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.