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Training and Curriculum

Clinical Training

Inpatient and outpatient teaching of Maternal-Fetal Medicine occurs at both the UCSF Mission Bay campus and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG). The UCSF Mission Bay site provides “quaternary” obstetric and neonatal care, with a range and depth of subspecialty care available, including the Fetal Therapy program. The outpatient program at Mission Bay includes Prenatal Diagnosis, Fetal Cardiology, Fetal Therapy, the Pregnancy and Cardiac Team (PACT), the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program, and the Center for Complex Maternal Care. At ZSFG, the inpatient high-risk obstetrics unit provides care to underserved patients in San Francisco County. As the only Level 1 trauma center in San Francisco and northern San Mateo counties, ZSFG also cares for all pregnant trauma patients. Outpatient obstetric care at ZSFG includes a high-risk pregnancy clinic that cares for high risk patients, many of whom have medical and social co-morbidities complicating their pregnancies.

Rotations include the following:

  • Labor and Delivery supervisor: 2 months (in 3 years)
  • Outpatient (Mission Bay and ZSFG): 3 months per year
  • Prenatal Diagnosis Center (PDC): minimum 1 month per year (typically more)
  • Fetal Cardiology (echo): minimum 2 weeks (in 3 years)
  • Antepartum: 1-3 months per year
  • ICU Parnassus: 1 month (in 3 years)
  • Research: 1–5 months per year (at least 12 months in 3 years)
  • Fetal Treatment Center: minimum 1 month (in 3 years)
  • Clinical Genetics: 2 months (in 3 years)
  • Electives
    • Any of the above required rotations can be done as elective, including additional research
    • Women’s options
    • Neonatology
    • Obstetrical anesthesia
    • Reproductive environmental health

Fellow night call is in-house obstetrics-only at UCSF Mission Bay with approximately two to three calls per month, which counts towards with the 80-hour work week. Fellows are supervised by faculty who are in-house and immediately available.

 

Research Training

MFM fellows have twelve months of protected research time distributed throughout the three years of fellowship. All fellows take a six-week summer course called Training In Clinical Research (TICR), which provides coursework in designing clinical research, introductory biostatistics, and database management. They also participate in monthly MFM Division Research meetings where they have the opportunity to present their ongoing work, monthly journal clubs, and conference-specific brainstorming and preparatory sessions. MFM fellows have the opportunity to complete clinical research, translational, and basic science projects depending on their areas of interest.

The fellowship leadership team works with each fellow to identify research mentors both inside and outside of the division. The Research Oversight Committee, comprised of several core faculty members who oversee the research development of MFM fellows, also meets with fellows at least twice yearly to provide support, guidance, and mentorship. These meetings are in addition to more frequent meetings that occur between fellows and their project mentors.

MFM fellows are very successful in their research, and typically present at multiple national and international conferences throughout their fellowship. The entire MFM Division participates actively in the yearly Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) conference. 

Although our fellows work with many research faculty throughout the division, department, and institution, the following are the main MFM faculty that provide research mentorship.

Mary Norton, MD is the Thornburn Endowed Chair in Perinatal Medicine and Genetics, and the Co-Director of the Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine. She is an MFM/Geneticist who is internationally known in the field of perinatal genetics research, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals. Dr. Norton has a particular interest in non-invasive prenatal testing as well as in fetal sequencing, and has a long track record of participation in multicenter studies with funding from the NIH.

Miriam Kuppermann, PhD, MPH is research faculty, the Director of the Program in Clinical Perinatal and Comparative Effectiveness Research for the MFM Division and Director of Preconception and Prenatal Interventions, and the Transdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative. She has a long track record of research focused on patient-centered outcomes and decision-making with funding from the NIH, AHRQ, and March of Dimes.

Susan Fisher, PhD, is research faculty who leads the Translational Research Program in Perinatal Biology and Medicine in the MFM division and is the Director of the UCSF Human Embryonic Stem Cell Program and Faculty Director of the Sandler-Moore Mass Spectrometry Facility. Her work as been supported by the NIH for over 30 years, and she has trained numerous graduate students and clinical and postdoctoral fellows.

Juan Gonzalez, MD, MS, PhD is the MFM Division Director, Director of the Center for Complex Maternal Care, and Director of the UCSF Pregnancy and Cardiac Treatment Program. He has extensive experience with multicenter studies and clinical research, and his areas of interest span maternal cardiac disease and other complex care in pregnancy, fetal surgical interventions, and novel management approaches for fetal diseases.

Teresa Sparks, MD, MAS, is an MFM/Geneticist, Program Director for the Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowship, a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator, and an investigator for the Center for Maternal-Fetal Precision Medicine. She is the PI for several NIH- and foundation-funded studies focused on understanding the etiologies of non-immune hydrops fetalis, characterizing fetal manifestations of genetic diseases, and developing novel in utero management approaches for genetic diseases.

Stephanie Gaw, MD, PhD, is an MFM physician scientist who conducts basic, translational, and clinical research. She leads the L&D inpatient research recruitment and specimen collection programs at UCSF Mission Bay Hospital and at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Her primary areas of interest are infectious diseases in pregnancy such as malaria, COVID, Zika, and many others.

Melissa Rosenstein, MD, MPH, is an MFM who is Medical Director of Quality and Patient Safety for Obstetrics at UCSF, as well as the Clinical Site Director for the Prenatal Diagnostic Center in Marin. She has maintained the long-standing UCSF Perinatal Research database, and has particular interests in patient safety, quality improvement, and mode of delivery.

Nasim Sobhani, MD, MAS, is an MFM who is the Director for the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program at UCSF. Her research focuses on diabetes and other endocrinologic disorders that complicate pregnancy, as well as on identification of fetal genetic diseases through cell free technology.

Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH is research faculty, the Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, and Director of the Pregnancy Exposure to Environmental Contaminants Research and Prevention Center. Her funding comes from NIEHS, the Wellness Foundation, and USEPA.

Didactic Lectures and Conferences

The main didactics for MFM fellows occur every Wednesday morning. These lectures cover the requirements from the ABOG Guide to Learning in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and are delivered live by UCSF faculty and guest lecturers to enhance the learning experience. Additional lectures and conferences include:

  • OB-Neonatology morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference
  • Fetal Treatment Center (FTC) interdisciplinary meeting
  • Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinical meeting
  • OB/GYN Departmental Grand Rounds
  • Obstetrical ultrasound conference (joint with Radiology)
  • Pregnancy and Cardiac Team (PACT) meeting
  • Diabetes in Pregnancy Program (DAPP) meeting
  • MFM/Genetics Clinical meeting
  • Journal Club (with joint opportunities OB/GYN residents and other fellowships)
  • MFM Division Research meeting
  • MFM fellow Creasy chapter review