About
Karen Florio, DO, is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist board-certified in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine. She received her maternal-fetal medicine training at the University of Pittsburgh and joined the faculty at Saint Luke’s of Kansas City in 2014. Dr. Florio served as the director for the Heart Disease in Pregnancy clinic from 2014 to 2022, a program she developed in collaboration with the obstetrics department and the prestigious Mid America Heart Institute. She served as an associate professor at UMKC from 2014 to 2022 and was the assistant program director for the maternal-fetal medicine fellowship. She moved to the University of Missouri in Columbia in 2023 where she serves as the vice chair for patient safety and quality.
Outside of her clinical duties, she also serves as the chair of the Missouri Perinatal Mortality Board (PAMR) and is the maternal section lead for the State of Missouri Perinatal Quality Collaborative. Dr. Florio is on several national committees including the March of Dimes Coalition for Optimal and Equitable Maternal Health and the Board of Directors for March of Dimes in the Midwest region.
Dr. Florio’s clinical and research interest is in cardiac disorders of pregnancy. In conjunction with several other centers across the country, she helped develop the nation’s first multidisciplinary registry to study heart disease in pregnancy and is currently the co-primary investigator on that initiative called the Heart Outcomes in Pregnancy Expectations (HOPE) project.
Education & Training
Medical School
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine
Residency
Obstetrics & Gynecology, Gynecology
- New York Methodist Hospital of Brooklyn
Fellowship
Maternal and Fetal Medicine
- University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Boards
Insurances
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Academic Information
Research Profile
Karen Florio, DO, is a co-primary investigator alongside John Spertus, MD in the Heart Outcomes in Pregnancy Expectations (HOPE) Registry, a critical national effort to reduce maternal mortality attributable to heart disease. Dr. Florio has served as the chair-elect for the Missouri Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review (PAMR) committee for the past two years and was recently promoted to chair in 2022. As PAMR lead, she guides state and national efforts to implement public health interventions which help pregnant women with cardiovascular disease. Dr. Florio serves on the board for the Midwest region of the March of Dimes, designating programmatic support and implementation throughout the state for mothers and their children in need of equitable medical services. Her career focus has been on improving quality of care and reducing disparities in care, which has earned Dr. Florio roles such as board member on the national Equitable Maternal Health Coalition of the March of Dimes, a fellowship position in the Kansas City Quality and Value Innovation Consortium, and mentor in the University of Missouri–Kansas City Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Faculty Scholars Program. In coordination with the Mid America Heart Institute, Dr. Florio gained extensive experience in caring for pregnant women with cardiovascular disease. In 2014, she developed the region’s first cardio-obstetrics clinic which has cared for more than 2,000 pregnant women with CV disease. In 2022, Dr. Florio was nominated to serve on the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology/Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (ACOG/AIM) board for the development of the Cardiac Conditions in Obstetric Care bundle. She has enhanced her skills as a clinical researcher through becoming the first non-cardiologist in the esteemed CV Outcomes Research Division as a clinical scholar. This knowledge has been useful in her role as an editorial board member for the American Heart Journal Plus where she has been reviewing cardio-obstetrics papers for peer-reviewed publication.
Research Interests
- Cardiac disease in pregnancy
- Quality improvement
- Hypertension in pregnancy
- Implementation science and biotechnology
Awards & Honors
- 2022 UMKC Quality Improvement Program (QIPS) Scholar
- 2021 selected for IHI cardiac bundle development
- 2021 First non-cardiac provider chosen for Mid-America Heart Institute Clinical Scholars Program
- 2020 Selected for the Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (AIM) Cardiac Bundle development
- 2020 Kansas City QVIC Quality Fellow
- 2017 Recognized by HER Magazine as spotlight provider
- 2015 CREOG Teacher of the Year UMKC
Publications
- Florio KL, Grodzinsky A.
Cardiovascular Indexes in the Era of Preeclampsia: Prevention or Long-Term Outcome Prediction?
J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022 Jan 4;79(1):63-65. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2021.11.003. PMID: 34991790. - Florio KL.
Revisiting the Affordable Care Act Contraceptive Mandate: Is It the White Knight in Our Fight Against Maternal Mortality?
J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2021 Oct;30(10):1370-1371. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2021.0319. PMID: 34613835. - Florio KL, DeZorzi C, Williams EM, Swearingen K, Magalski A.
Cardiovascular Medications in Pregnancy.
Cardiol Clin. 2021 Feb;39(1):33-54. - Florio KL, Kao M, Johnson T, Tuttle H, Nelson L, White D, Patel N, Ramaeker D, Kendig S, Schmidt L, Grodzinsky A, Economy K.
Contraception for the cardiac patient: A cardiologist’s primer.
Curr Treat Op Card Med. 2021. - Williams EM, Daming T, Hostetter S, Florio KL, Grodzinsky A, Lee J, Magalski, Rader V, Schmidt L.
Maternal congenital aortic stenosis: successful management of pregnancy.
Cardiol Cardiovasc Med. 2020; 4(4): 414-417 - Sharma G, Zakaria S, Michos ED, Bhatt AB, Lundberg GP, Florio KL, Vaught AJ, Ouyang P, Mehta L.
Improving Cardiovascular Workforce Competencies in Cardio-Obstetrics: Current Challenges and Future Directions.
J Am Heart Assoc. 2020 Jun 16;9(12).