Greetings from the Chairman

We live in interesting times. Never before have obstetrics and gynecology residency programs faced such profound changes in their academic mission. Today it is impossible to predict whether our field will emerge as a predominantly ambulatory care field providing primary care to women or as a smaller field of subspecialist gynecological surgeons and perinatologists. The future direction of our field is as likely to be shaped by market forces as it is by the concerted planning of our governing organizations (e.g., the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology).

Faced with this rapidly changing environment and the uncertain future direction of our field, our Department has chosen an aggressive and disciplined approach designed to train our future residents to provide the best in primary care/general obstetrics and gynecology while at the same time providing superb exposure to the best in obstetrical and gynecological sonography, breast care, management of the menopause, Ob/Gyn infectious disease, maternal-fetal medicine, reproductive endocrinology and infertility, gynecological oncology, and urogynecology.

In the past four years, we have expanded our training in internal, emergency and neonatal medicine, and added rotations in Ob/Gyn ultrasound, maternal-fetal medicine and gynecological oncology. We have introduced a rigorous didactic program of lectures, journal clubs and conferences. There is a daily one hour morning report attended by residents and attending staff, which covers in-patient low-risk and high-risk obstetrics and reviews the oncology and gynecology services. Supplementing these scheduled programs are periodic one to two day symposia (e.g., laparoscopic surgery and ultrasonography). Residents are provided required reading with weekly CREOG-type quizzes designed to identify and address potential weakness.

Over the past four years, approximately 20 new faculty members have been added to provide better ambulatory and in-patient supervision. Additional changes in the Department include:

1. The opening of two-state-of the-art Prenatal Diagnostic facilities at Tisch and Bellevue Hospitals staffed by international authorities in Ob/Gyn ultrasound, through which the residents rotate;
2. A program in in vitro fertilization, which is not only one of the busiest programs in the country, but boasts one of the highest success rates;
3. An expanded gynecological oncology service buoyed by the addition of a third full-time oncologist;
4. The introduction of new faculty and a fellowship in pelvic reconstructive surgery and urogynecology;
5. A new basic research division with extensive laboratories at Tisch Hospital and multiple NIH grants;
6. A large women's health epidemiology group with extensive databases, over a million dollars in NIH funding and a strong molecular orientation;
7. An Informatics Program which is upgrading our comprehensive Ob/Gyn database and establishing a uniform electronic medical record.

These changes have succeeded in making New York University Hospitals Center a world class center for reproductive medicine and graduate medical education. Our mission is to train the next generation of leaders in academic Obstetrics and Gynecology.

John P. Curtin, MD, MBA
Stanley H. Kaplan Professor and Chairman