by Amy Spangler
July 01, 2010

Taxed with too many questions and too little time, but intent on meeting the needs of parents and health professionals alike, Dr. Thomas Hale is planning to create a national call center at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. The InfantRisk Center will be associated with the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health and will give callers up-to-date, evidence-based information on the use of medications during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

Hale, Professor of Pediatrics at Texas Tech University and author of Medications and Mother’s Milk, hopes to have the call center up and running by the end of July 2010 and is asking for help in building the center. Those interested in partnering with Dr. Hale can make an online donation.

With more than 4 million babies born each year in the U.S., and an increasing number of pregnant women taking a variety of medications, InfantRisk will serve not only as a source of information but as repository for data on specific medications and related side effects. The Texas Tech facility will complement existing sources of information on the use of drugs in pregnant and breastfeeding moms including local poison control centers and LactMed, a database maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

For more information contact the call center at (806) 352-2519.