researchers to communicate, exchange ideas, and develop collaborations. I am excited to work with a fantastic team of Associate Editors and Editorial Board Members from across the globe. I am also committed to ensuring the journal is inclusive and represents the diversity of the global research community in terms of background, geography, and career stage.

What type of work are you excited to commission?

I am keen to commission content on important but underrepresented topics, including non-communicable diseases in women, women’s mental health, health and well-being in adolescent girls and older women, and women’s health and maternal/newborn care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and other fragile settings. Most existing journals in the field of women’s health focus on a specific topic, sub-population, or both. We’re a community journal that publishes content on all aspects of women’s health and we welcome research from a broad and diverse range of authors, particularly those in LMICs where accelerated progress is needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal targets.

Why should researchers submit their work to npj Women’s Health?

We will work hard to be responsive to authors, achieve target timelines at each stage of manuscript review, encourage constructive and unbiased reviews, and streamline the overall publication process. All content will be made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, and we will help promote your work to reach a wide audience. We also offer waiver and discount options for article processing charges. We hope many researchers will find our journal attractive, and that npj Women’s Health will become a leading scientific platform for the women’s health community.