Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program

The mission of Stony Brook Medicine Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship program is to produce physicians who are well-versed in all aspects of women’s health. We accomplish this by promoting lifelong learning and research, staying at the forefront of technology, emphasizing the education of residents and medical students, and advancing Stony Brook Medicine’s status as a leader in compassionate and culturally-competent women’s healthcare. Lastly, a strong emphasis is placed on diversity, equity, and inclusivity in all aspects of fellowship training (patient care, education, and practice methods). 

Stony Brook University Hospital offers a three-year training program in Maternal-Fetal Medicine through their two Regional Perinatal Centers on Long Island. Our objective is to train specialists in Maternal-Fetal Medicine who, in addition to having expertise in clinic practice, research, and public health, will have the skills needed to excel in the ever more challenging environment of academic medicine. Our specific objectives include training individuals capable of continuing a career in academic medicine with defined areas of interest and foundations in research and education that will prepare each of our trainees to obtain research grant funding or to otherwise be a productive member of the academic community. Each graduate of our Fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine would have the knowledge and skills to act as a consultant to general obstetricians as well as to participate in regionalization of perinatal services which are active in improving the delivery of health care to designated populations. The educational program of this Fellowship is also designed to guarantee a completed, hypothesis-based, research thesis by graduation. Each fellow will be taught to teach and to mentor with didactic lectures, structured educational experiences, 360-degree evaluations, and involvement as a research mentor to undergraduates and/or residents. Each fellow will be adequately prepared to achieve subspecialty certification by the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and then proceed to develop successful careers in academic medicine.

Due to the high volume of high risk patients at Stony Brook, fellows have tremendous opportunities to learn in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. Inpatient rotations include managing patients on labor and delivery and the antepartum services, as well as participating in procedures and deliveries. In the outpatient setting, fellows have the chance to manage high-risk clinic, perform consults, and hone their ultrasound skills with scanning and ultrasound guided procedures. In addition, there are rotations in obstetrical anesthesia, critical care/ICU, genetics, pediatric cardiology, pathology, and the neonatal intensive care unit.  Lastly, fellows can partake in electives.

In addition to clinical experiences, the fellows are taught research techniques in order to generate a thesis by graduation. Fellows are involved in both clinical and bench research. Faculty mentorship of their projects is instrumental and allows the fellows to flourish in research.  There is also support provided by the Research Division of the Department with statistical assistance. There are collaborative opportunities within the department and institution available. Fellows attend the annual SMFM meeting in order to showcase their research and are expected to publish their findings in a peer reviewed journal.  Current research activities include the following topics: opioid use disorder in pregnancy, preterm birth, preeclampsia, machine learning of fetal heart rate tracings, post-partum hemorrhage, iron deficiency anemia, cerclage, and placenta accreta spectrum.

The fellows are engaged in several didactics which include fetal ultrasound conferences, twice monthly MFM-NICU conferences, monthly journal clubs, weekly OB-GYN Grand Rounds, weekly Chairman’s rounds, and weekly lecture series on MFM topics.  In addition, there is a monthly research series and regular research meetings to help prepare the fellows with their research endeavors. Finally, the fellows are actively involved in the teaching and education of the residents and medical students.