Thank you for your interest in the Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowship program at UMass Chan Medical School and clinical partner UMass Memorial Medical Center. Our program's mission is to train our fellows to become well-rounded clinicians, educators, and leaders in a supportive and collegial environment.
The Obstetrics & Gynecology department is dedicated to addressing, advocating for, and advancing the reproductive health and social and structural determinants of health and welfare, of women and gender-diverse persons cared for by current and future specialists, academic specialists, and subspecialists in obstetrics and gynecology.
Our faculty, fellows and residents are core drivers of this mission.
Sincerely,
Heidi Leftwich, DO; Program Director
Ellen Delpapa, MD; Associate Program Director
Kayla Lebron; Program Coordinator
Dr. Tiffany A. Moore Simas
Dear Applicant,
I am thrilled to share information with you about our Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowship training program. I am writing as Department Chair and as a proud alumna of one of our GME training programs (Ob/Gyn residency).
I can state unequivocally that we have an excellent program with dedicated faculty that offer and continuously iterate improvements in all aspects of our curriculum – improvements driven by changes in standards of care, regulations, education theory, and resident/fellow/faculty input. Our mission is to not just train, but to inspire, the next generation of subspecialists in Maternal-Fetal Medicine to be compassionate and outstanding clinicians, educators, research scientists, advocates, leaders, and lifelong learners.
Thank you for your interest in the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School/UMass Memorial Health. As the Fellowship Director, I am excited to share with you some of the exciting opportunities our fellows experience while completing our fellowship program. During this 3-year fellowship, our fellows attend classes in the Graduate School to gain important skills and education in research planning and development as was as statistical methodology and programs to culminate in a Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI). Research opportunities include randomized controlled trials, basic science/translational projects, qualitative studies as well as large retrospective cohort studies. The faculty remain supportive of all areas of interest for scholarship from our fellows and we welcome diverse interests/goals.
We are a tertiary care hospital with a busy labor and delivery, housing critical care OB within the unit, allowing for the comprehensive and compassionate care for our highest risk patients. Our large catchment area allows for numerous antepartum transports and gives our fellows a wide range of experience with medical and fetal complications.
Our ambulatory clinics cover all aspects of preconception, antepartum, and fetal care, with our MFM faculty and fellows performing full-spectrum obstetrics including prenatal care for their own personal panel of patients in a continuity clinic and labor and delivery. There is a dedicated Diabetes in Pregnancy clinic, where fellows staff patients with the residents as well as learn about more complex diabetes cases such as Type 1 diabetes, continuous glucose monitoring usage and diabetic ketoacidosis, although patients with diabetes are also seen in other maternal-fetal medicine clinical experiences. Our fetal specialty clinic is a “fellow favorite” and is an interdisciplinary outpatient model that support patients with pregnancies complicated by ultrasound and/or chromosomal abnormalities.
Our ultrasound experience is hands-on, with the first year of fellowship spending much of the time of the ultrasound rotation physically scanning patients and reviewing images with supervising faculty. Our curriculum follows anatomic system-based training and the timeline is tailored to the learner, as some come with varying levels of previous training.
Our dedicated faculty are involved in every level of teaching/mentoring of our fellows. They bring a combined almost 100 years of experience in MFM and have diverse interests within our field. We are searching for candidates who are dedicated to moving our field forward by research, quality patient care, and advocacy. We look forward to the opportunity to meet with you and would welcome any questions regarding our program.
Sincerely,
Heidi K. Leftwich, DO (she/her)
Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Fellowship Director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Read More from our Program Director
We, the resident physicians in Obstetrics and Gynecology and the leadership of the OBGYN residency program at the academic health sciences center formed by the UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center, take a strong stance to condemn the racism, violence, oppression, and racial injustice towards Black and Brown people that have plagued our country for years. We condemn the murders of three unarmed Black Americans, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, at the hands of excessive force by law enforcement. We grieve their deaths, as well as the countless other Black and Brown persons who have been victims of racial hate crimes.
We recognize and stand against the pervasive systemic racism towards people of color caused by white privilege and white supremacy. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already had a disproportionate impact on people of color and their health and well being, recent events of racially based violence only heighten already evident disparities in health care for Black and Brown people.
We are heartbroken for our colleagues, neighbors, and patients of color, and we offer our solidarity and support in light of these unspeakable atrocities.
As OBGYNs, we are committed to serving our community by providing comprehensive and culturally competent reproductive health care, including caring for those members of our society who are marginalized and suffering from systemic racial injustices. In order to reduce the racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, we need to speak up at moments of great social injustice. We know that silence is not an option — not now, not ever.
In this moment and always, we pledge to provide un-biased, excellent clinical care to our patients. We pledge to recognize and acknowledge our own biases and privilege in order to be able to fully support and care for our patients of color. We are committed to our community, our patients, our colleagues, and our medical students. We pledge to uphold the tenets of diversity, inclusion, and equity and stand against intolerance, hatred, and racism.
In solidarity,
The OBGYN Department Residents, Fellows, Faculty, and Staff
Worcester, known as the “Heart of the Commonwealth” is located in Central Massachusetts
