Katherine J. Gold, M.D., M.S.W., M.S.

Department of Family Medicine
University of Michigan Medical School
1018 Fuller St.
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104-1213

Dr. Katherine J. Gold is a family physician, obstetrics and mental health researcher, and an associate professor in the University of Michigan Departments of Family Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology. As a family physician, she sees patients at Domino’s Farms Family Medicine and delivers babies and cares for newborns at the University of Michigan Hospitals. She also provides free prenatal, postpartum and infant care (through one year of life) with the mobile Luke Clinic, which serves any family in the metro Detroit area.

Dr. Gold researches the impact of poor obstetrical outcomes on parents, families, and providers with particular interest in mental and physical health outcomes and health behaviors in subsequent pregnancies. She is interested in racial disparities in perinatal loss, risk factors, stillbirth and neonatal death, physician communication training in death and bereavement, reduction of tobacco use during pregnancy, and mental health in the perinatal period. She has a special interest in stillbirth prevention in Africa and other low-income countries. She also researches physician wellness, mental health, and suicide. Her research has been featured in the Washington Post, STAT, and the White House.

Dr. Gold completed a two-year research training program for physicians through the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and an NIH research fellowship: BIRCWH (Building Interdisciplinary Careers in Women's Health). She has several completed and on-going research projects related to perinatal death (stillbirth and infant death) and publishes and speaks nationally on this topic. She also has served as a James C. Puffer/American Board of Family Medicine Fellow at the National Academy of Medicine.

She sees patients at Family Medicine at Domino's Farms →

Research Interests

• Impact of pregnancy loss (including stillbirth and infant death) on maternal mental, physical and reproductive health
• Stillbirth prevention in developing countries
• Pregnancy and postpartum mental health for women in the U.S. and Africa
• Physician wellness and mental health

Clinical Interests

• Obstetrics
• Women's health
• Mental health
• Care for underserved populations
• Grief and bereavement
• Death and dying

Department Areas

• Behavioral Health in Primary Care
• Reproductive and Women's Health
• Global Primary Care
• Clinical Informatics and Technology

Medical School

• M.D., University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2001

Residency

• University of Michigan Health System, Department of Family Medicine, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2005

Advanced Degrees

• M.S.W., Social Work, Interpersonal Practice, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1995

• M.S., Health and Health Care Research, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2006

Professional Organizations

• American Academy of Family Physicians
• Society of Teachers of Family Medicine

Board Certification

• Family Medicine

Maternal Mental and Physical Health Outcomes after Stillbirth and Infant Death

Principal Investigator
Funded by The National Institutes of Health, The National Institute of Mental Health

Little is known about the long-term impact of perinatal loss on surviving mothers, its effect on subsequent prenatal health behaviors and its impact on outcomes of their subsequent pregnancies. Findings may potentially help to identify populations of women at highest risk for mental illness after such a loss, measure the impact of hospital care on maternal psychiatric morbidity, quantify the economic costs of maternal health care in the years following such a loss, and improve fetal outcomes in subsequent pregnancies.

Key Publications

1. Gold KJ. A piece of my mind. In the still of the night. JAMA, 2011; 306(12):1303-4.
2. Gold KJ, Singh V, Marcus SM, Palladino CL. Mental health, substance use, and intimate partner problems among pregnant and postpartum suicide victims in the National Violent Death Reporting System. Gen Hosp Psych, 2012;34(2):139-45.
3. Gold KJ, Sen A, Schwenk TL. Details on suicide among US physicians: data from the National Violent Death Reporting System. Gen Hosp Psychiatry, 2013;35(1):45-9
4. Gold KJ, Spangenberg K, Wobil P, Schwenk TL. Depression and risk factors for depression among mothers of sick infants in Kumasi, Ghana. Int J Gyn Obstet, 2013;120(3):228-31.
5. Gold KJ, Sen A, Xu X. Hospital Costs Associated with Stillbirth Delivery. Mat Child Health J, 2013;17(10):1835-41.
6. Gold KJ, Andrew LB, Goldman EB, Schwenk TL. “I would never want to have a mental health diagnosis on my record”: A survey of female physicians on mental health diagnosis, treatment, and reporting. Gen Hosp Psych, 43:51-7, 2016.
7. Gold KJ, Shih ER, Goldman EB, Schwenk TL. Do U.S. medical licensing applications treat mental and physical illness equivalently? Fam Med, 49(6):464-7, 2017. Gold KJ, Schwenk TL, Sen A. Physician suicide in the United States: Updated estimates from the National Violent Death Reporting System. Psychol Health Med. 2021. Online ahead of print. doi:10.1080/13548506.2021.1903053.
8. Gold KJ, Goldman EB, Kamil LH, Walton S, Burdette TG, Moseley KL. No appointment necessary? Ethical challenges in treating friends and family. N Engl J Med, 2014;371(13):1254-8.
9. Gold KJ, Garrison B, Garrison S, Armbruster P. A novel model for a free clinic for prenatal and infant care in Detroit. Mat Child Health. 24(7):817-22. 2020. DOI: 10.1007/s10995-020-02927-1.
10. Gold KJ, Abdul-Mumin AR, Boggs ME, Opare-Addo HS, Lieberman RW. Assessment of "fresh" versus "macerated" as accurate markers of time since intrauterine fetal demise in low-income countries. Int J Gynaecol Obstet, 2014;125(3):223-7. PMCID: PMC4025909
11. Heazell AEP, Siassokos D, Blencowe H, Cacciatore J, Cang N, Flenady V, Gold KJ, Mensah OK, Millum J, Nuzum D, O’Donoghue K, Redshaw M, Roberts T, Saraki Y, Storey C, Wojcieszek AM, Downe S, and the Stillbirth Series Steering Group. Stillbirths: economic and psychosocial consequences. Lancet, 2016;387(10018):604-16.
12. Gold KJ, Leon I, Boggs ME, Sen A. Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder after perinatal loss in a population-based study. J Women’s Health, 2016;25(3):263-9. PMCID: PMC4955602
13. Gold KJ, Sen A, Leon I. Whose fault is it anyway? Guilt, blame, and death attribution by mothers after stillbirth or infant death. Illness, Crisis, and Loss. 2018. 26(1): 40-57. Invited submission.