 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Boston University
The fellowship program at Boston University began in 2001. Boston University and Boston Medical Center have a long and very well-known history of care to the community and of medical education. Boston Medical Center had well-established family planning services and pregnancy termination services when the fellowship began in 2001 with Dr. Phillip Stubblefield and Dr. Lynn Borgatta. Since then clinical and research programs have continued to grow, and linkages with other departments and institution have continued to develop.
Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a private, not for profit, 547-licensed bed academic medical center located in Boston's historic South End. The hospital is the primary teaching affiliate for Boston University School of Medicine. BMC was created 10 years ago by the merger of Boston City Hospital, a famous charity hospital with a long history of community service and of training physicians, and Boston University Medical Center, a private teaching hospital. Boston Medical Center, with its mission to provide consistently accessible health services to all, is the largest safety net hospital in New England. With an emphasis on community-based care and the network of affiliated community health centers, Boston Medical Center provides a full spectrum of health care services, from primary to advanced specialty care. The buildings being completed now include an expansion of biomedical research facilities and the clinical and research oncology services and an ambulatory operative suite. Consistent with the mission of community service, Boston Medical Center has provided abortion services since legalization. All services are provided at Boston Medical Center: first and second trimester surgical services are performed in the Gynecologic Procedure Unit which is part of the out-patient clinic, early medical abortions are performed in the family planning clinic, and labor induction abortions are performed on the gynecology service. The medical campus includes the medical school, biomedical research, and the School of Public Health so that almost all activities take place within a several block radius. MPH programs are available at Boston University School of Public Health, located within the medical campus, in multiple disciplines including maternal and child health, epidemiology, international health, biostatistics, ethics, health law and policy. MS degrees are also available. In addition to the concentrations above, there is a multidisciplinary MS program in clinical research. Other MS concentrations may be arranged on an individual basis. Research projects can include a broad range of topics, including all aspects of clinical contraceptive use, abortion techniques, behavioral assessments and assessment of decision-making, evaluation of domestic or international family planning programs. Basic science research is an option; Dr. Deborah Anderson leads the group of immunology researchers. Other basic science liaisons are encouraged. Fellows enroll in the CREST program, a multi-disciplinary NIH-funded program to foster clinical research among fellows. The curriculum is designed to dove-tail with courses in the School of Public Health, and includes internship on the IRB. Fellow research projects are presented to the group and the mentors. Within Boston Medical Center, the fellowship enjoys a strong collaborative relationship with the Department of Family Medicine. Family medicine residents rotate through family planning and abortion services. Several midwives have been medical abortion providers, and have collaborated on research projects concerning medical abortion and post-partum contraception. We have had a productive and continuing research partnership with the Tufts University Division of Genetics. The Division of General Internal Medicine has a women’s health fellowship as part of the Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. Fellows have had collaborative work with reproductive health organizations such as Ibis Reproductive Health and Ipas. In the Boston area there are many advocacy groups such as the Abortion Access Project, Massachusetts NARAL, and policy groups such as the Department of Public Health. Services for refugees and the Asylum Projects are multidisciplinary and include members of the School of Public Health, psychiatry, and internal medicine.Drs. Borgatta and Stubblefield are both mentors to all fellows. This includes technical, research, and writing assistance, and well as networking and professional development. The structure of the program is such that fellow and mentor may meet informally several times per week, and more formally as needed. Other faculty are available for mentoring depending on the fellows interests. Fellows have arranged international experience(s) through a variety of networks including past fellows and colleagues. In addition, the resources of the Fellowship National Office are now available. All fellows have obtained placements that were individualized and satisfactory experiences. Past trips have included Kenya, Mexico, Uzbekistan, Caribbean Islands.
Lynn Borgatta, MD, MPH received her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, her M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and her MPH from Columbia University. She completed her residency at St. Luke’s-Womens Hospital in New York and is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology. She worked for Montefiore Hospital and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and then became the medical director of Planned Parenthood of Westchester, Rockland, and Putman Counties (NY). She came to Boston University in 1997. Since then, she has been responsible for expansion of the family planning and abortion services, and integration of nurse-clinicians and family medicine into all services. More recently, the Essure program was added to other outpatient procedures. Her research interests center around techniques of medical and surgical abortion, passage of trophoblastic cells and nucleotides to the woman during early pregnancy, and treatment of early pregnancy failure. She has continued her relationship with Planned Parenthood Federation of American and currently serves on the National Medical Committee. She is a co-editor, along with Dr. Stubblefield, of A Clinician’s Guide to Medical and Surgical Abortion. Phillip Stubblefield, MD came to Boston from Kansas to be educated and graduated from Harvard College in 1962 and the Medical School in 1966. He did a surgical internship at the University of Michigan Hospital and then served as a U.S. Public Health Service Officer assigned to the Peace Corps until returning to Harvard in 1970 for residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston Hospital for Women. After residency he worked 2 years at the Preterm Reproductive Health Clinic in Brookline, then joined Dr. Kenneth Ryan’s faculty at Boston Hospital for Women, where he directed one of the first U.S. hospital units organized to provide abortion services. He subsequently practiced at the Mass. General Hospital, and then became Chief of Ob/Gyn at the Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass. In 1988 he moved to Portland Maine as Chief of Ob/Gyn at Maine Medical Center, and then returned to Boston in 1994 to become Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University . Since 2004 he has continued at BMC as Professor of Ob/Gyn and Associate Director of the Fellowship in Family Planning . Abiding interests through his career have included the problem of preterm birth, and the role of fertility control in the health of women. He is author of more than 150 articles and textbook chapters, many of them on contraception. Dr. Stubblefield and his wife Linda have three grown children and one beautiful granddaughter.
Research and Clinical Interests of the Directors
Current Faculty Research Projects
|