The principal mission of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Women's Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Career Development Center is to promote health and prevent disease in women by expanding the pool of well-trained, imaginative, productive investigators in the field of women's reproductive health. It is our purpose to recruit and prepare outstanding candidates to acquire the new skills needed to reach this goal. In recent years, board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists from even the most renowned institutions have difficulty obtaining faculty positions following traditional three year postdoctoral fellowships with adequate protected time to establish independent research programs. This challenge to a once successful approach can be traced to four major causes: 1) decreasing reimbursement for clinical services, 2) fundamental changes in undergraduate and graduate medical curricula, 3) increased competition for federal research dollars, and 4) the ever increasing complexity of contemporary research methodologies. As one of the original institutions awarded a WRHR Center, we have established an infrastructure, curriculum and Scholar mentoring system to meet the challenge of training the next generation of academic Obstetrician-Gynecologists. Based on the successes of our first cohort of Scholars, we propose a structured Scholarship program of sufficient duration, relevant didactic education, and immersion into a vibrant, intellectually challenging, research community leading to academic independence. We have learned that appropriate scientific mentoring is mandatory during the initial years of a junior faculty appointment, helping the individual to overcome hurdles that impede a rewarding, successful and productive academic career. Scholars will be recruited to pursue two general arenas, biomedical research and clinical research, in reproductive science. In addition, two general pathways (I and II) have been established to guide relatively inexperienced and more senior Scholars, respectively. Translational research, a burgeoning focus within our department that has benefited from long-standing multidisciplinary partnerships, will be gained through participation in studies bridging the biomedically and clinically oriented projects. We are committed to nurture a cadre of UCSF WRHR Scholars that will improve the health status of women by conducting important discovery, expanding knowledge, and testing innovations for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of reproductive disorders.
| Aaron, Erika; Blum, Cori; Seidman, Dominika et al. (2018) Optimizing Delivery of HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis for Women in the United States. AIDS Patient Care STDS 32:16-23 |
| Sparks, Teresa N; Caughey, Aaron B (2018) How should costs and cost-effectiveness be considered in prenatal genetic testing? Semin Perinatol 42:275-282 |
| Dehlendorf, Christine; Reed, Reiley; Fox, Edith et al. (2018) Ensuring our research reflects our values: The role of family planning research in advancing reproductive autonomy. Contraception 98:4-7 |
| Sperling, Jeffrey D; Sparks, Teresa N; Berger, Victoria K et al. (2018) Prenatal Diagnosis of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia: Does Laterality Predict Perinatal Outcomes? Am J Perinatol 35:919-924 |
| Seidman, Dominika; Weber, Shannon; Carlson, Kimberly et al. (2018) Family planning providers' role in offering PrEP to women. Contraception 97:467-470 |
| Washburn, Erin E; Sparks, Teresa N; Gosnell, Kristen A et al. (2018) Stage I Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome: Outcomes of Expectant Management and Prognostic Features. Am J Perinatol 35:1352-1357 |
| Washburn, Erin E; Sparks, Teresa N; Gosnell, Kristen A et al. (2018) Polyhydramnios Affecting a Recipient-like Twin: Risk of Progression to Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome and Outcomes. Am J Perinatol 35:317-323 |
| Shulman, Rachel; Sparks, Teresa N; Gosnell, Kristen et al. (2018) Fetal Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformation: The Role of an Objective Measurement of Cardiomediastinal Shift. Am J Perinatol : |
| Berger, Victoria K; Sparks, Teresa N; Jelin, Angie C et al. (2018) Non-Immune Hydrops Fetalis: Do Placentomegaly and Polyhydramnios Matter? J Ultrasound Med 37:1185-1191 |
| Parchem, Jacqueline G; Sparks, Teresa N; Gosnell, Kristen et al. (2018) Utility of chromosomal microarray in anomalous fetuses. Prenat Diagn 38:140-147 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 79 publications
