Message from the Program Director

Dear Applicant,

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 Program 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 are able to attend classes in the Graduate School to gain important skills and education in research planning and development as well 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 and learn about more complex diabetes cases such as Type 1 diabetes, continuous glucose monitoring usage and diabetic ketoacidosis. Patients with diabetes are also seen in other Maternal-Fetal Medicine clinical experiences. We have a new cardio-obstetrics clinic, dedicated to the care of pregnant patients with congenital heart disease. 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 and 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 Program Director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine