 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
University of Illinois at Chicago
At the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), post-graduate Obstetrician-Gynecologists may complete a two year Fellowship training program to become leaders in the Family Planning subspecialty; able to provide family planning specialty clinical care, perform original research and direct policy administration upon graduation. This fellowship was founded in 2000, and was the first fellowship in the city of Chicago. Bryna Harwood, MD, MS, joined the faculty at UIC in July 2006 to become Chief of the Section of Family Planning and direct the Family Planning Fellowship with Dr. Sarah Kilpatrick and Dr. Allison Cowett. Three fellows have graduated from the program: two of the graduates are Family Planning specialists in major academic centers and the third directs Family Planning services in a large county hospital system. The city of Chicago (population 2.9 million) and its surrounding suburbs in Cook County have a total population of 5.4 million and support 32 hospitals and medical centers, 6 medical schools and 12 residency programs in obstetrics and gynecology. UIC is the largest institution of higher learning in the Chicago area, and a significant center for education, research, and public service. The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago (UIMCC) is one of the world’s largest health care centers. UIMCC is conveniently located in the west side Medical Center district, two miles from downtown Chicago’s famous LOOP. All of UIC's health professions colleges are housed within this district. UIC has had an enduring commitment to women’s health care and research for the past 4 decades; designated a National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health since 1998 and houses the NIH-funded Clinical Research Training Program since 2004. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, under the direction of Dr. Sarah Kilpatrick, is recognized for its high-level clinical services to women as well as its emphasis on medical education, faculty scholarship and research.Potential research projects for fellows include ongoing research or new investigator-initiated projects. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology has an active basic science investigation in reproductive endocrinology and immunology. The Department recently established a Division of Clinical Research which will occupy 10,000 square feet of new, dedicated space devoted to clinical trials and patient-oriented research. The Division contains research nurses, research assistants, a data manager, an epidemiologist, a statistician, and clinical research support staff. Fellows will also participate in the new Kenneth Ryan Residency Training Program.
Family Planning fellows at UIC will gain clinical experience providing family planning services; pregnancy terminations in the first and second trimester using medical and surgical techniques, female sterilization techniques, complex contraceptive consultation and all available methods of contraceptive procedures. Fellows will provide care in several settings; both inpatient and outpatient within the medical center and in freestanding clinics. The UIC Center for Reproductive Health, under the direction of Dr. Allison Cowett offers the full range of family planning services in an outpatient setting and facilitates practicum experiences for residents and medical students. Fellows will also participate in abortion care at Planned Parenthood in Chicago for training in first and second trimester procedures, under the direction of Murray Pelta, MD. Fellows may complete their requirement for graduate training in a related research program through several outstanding degree programs at UIC depending upon the particular background and training goals for each individual fellow. The UIC School of Public Health (SPH), established in 1970, is the only fully accredited school of public health in the state of Illinois and is widely recognized for its programs in prevention research, maternal child health, and public health practice and leadership. The educational programs offered by the School lead to the following degrees: Master's of Public Health (MPH), Master's of Science (MS), Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). The Division of Community Health Sciences (CHS) within the SPH focuses on the creation and testing of multidisciplinary interventions to address health problems. CHS faculty provide students with the ability to examine the effects of the social, political, economic, and policy environments on health status and health disparities, and provide students with the skills necessary to: assess health status needs of individuals and communities; develop, monitor and evaluate programs, policies and systems; and turn data into information for program, policy and system change, in order to reach the Healthy People 2010 objectives and beyond. CHS has four academic tracks (maternal child health, gerontology, behavioral sciences and generalist) and a degree program entitled Professional Enhancement Program (PEP), designed for health professionals. The PEP includes a strong foundation in epidemiologic, methodological, and analytic coursework leading to the MPH degree, adapted to each student's past experience and career goals. In addition, fellows may pursue a Master of Science through the Graduate College in any field related to their research and academic interests in Family Planning. Finally, the Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP), an NIH-funded funded program, is a collaborative effort of the all of the allied health professions college within the University of Illinois Medical Center. The CRTP is a two year training program designed to provide clinicians with the skills needed to be productive clinical researchers. Trainees will receive a Master of Science in Clinical Research from the School of Public Health having the analytical and theoretical knowledge, professional skills and research experience needed to flourish as a clinical researcher.
Research training for fellows will include didactic training in graduate level coursework in the School of Public Health, the Clinical Research Training Program, and the Graduate College, as well as direct mentorship from the Fellowship Directors and the fellowship mentorship team, through weekly fellowship research meetings, weekly combined family planning didactic meetings, individual meetings with research mentors, multidisciplinary women’s health brown bag series, and journal club seminars for Family Planning. The first year fellow will complete the graduate coursework and develop the research question and plan for the fellowship project and the second year fellow will concentrate on participation in ongoing research projects as well as completion of their fellowship research project. In addition, fellows will be integrated into all Family Planning Research activities in the Section of Family Planning (the design, conduct, analysis and presentation of research).
University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago (UIMCC) and the UIC School of Medicine have a long established focus on research and women’s health research in particular as well as well-established mechanisms for academic collaboration. The College of Medicine at UIC has constructed a state-of-the-art College of Medicine Research Building (COMRB) with dedicated space for research focused on reproductive biology on the first floor. In addition, women’s health-related scholarship has flourished in the health sciences (schools of nursing, medicine, and public health), the social sciences and humanities at UIC, facilitated by the establishment of the Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) program. Since 1998, UIC has been designated as a National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health (CoE), directed by Dr. Stacie Geller, fulltime faculty in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the School of Public Health. The CoE provides a rich collaborative environment for women’s health at UIC. The CoE and CRWG together provide support to facilitate collaboration of researchers interested in women’s health and include faculty from across the health sciences with a database of the more than 225 women’s health researchers on the UIC campus. The UIC Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP) is a collaborative effort of the allied health professions colleges with a firm commitment to serving the entire population of the Chicago area through education, research and service. There are ongoing seminar series to foster collaborative activities including one that provides a forum for trainees to present their work in progress, one with established clinical researchers generally from UIC and other Chicago institutions, and one that focuses on translating basic and social science into clinical practice. The UIC School of Public Health (SPH) also provides an ideal environment for academic collaboration. SPH faculty are involved in a wide variety of federally, state, locally, and privately funded research projects. They collaborate with a variety of affiliated or sponsored centers including the Center for Public Health Practice, the Institute for Health Research and Policy, the Great Lakes Center for Environmental Health, the Center for the Advancement of Distance Education (CADE), the International Center for Health Leadership Development, and the Naomi Morris Collaborative for Community Assessment and Evaluation. In addition, Dr. Harwood and Dr. Cowett collaborate with Drs. Emily Godfrey and Maria Devens in the Department of Family Medicine for Family Planning resident teaching activities. This Family Planning teaching cooperative provides a weekly didactic series in Family Planning for residents in Obstetrics and Gynecology and residents in Family Medicine who rotate through their respective Family Planning rotations. This series covers fundamental topics in Family Planning including Options Counseling, Values Clarification and Reflection, and lectures on Contraception, medical and surgical abortion and management of early pregnancy failure. The fellowship at UIC will provide mentorship to fellows using a multidisciplinary team approach, led by the Fellowship Directors; Drs. Harwood, Kilpatrick and Cowett. The team will meet together regularly with fellows to review research progress and career development, providing direct mentorship and assisting in identifying other collaborative mentors for the fellows. Stacie Geller, PhD (Director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender and the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the College of Medicine and the School of Public Health) and Arden Handler, DrPh (Director of the Maternal Child Health Epidemiology Program and Co-director of the Maternal Child Health Training Program both in the School of Public Health, Professor of Community Health Sciences), both with strong backgrounds in epidemiology, public health and women’s health research will be dedicated members of the mentorship team. In addition, Dr. Emily Godfrey (Former Fellow, University of Rochester) from the Department of Family Medicine and Dr. Jennifer Hardman in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology will participate in the team mentorship for fellows. To support these mentorship and research activities, the Section of Family Planning has dedicated office space, research assistance and administrative support for the research activities in Family Planning. Family planning fellows will have the opportunity to actively participate in Family Planning research and/or clinical activities in an international family planning experience during their second year. The goal of this fellowship activity is to broaden the fellow’s understanding of the geopolitical, economic and cultural variables that impact the provision of Family Planning services and the performance of Family Planning research. The mentorship team will assist the fellows in seeking and obtaining international placement so that the experience may be as meaningful and productive as possible. Many UIC faculty have ongoing international projects in which fellows may participate. Dr. Geller has worked closely with Dr. Patel on research and service projects for Family Planning in India. Drs. Nordstrom and Irwin in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology both have established clinical programs in South America and East Asia respectively. Finally, Dr. Peacock, in the School of Public Health and a research collaborator with the Section of Family Planning, has ongoing research projects in Africa. International work is not mandatory; however, it is encouraged as a unique opportunity to gain a broader perspective of Family Planning.
About the Directors and Faculty Bryna Harwood, MD, MS (Director) is currently an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UIC, and Director of both the Section of Family Planning and the Fellowship of Family Planning in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecolgoy. She was the first fellow to graduate from the USC Family Planning Fellowship in 2001 and subsequently joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh as the Assistant Director of the Family Planning Fellowship at Magee-Womens Hospital until she joined the UIC faculty in 2006 to become Director of the Family Planning Section. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in Linguistics, Dr. Harwood received her MD at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco. Research interests: Dr. Harwood has a research interest in evaluating the safety and efficacy of contraceptive and abortion methods, and in applying the research methods of epidemiology, clinical intervention trial methods, survey, qualitative and decision science to improve our knowledge of contraceptive efficacy and effectiveness. Her research focus within Family Planning is in the areas of contraceptive decisions and behaviors and the integration of Family Planning and HIV/STI prevention. Sarah J. Kilpatrick, MD, PhD (Co-Director) is a nationally known Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist with extensive research and mentorship experience. Currently she is Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Vice Dean for the College of Medicine and actively mentors the MFM fellows in the Department. Dr. Kilpatrick received her BA in Psychology at Newcomb College in New Orleans, her PhD in Biopsychology at the University of Chicago, and her MD at Tulane University. She completed her training in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, where she remained on faculty before joining the faculty at UIC. Research interest: Dr. Kilpatrick’s research interests lie in clinical obstetrics including maternal morbidity and mortality, very preterm birth management and outcomes, amniotic fluid dynamics, and labor. She has focused on promoting collaborative and multidisciplinary research, including research collaboration with the School of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy and the School of Public Health. Allison Cowett, MD, MPH (Assistant Director), a graduate of the Northwestern University Family Planning Fellowship, is Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the UIC Center for Reproductive Health. She is a graduate of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University. She went on to complete a Master degree program in Public Health degree at Northwestern University. As the Director of the Center for Reproductive Health, Dr. Cowett oversees the provision of comprehensive contraception and abortion services. Dr. Cowett will directly supervise fellows in the provision of first and second trimester abortion services, contraceptive consultation for women with significant medical risk and train fellows to supervise and train resident physicians in abortion care. She is active in community wide efforts to enhance access to family planning services for women in underserved populations and to forward a legislative agenda that champions women’s reproductive freedom. Research Interest: Dr. Cowett’s research focuses on abortion in the second trimester, factors affecting women’s contraceptive choices and access to family planning services, and obesity and contraception. Description of clinical and research interests of additional faculty mentors Stacie Geller, PhD , Director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender (CRWG) and the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health (CoE), is an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the College of Medicine and the School of Public Health. Dr. Geller holds a PhD in Medical Decision Making and Health Policy and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Geller has had extensive experience in applied clinical research as well as with training and career planning for junior researchers, successfully mentoring more than 20 doctoral candidates, fellows, and junior faculty. In addition to her administrative roles, Dr. Geller has an extensive and well-funded research program in women’s health. Her two primary areas of expertise are maternal and women’s health and complementary and alternative medicine related to women’s health. She has been involved in clinical and epidemiological research throughout her career; her academic position in the College of Medicine and her administrative work in the CoE and CRWG have made her particularly adept in multidisciplinary collaborative research. Arden Handler , DrPh , Director of the Maternal Child Health (MCH) Epidemiology Program and PI and Co-director of the Maternal Child Health Training Program both in the School of Public Health, is a Professor of Community Health Sciences. Dr. Handler received her DrPH in Community Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has extensive research experience in epidemiology, community health sciences, maternal health and women’s health. Her research focus and expertise is in well women preventive health care, particularly prenatal and reproductive health care services. She has a strong track record in the study of low-income women’s pregnancy experiences and associated pregnancy outcomes. She has conducted a number of studies on AA and Latina women’s satisfaction with and utilization of PNC, (Handler, 1996; Handler, 1997; Handler, 1998; Handler, 2003; Handler, 2003; Raube, 1998) She recently completed a study of the effects of welfare reform on low-income women’s insurance status and PNC use (Adams, 2003; Adams, 2005; Handler, 2006; Rosenberg, 2006). She is currently working on several projects with the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services focused on the quality of prenatal care and the role of interconceptional care in birth outcomes (funding forthcoming). As director of the MCH training and Epidemiology programs, Dr. Handler has successfully mentored numerous graduate students, doctoral candidates and is currently the advisor for 8 doctoral candidates in the School of Public Health. She has also participated in a University mentoring program, mentoring junior faculty in related fields. Emily Godfrey , MD, MPH completed her medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin, her Family Medicine residency at West Suburban Hospital and her Family Planning fellowship at the University of Rochester. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine. She is also a consultant physician in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stroger Hospital of Cook County and holds an adjunct appointment as an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for this Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP). Dr. Godfrey served on ARHP’s planning committee for their annual convention from 2003-2005. Dr. Godfrey also participates as an expert faculty in medical abortion, manual vacuum aspiration and intrauterine contraception for several ACCME approved lectures. Her current main research interests are evidence-based medicine, reproductive health teaching in family medicine residency and barriers to contraception use. Dr. Godfrey will participate in the mentorship team for Family Planning Fellows through participation and supervision of Family Planning Didactics and in the development and conduct of Family Planning research.
Research and Clinical Interests of the Directors
Current Faculty Research Projects
Family planning services in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UIMCC under the direction of Dr. Allison Cowett offer the full range reproductive health services in the outpatient and inpatient setting.
|