I am Dr. Tolúwalàṣé (Laṣé) Ajayi, MD FAAP, a fellowship-trained palliative care physician and pediatrician. I am currently the Director of Clinical Research and Diversity Initiatives at Scripps Research Translational Institute as well as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UC San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego where I work as a community hospitalist and pediatric palliative medicine physician; and also serve as the medical director of adult palliative medicine at Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego.

I am a member of the Pediatric Operations Task Force and on the Digital Health Technologies committee of the All of Us Research Program with the National Institutes of Health. My research focuses on opportunities at the intersection of novel digital medicine technologies and unmet needs in maternal fetal health as well as pain and palliative medicine. I hope to increase participation of pregnant women and their newborn in clinical research and further investigate how mobile health can provide real time, patient reported outcomes that can be rapidly integrated into individualized clinical plans to improve health related quality of life. With these efforts, I hope to diversify the standard of care provided to pregnant women and augment how we manage the symptoms prevalent in serious illness, with the goal of decreasing distress and associated hospital and emergency room utilization.

I am the Lead Researcher for the PowerMom Initiative, at Scripps Hospital in San Diego. As part of the Scripps Research Digital Trials Center, PowerMom was born out of a long-time commitment from one of the nation’s leading non-profit research institutions to transform medical research through digital data. We are committed to uncovering patterns in healthy pregnancies and discovering answers to questions moms (and soon-to-be-moms) have about their bodies and their growing babies. We are working to answer important questions about what makes a healthy pregnancy for the diverse pregnant population in an effort to ensure the health and well-being of all moms and babies for generations to come.

I am also a mother of two myself and so understand the needs of birthing women and how Doulas especially for women of color are so important to help address perinatal and infant health inequities and disparities. That is why I am happy to serve on the board of Happy Mama Healthy Baby Alliance.