Professor Arri Coomarasamy OBE, MBChB, MD, FRCOG, FMedSci

Professor Arri Coomarasamy

Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research
Professor of Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine
Director of the Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research
Founding Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Women’s Health

Contact details

Telephone
+44(0)121 371 8202 PA to Professor Coomarasamy
Email
a.coomarasamy@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@arricoomarasamy
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK
Birmingham Heroes: Arri Coomarasamy
Tommy's PRISM Research

Professor Arri Coomarasamy leads two research teams, one focusing on treatments to prevent miscarriages and the other targeting on ways to stop mothers dying during childbirth.

One in 4 pregnancies end in a miscarriage, causing untold amount of devastation to couples. In his role as the Director of the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research, Professor Coomarasamy leads a world-class team of scientists and doctors, researching to stop the occurrence of miscarriages. 

Every 2 minutes a mother dies during childbirth somewhere in the world, often leaving behind a young family. A third of these deaths are from post-partum haemorrhage (excessive bleeding at childbirth). In his role as Joint Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Women’s Health, Professor Coomarasamy leads an international team of researchers focused on finding ways to prevent women dying from excessive bleeding at childbirth.

Professor Coomarasamy received his undergraduate medical education from the University of Birmingham, and completed his subspecialist training in reproductive medicine and surgery at Guy’s Hospital, London. 

His research portfolio includes numerous national and international multicentre randomised controlled trials, including:

  • The PROMISE Trial (NEJM, 2015), exploring the role of progesterone in women with unexplained recurrent miscarriages,
  • The WHO CHAMPION Trial (NEJM, 2018), studying the effects of heat-stable carbetocin to prevent postpartum haemorrhage,
  • The TABLET Trial (NEJM, 2019), evaluating the effects of levothyroxine therapy to prevent miscarriages in women with thyroid antibodies,
  • The AIMS Trial (NEJM, 2019), assessing the effects of prophylactic antibiotics before miscarriage surgery in low-income countries,
  • The PRISM Trial (NEJM, 2019), evaluating the effects of progesterone therapy for women with early pregnancy bleeding,
  • The MifeMiso Trial (Lancet, 2020), exploring the role of misoprostol with or without mifepristone in the medical management of missed miscarriages,
  • The E-MOTIVE Trial (NEJM, 2023), exploring the effects of early detection and first-response management of postpartum haemorrhage with a bundle of care in low resource countries.
  • The LOCI Trial (ongoing), studying the effects of letrozole versus clomifene, with or without metformin, for ovulation induction in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.,

Professor Coomarasamy has published over 300 medical articles in high impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The British Medical Journal and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

Professor Coomarasamy takes particular pride in mentoring junior doctors and researchers, and several of his trainees have become outstanding clinicians and researchers.

Professor Coomarasamy serves or has in the past served on several international and national committees, including grant funding boards for NIHR, MRC, Wellcome and DfID, the BJOG editorial board, the RCOG Wellbeing of Women Research Panel, various committees of the WHO, the Early Pregnancy Clinical Studies Group, the Reproductive Medicine Clinical Studies Group, and the GLOW organising committee. He is the founding trustee of Ammalife, a UK-registered charity with a global mission of reducing maternal deaths in low-income countries.

Qualifications

  • Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science (2019)
  • FRCOG, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (2014)
  • MD in Integration of diagnostic and effectiveness evidence, University of Birmingham (2004)
  • MRCOG, London (2001)
  • DFFP, London (2000)
  • MBChB in Medicine and Surgery, University of Birmingham (1995)

Biography

Professor Coomarasamy received his undergraduate medical training from the University of Birmingham (1995), and completed his subspecialist training in reproductive medicine and surgery at Guy’s Hospital, London. He gained his MD in 2004 for work exploring the integration of diagnostic and therapeutic information. He now leads a team that continues to move from strength to strength in the development of early pregnancy and global women’s health research. 

Teaching

Professor Coomarasamy leads and teaches on various MRCOG part 1, 2 and 3 courses, and contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching at the University of
Birmingham. Course websites: www.acecourses.co.uk and www.aceonline.org.uk

Postgraduate supervision

Professor Coomarasamy considers it a duty and privilege to support the next generation of academic and clinical investigators. He currently guides a cohort of over twenty doctoral researchers, postdoctoral fellows and clinical lecturers in the fields of gynaecology, early pregnancy care, and global women’s health.

Past and present PhD students include:

Amie Wilson
Hoda Harb
Justin Chu
Yee Yin Chan
Sesh Kamal Sunkara
Rima Dhillon-Smith
Paul Smith
Abey Eapen
Abi Merriel
Bala Karunakaran
Emily Colley
Will Parry-Smith
Helen Williams
Laurentiu Craciunas
Thanos Georgakas
James Cheshire
Catherine Dunlop
Jay Ghosh
Hajra Khattak
Sheikh Irfan
Madara Ralapanawe
Danai Bagkou
Eleanor Thomas
Preth De Silva
Pedro Melo
Yealin Chung
Ishita Mishra
Charlotte Palmer
Thomas Bamford

Past and present lecturers include:

David Lissauer
Ioannis Gallos
Justin Chu
Rima Dhillon-Smith
Paul Smith
Hoda Harb
Jennifer Tamblyn  

Research

Clinical Trials 

Professor Coomarasamy has led or is currently leading numerous national and international multicentre randomised controlled trials, including:

Professor Coomarasamy is a co-investigator in several clinical trials, including:

  • Surgical Evacuation with intraopErative Ultrasound: a pilot trial to assess feasibility (The SEE U Trial)
  • Chronic Endometritis and Recurrent Miscarriage (The CERM Trial)
  • Pilot trial of Antioxidant Therapy in Men with Unexplained Miscarriage (The pAToMiUM Trial),
  • A multicentre trial of outpatient hysteroscopy before IVF, after recurrent IVF failures (The TROPHY Trial, Lancet 2016)
  • Selection of sperm for assisted reproductive treatment by prior hyaluronic acid binding: increasing live birth outcomes and reducing miscarriage rates – multicentre randomised controlled, blinded trial (The HABSelect Trial, Lancet 2019). 

Evidence synthesis 

Professor Coomarasamy has significant expertise in effectiveness and test accuracy data meta-analysis techniques, including advanced data synthesis approaches such as network meta-analysis, meta-regression and bivariate meta-analysis. His work with Professor Zamora (Madrid, Spain) resulted in the first most comprehensive data synthesis software for test accuracy data, Metadisc, which was made available free of charge to researchers worldwide. The software has been cited in the Lancet, JAMA, BMJ and other journal articles more than 1400 times. 

Research groups and centres

Twitter: @arricoomarasamy

Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research:

Global Women’s Health:

MRCOG Courses:

Other activities

Professor Coomarasamy is the Director of the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research, and the co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Women’s Health.

Professor Coomarasamy serves or has in the past served on several international and national committees, including grant funding boards for NIHR, MRC and Wellcome Trust, the BJOG editorial board, the RCOG Wellbeing of Women Research Panel, various committees of the WHO, the Early Pregnancy Clinical Studies Group, the Reproductive Medicine Clinical Studies Group, and the GLOW organising committee.

Professor Coomarasamy is a founding trustee of Ammalife (www.ammalife.org), an international charity with a mission to find solutions for maternal health problems through practical research and sustainable projects in the developing world. He is an enthusiastic communicator on the theme of research into global women’s health, and frequently delivers talks and seminars on this theme to a range of groups at local and national levels.

Professor Coomarasamy also maintains clinical responsibilities as a consultant gynaecologist with a special interest in early pregnancy management and reproductive medicine.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Muriithi, FG, Banke-Thomas, A, Forbes, G, Gakuo, RW, Thomas, E, Gallos, ID, Devall, A, Coomarasamy, A & Lorencatto, F 2024, 'A systematic review of behaviour change interventions to improve maternal health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa', PLOS Global Public Health, vol. 4, no. 2, e0002950. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002950

Bamford, T, Easter, C, Montgomery, S, Smith, R, Dhillon-Smith, RK, Barrie, A, Campbell, A & Coomarasamy, A 2023, 'A comparison of 12 machine learning models developed to predict ploidy, using a morphokinetic meta-dataset of 8147 embryos', Human Reproduction, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 569-581. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dead034

Ralapanawe, MSB, Gajaweera, SL, Karunaratne, N, Dissnayake, VHW, Price, MJ, Melo, P, Coomarasamy, A & Gallos, ID 2023, 'A comprehensive analysis of chromosomal polymorphic variants on reproductive outcomes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment', Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, 1319. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28552-w

Dhillon-Smith, RK, Melo, P, Devall, AJ, Smith, PP, Al-Memar, M, Barnhart, K, Condous, G, Christiansen, OB, Goddijn, M, Jurkovic, D, Lissauer, D, Maheshwari, A, Oladapo, OT, Preisler, J, Regan, L, Small, R, Stephenson, M, Wijeyaratne, C, Quenby, S, Bourne, T & Coomarasamy, A 2023, 'A core outcome set for trials in miscarriage management and prevention: An international consensus development study', BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.17484

Hemming, K, Melo, P, Luo, R, Taljaard, M & Coomarasamy, A 2023, 'A re‐analysis of 150 women's health trials to investigate how the Bayesian approach may offer a solution to the misinterpretation of statistical findings', BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.17570

Bamford, T, Smith, R, Easter, C, Dhillon-Smith, R, Barrie, A, Montgomery, S, Campbell, A & Coomarasamy, A 2023, 'Association between a morphokinetic ploidy prediction model risk score and miscarriage and live birth: a multicentre cohort study', Fertility and Sterility, vol. 120, no. 4, pp. 834-843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2023.06.006

Horne, AW, Tong, S, Moakes, C, Middleton, L, Duncan, WC, Mol, B, Whitaker, LHR, Jurkovic, D, Coomarasamy, A, Nunes, N, Holland, T, Clarke, F, Doust, AM, Daniels, J & for the GEM3 collaborative 2023, 'Combination of gefitinib and methotrexate to treat tubal ectopic pregnancy (GEM3): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial', The Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02478-3

Ahmed, SI, Rind, GK, Sikandar, R, Raza, A, Khowaja, BMH, Parveen, F, Khan, S, Memon, N, Jahangir, A, Mirza, DN, Cheshire, J, Dunlop, CL, Shakoor, S, Barolia, R, Sheikh, L, Saleem, S, Coomarasamy, A & Lissauer, D 2023, 'Early recognition and management of maternal sepsis in Pakistan: a feasibility study of the implementation of FAST-M intervention', BMJ open, vol. 13, no. 7, e069135. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069135

Gill, S, Cheed, V, Morton, VAH, Gill, D, Boelaert, K, Chan, S, Coomarasamy, A & Dhillon-Smith, RK 2023, 'Evaluating the Progression to Hypothyroidism in Preconception Euthyroid Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody-Positive Women', The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, vol. 108, no. 1, pp. 124-134. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac525

Ahmed, SI, Khowaja, BMH, Barolia, R, Sikandar, R, Rind, GK, Jahangir, A, Parveen, F, Cheshire, J, Dunlop, C, Petrucka, PM, Sheikh, L, Coomarasamy, A, Lissauer, D & Nausheen, S (ed.) 2023, 'Evaluation of the FAST-M maternal sepsis intervention in Pakistan: A qualitative exploratory study', PLOS One, vol. 18, no. 4, e0284530. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284530

Forbes, G, Akter, S, Miller, S, Galadanci, H, Qureshi, Z, Fawcus, S, Hofmeyr, GJ, Moran, N, Singata-Madliki, M, Dankishiya, F, Gwako, G, Osoti, A, Thomas, E, Gallos, I, Mammoliti, K-M, Devall, A, Coomarasamy, A, Althabe, F, Atkins, L, Bohren, MA & Lorencatto, F 2023, 'Factors influencing postpartum haemorrhage detection and management and the implementation of a new postpartum haemorrhage care bundle (E-MOTIVE) in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa', Implementation Science, vol. 18, no. 1, 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-022-01253-0

GEM3 Collaborative Group 2023, 'Gefitinib and methotrexate to resolve tubal ectopic pregnancy: the GEM3 RCT', Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation, vol. 10, no. 1. https://doi.org/0.3310/NNZF1037

Dhillon-Smith, RK, Melo, P, Kaur, R, Fox, E, Devall, A, Woodhead, N & Coomarasamy, A 2023, 'Interventions to prevent miscarriage', Fertility and Sterility. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2023.08.955

Comment/debate

Ralapanawe, MSB, Gajaweera, SL, Karunaratne, N, Dissanayake, VHW, Price, MJ, Melo, P, Coomarasamy, A & Gallos, ID 2023, 'Author Correction: A comprehensive analysis of chromosomal polymorphic variants on reproductive outcomes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment', Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36732-x

Review article

Melo, P, Dhillon-Smith, R, Islam, MA, Devall, A & Coomarasamy, A 2023, 'Genetic causes of sporadic and recurrent miscarriage', Fertility and Sterility, vol. 120, no. 5, pp. 940-944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2023.08.952

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Maternal Health

Developing World

Miscarriage