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fertility, behavioral health, and breast care, providing patients with the most comprehensive care delivered in convenient community locations. Close working relationships with specialists at other UH facilities – including UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, UH Seidman Cancer Center, UH Neurological Institute, UH Urology Institute and UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute – produce multidisciplinary teams that offer the highest levels of care, yielding better patient outcomes. The goal, according to James Liu, MD, chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center (UHCMC), is to ensure the most advanced care for women — from adolescents to senior citizens. "Efforts are continuously underway to ensure our diagnostic and therapeutic programs, services and equipment are state-of-the-art, and to offer access to the latest clinical trials and research," says Dr. Liu, who is at the forefront of clinical research on women's health issues and treatments. He's also a member of the editorial board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the FDA Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Advisory Committee for the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. Like Dr. Liu, many UH MacDonald Women's Hospital physi- cians are national and international leaders in women's health. One of the most recent to join this elite group is Honor Wolfe, MD. Dr. Wolfe previously served as director of Obstetrical Ultrasound at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill where she served as a co-investigator for the NIH Early Brain Development in Twins study from 2004 to 2011. She received the Dru Carlson Memorial Award for Best Research in Ultrasound and Genetics in 2006 and has published in many peer-reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Dr. Wolfe came to UHCMC as chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine to create focused care for all phases of high-risk pregnancy — from before conception, through delivery and postpartum care. "Preconception care is increasingly important, because more women with medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus, seizures, inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune diseases are becoming pregnant," says Dr. Wolfe. "There is no question that optimizing a woman's health prior to conception improves outcomes for the mother and her child. It's important to work with specialists so women are in the best possible health before considering pregnancy." The program is forging strong unions with UH Rainbow neo- natologists, creating positions such as fetal care nurse navigator, held by Elizabeth Ruzga, ND, CNM, a certified nurse midwife, who skillfully coordinates pre- and post-natal care for seamless transition from pregnancy through birth and into childhood. Honor Wolfe, MD, director of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, and Martin Wieczorek, MD, director of Obstetrical Education, at UH MacDonald Women's Hospital "Liz is available to escort a pregnant woman whose fetus has a complex congenital anomaly, such as a diaphragmatic hernia, to see physicians in Genetics, Pediatric Surgery, Pediatric Cardiology, and Neonatal Intensive Care," says Dr. Wolfe, pointing out that this gives the patient a better understanding of what to expect when her child is born. "In addition, it enables pediatric specialists at Rainbow to coordinate a care plan with specialists at MacDonald. Liz also works with the patient and physicians to arrange 'shared care' with referring providers, enabling the patient to continue as much of her prenatal care as possible with her referring provider." Quality Assurance Programs UH is involved in the Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative (OPQC), a statewide program aimed at increasing perinatal health and decreasing the incidence of pre-term births which is the leading cause of infant deaths in Ohio. At UH MacDonald, Nancy Cossler, MD, is vice chair of Quality and Patient Safety and head of the UH team that helped lead the charge statewide to decrease deliveries under 39 weeks gestation without medical reason. "Our goal is to deliver a healthy baby. By reducing elective inductions before 39 weeks, we reduce the chance of delivering low birth weight babies or babies with immature lungs who require a NICU stay," says Dr. Liu. "Through our participation in the program, we have significantly reduced our NICU transfer rate." JULY-AUGUST 2012 ■ MDNEWS.COM ■ MD NEWS Cleveland-Akron-Canton | 11