W O M E N & I N F A N T S

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affi liate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown Uni-versity for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the 12th largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country with approximately 8,500 deliveries per year. A Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital. The hospital is the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncol-ogy, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s only mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hos-pital, a single-family neonatal intensive care unit as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excel-lence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Mini-mally Invasive Gynecology; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high-risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the na-tion, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.

WOMEN & INFANTS HOSPITAL

FACTS

• Adult beds – 167 adult beds

• Neonatal intensive care unit beds – 80

• Newborn bassinets – 60

• Operating rooms – 12

• DaVinci® surgical robots – 2

• Admissions – 20,102

• Patient days – 76,460

• ER visits – 28,267

• Deliveries – 8,803

• Surgeries – 7,332

• Laboratory tests – 852,683

• Diagnostic imaging procedures – 68,408

*FY15 Statistics

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2015 HONORS, AWARDS AND ACCREDITATION• Women & Infants received prestigious international recognition as a Baby-

Friendly® Designated birth facility. Women & Infants is the second-largest hospital in the nation to achieve this designation, and Rhode Island now ranks number one in the country in the percentage of babies born at Baby-Friendly® hospitals. Baby-Friendly USA, Inc. is the U.S. authority for the implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Chil-dren’s Fund. The initiative encourages and recognizes hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for breastfeeding mothers and promote the best, evidence-based feeding practices for all babies.

• 39 physicians from Women & Infants were named to 2015-2016 Best Doctors in America list. Only fi ve percent of doctors in America earn this prestigious honor, decided by impartial peer review.

• Women & Infants has been recognized as a 2014 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures® by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the U.S. Women & Infants was recognized as part of The Joint Commission’s 2015 annual report “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance for perinatal care. Women & Infants is one of only two hospitals in Rhode Island and 1,043 hospitals out of more than 3,300 eligible hospitals in the U.S. to achieve the 2014 Top Performer distinction.

• Women & Infants was awarded three Women’s Choice Awards in 2015 for obstetrics, breast health and cancer care. These evidence-based designations identify the country’s best health care institutions based on robust criteria that consider patient satisfaction, clinical excellence, and what women say they want from a hospital.

• The Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Women & Infants has been ranked in the top fi ve programs in the Northeast. Doximity, the largest physician network, announced in 2015 the fi rst-ever regional residency program rankings.

• The Center for Reproduction and Infertility at Women & Infants earned the status of a Nursing Center of Excellence from the Nurses’ Professional Group of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). This designation will be active for the next three years. The Nursing Center of Excellence status indicates that at least 50 percent of the registered nurses and/or nurse practitioners in the Center for Reproduction and Infertility are experi-enced in reproductive endocrinology nursing and have completed the additional training in this area through the ASRM eLearn Reproduction and Infertility Nursing Certifi cate Course.

• William Oh, MD, principal investigator of the Women & Infants/Brown Center of the Neo-natal Research Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and neonatalogy professor at The Alpert Medical School, was honored by the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) as a “Legend” at the Institute’s reception in May. The Legends reception honors current and former LA BioMed researchers who have been leaders in their fi elds. Dr. Oh is considered one of the founders of the fi eld of neonatal medi-cine and has developed much of the current knowledge on newborn metabolism.

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• Women & Infants’ physical therapist Wendy Baltzer-Fox, PT, DPT, GCS, WCS, supervisor of Women’s Health Physical Therapy Services, was honored as the fi rst board-certifi ed women’s health clinical specialist with the Mary DuVally Distinguished Service Award from the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Physical Therapists Association.

• Surendra Sharma, MD, PhD, a research scientist and professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Women & Infants and the Alpert Medical School, was presented with the Distin-guished Service Award at the 34th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Reproduc-tive Immunology (ASRI). This award is given to a member of the ASRI who has provided distinguished service to advance the goals and mission of the society.

• James F. Padbury, MD, pediatrician-in-chief and chief of neonatal/perinatal medicine at Women & Infants and the William and Mary Oh-William and Elsa Zopfi Professor of Pedi-atrics for Perinatal Research at the Alpert Medical School, was presented with the Mentor of the Year Award at the 26th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Society for Pediatric Research. He was also honored with the Silver Rattle from the Rhode Island Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition at the coalition’s annual May Breakfast.

• Four certifi ed nurse midwives at Women & Infants were honored with the Clinical Star Award from the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) Foundation. The Award is given in honor of midwives in clinical practice for 25 or more years who have demonstrated excellence in clinical practice and positive mentoring in the profession.

• Judith S. Mercer, CNM, PhD, FACNM, a research scientist at Women & Infants, was honored by the ACNM as the recipient of the Hattie Hemschemeyer Award, named in honor of AC-NM’s fi rst president and a pioneer of the profession. This is ACNM’s most prestigious award and is given annually to an ACNM member who has been certifi ed for at least 10 years and has made continuous outstanding and/or historically signifi cant contributions to midwifery, ACNM, and/or maternal child health.

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• Angelita Hensman, MS, RNC-NIC, was among 46 nurses from around the country to receive the Robert Wood Johnson Future of Nursing Scholars Program Award to support her doctorate study at the University of Rhode Island’s (URI) College of Nursing. The Future of Nursing Scholars program began last year with an inaugural cohort of 16 scholars. This new cohort brings the number of nurses it is supporting to 62.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS • A researcher with the Breast Health Center at Women & Infants presented the results of

a study showing that women with Stage 2 or 3 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) who have a pathologic complete response (pCR) to chemotherapy before surgery are more likely to survive compared to those who had more than minimal residual invasive cancer during surgery at the prestigious San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The presentation built upon research that William Sikov, MD, presented at the 2013 Symposium. At that time, his work demonstrated that adding either of two drugs – carboplatin or bevacizumab - to standard chemotherapy that many women with TNBC receive before surgery were more likely to have no residual cancer detected at surgery.

• Women & Infants received a nearly $5 million grant from the NIH to support an Institu-tional Development Award (IDeA) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) for Perinatal Biology. Of the more than 100 COBREs across the country, Women & Infants is the only one specifi cally focused on developmental research. The IDeA program builds research capacities in states that historically have had low levels of NIH funding by sup-porting basic, clinical, and translational research; faculty development; and infrastructure improvements.

• The Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) Foundation announced that Cara Mathews, MD, of the Program in Women’s Oncology at Women & Infants, earned its national Young Investigator Award for 2015. The award was given for Mathews’ research presentation “Survival in advanced endometrial cancer: Does time to chemotherapy initiation matter?” The research is sponsored by Genentech BioOncology.

• The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Board of Governors awarded more than $2.7 million in contracted funding to Katina Robison, MD, a gynecologic oncologist with the Program in Women’s Oncology at Women & Infants for the study “Cancer of the Uterus and Treatment of Stress Incontinence (CUTI).” The study, which also includes a recruitment site at the University of Alabama, is focused on improving the quality of life for women who undergo surgery for endometrial cancer by screening for and offering treat-ment of existing stress urinary incontinence at the same time as their cancer surgery.

• Juan Sanchez-Esteban, MD, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Alpert Medical School and staff neonatologist at Women & Infants, was awarded a $25,000 grant in sup-port of his project titled “Role of Exosomes in Fetal Lung Development.” This is a pilot project funded by COBRE to investigate the role of exosomes in fetal lung development. Exosomes are small particles released by the cells containing important information for cell-to-cell communication such as genetic material and proteins.

• Stephen Sheinkopf, PhD, assistant professor (research) of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Alpert Medical School and clinician at Women & Infants’ Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk, has been awarded a grant totaling $496,312 from the Simons Foundation for his project “Biomarkers of Emotion Regulations, Social Response and Social Attention

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in ASD.” Dr. Sheinkopf’s study will develop improved measures to document effects of very early interventions for those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.

• Barry M. Lester, PhD, professor and founding director of the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk at the Alpert Medical School and the Center for Children and Families at Women & Infants, was interviewed by International Innovation to about his contribution to the study of epigenetics and child development. Epigenetics is the study of factors that change how the genetic code is carried out, what the genes do without changing the genes themselves.

• Erika F. Werner, MD, MS, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist with Women & Infants, has received funding for her research, “Assessing and avoiding barriers to postpartum glucose testing among women with gestational diabetes mellitus,” from the American Diabetes Association’s Research Program.

• A maternal-fetal medicine specialist with Women & Infants, has received funding for her re-search, “Assessing and avoiding barriers to postpartum glucose testing among women with gestational diabetes mellitus,” by the American Diabetes Association’s Research Program.

• The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology was successful in submitting and receiving a competitive third grant cycle for The National Institute of Child Health & Human Devel-opment (NICHD)-funded Women’s Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) program.

• The Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute was established with a focus on discovering and applying strategies to improve the lives of children and their families in Rhode Island, nationally and globally. This is a collaboration of Brown University, Hasbro Children’s Hospital and Women & infants, and was launched with a $12.5-million gift from the family of Alan Hassenfeld.

• Annetta Madsen, MD, a fellow in the Division of Urogynecology and Reconstruc-tive Pelvic Surgery at Women & Infants, has been awarded a two-year, $25,000 grant through the American Urogynecologic Society Pelvic Floor Disorders Research Foundation for her project entitled “Improving Patient-Centered Care for Pelvic Floor Disorders through Perioperative Peer Support.” The research project aims to improve the perioperative patient experience for women seeking surgical treatment of pelvic fl oor disorders.

• Amy Salisbury, PhD, a research scientist at Women & Infants’ Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk and an associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Alpert Medical School, was published for her study “Effects of Maternal Depression on the Neurobehavior of Infants,” in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Dr. Salisbury and her team found adverse effects in infants of women taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants during pregnancy beyond the fi rst seven to 10 days postpartum and that the use of benzodiazepines in conjunction with SSRIs was associated with more signifi cant problems in infant neurological functioning than SSRI use alone.

• Tracey Savage, RN, BSN, MS, clinical educator for the Mother Baby Units at Women & Infants, Along with her team, published their study, “Individualised, fl exible post-natal care: a feasibility study for a randomized controlled trial,” in BioMed Central. This study looked at individualizing the length of hospital stays for women after child-birth by discussing their preferences and support systems a few months ahead of the expected birth date.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS • To better meet the needs of the growing population of middle-aged women, Women & In-

fants introduced The Menopause Program. The multidisciplinary team of providers includes obstetrician/gynecologists, internal medicine providers, cardiologists, behavioral health specialists, and endocrinologists. The Menopause Program offers evaluation and treatment of vasomotor symptoms such as hot fl ashes and night sweats, as well as vulvovaginal problems such as vaginal dryness, pain, burning and painful intercourse. The multidisciplinary team also provides preventative care services for midlife women, including breast health, bone health, emotional and psychological health, and cardiovascular screening.

• Women & Infants raised more than $460,000 for the hospital’s minimally invasive surgery suite through All That Jazz, an evening of live jazz music entertainment at Café Nuovo in Providence. Proceeds from the event will directly support the Minimally Invasive Surgery Program. Minimally invasive surgery, which includes laparoscopic and robotic surgery, allows doctors to operate through multiple tiny incisions. This type of surgery can be virtually scarless compared to open surgery and can result in shorter hospital stays, faster recovery and improved outcomes.

• Women & Infants has created the Women’s Intimacy and Sexual Health (WISH) Center to offer help and hope to women suffering with the side effects of cancer or cancer treatment. Part of the Program in Women’s Oncology and Breast Health Center at Women & Infants, WISH is made up of various specialists who can help patients enjoy intimate moments again. These include breast and gynecologic health specialists, medical oncologists, nurse practitioners, sex therapists and physical therapists specializing in pelvic fl oor issues.

• Women & Infants established a new women’s cardiovascular program as part of Care New England Cardiovascular Care. Women’s Heart Health of Women & Infants, located at 90 Plain Street in Providence, is designed to meet the cardiac needs of women, while helping them to take the right steps in preventing all aspects of heart disease. The service is co-directed by Heather Hurlburt, MD, FACC, and Alice Kim, MD, FACC. Dr. Hurlburt, who also serves as director of non-invasive imaging at Kent Hospital, is board certifi ed in in-ternal medicine and cardiology. She has special expertise in cardiac imaging and women’s heart health and completed training in advanced imaging modalities, including cardiac CT and trans-esophageal echocardiography. Dr. Hurlburt is a member of the cardiovascular division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

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Approximately 370 guests were in attendance for “All That Jazz” an evening to benefi t the minimally invasive surgery suite in October 2014 at Café Nuovo in Providence.

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New Physicians• Sarah M. Davis, MD, has joined the staff in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in

the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Utah Health Care and fellow-ship in maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Vermont. Since 2013, Dr. Davis has served as assistant professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

• Nicole Korbly, MD, assistant professor (clinical) of obstetrics and gynecology at the Alpert Medical School, has joined the staff at the Division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pel-vic Surgery at Women & Infants. Dr. Korbly is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology and a fellowship in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery at Women & Infants. Dr. Korbly is board certifi ed in obstetrics and gynecology and a fellow of the American Congress of Obste-tricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS).

• Jessica Pineda, MD, joined the Center for Women’s Medicine at Women & Infants. Dr. Pineda sees patients at the Center for Primary Care and the Center for Women’s Behav-ioral Health.

• Victoria V. Snegovskikh, MD, joined the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Women & Infants. Dr. Snegovskikh recently completed her fellowship with the hospital’s department of obstetrics and gynecology and has since served as an as-sistant clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Alpert Medical School.

LEADERSHIP• Ruben Alvero, MD, FACOG, FACS, was appointed director of the Division of Reproduc-

tive Endocrinology and Infertility in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants and the Alpert Medical School. Most recently, Dr. Alvero was the division director for REI and vice chairman for education in the Department of Obstetrics and Gyne-cology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he was also a professor of obstetrics and gynecology. He is a founding member of the University of Colorado’s Center for Surgical Innovation and served on its board of directors.

• Wendy Baltzer-Fox, PT, DPT, GCS, WCS, supervisor of Women’s Health Physical Therapy Services at Women & Infants, was appointed to the Rhode Island Department of Health Board of Physical Therapy. The Board acts in an advisory capacity to the Department and to the director of health in all matters pertaining to the practice of physical therapy.

• Renee Eger, MD, was named medical director for the Women’s Primary Care Center (WPCC) of Women & Infants. WPCC offers a full array of health services for women of all ages, including primary and preventive health care for women of reproductive age, as well as obstetrical services and routine and specialty gynecologic services for women of all ages.

• Shannon Marie Erisman, PhD, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human be-havior at the Alpert Medical School and staff psychologist for the Women’s Partial Program at Butler Hospital.

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• Gary Frishman, MD, associate director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinol-ogy and Infertility and residency program director at Women & Infants, and profes-sor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Alpert Medical School, was elected secretary/treasurer of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL). With more than 7,700 members from 100 countries, the AAGL is the leading organization in the world dedicated to the promotion of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery. After his term as secretary/treasurer, Dr. Frishman will then ascend to vice president, and then president of the association the following year.

• Brenna L. Hughes, MD, chief of the Women’s Infectious Diseases Consultative Ser-vice at Women & Infants and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Alpert Medical School, accepted an invitation to become a member of the Immu-nization Expert Work Group of the ACOG. The Immunization Expert Work Group serves as an advisory group of ACOG’s Committee on Obstetric Practice, Committee on Gynecologic Practice, and Committee on Adolescent Health Care.

• Raymond O. Powrie, MD, was named chief of the Department of Medicine at Women & Infants. Dr. Powrie earned his medical degree from the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine in Edmonton, Canada, where he also completed his residency in internal medicine. He completed his fellowship in obstetric and consul-tative medicine at Women & Infants. Board-certifi ed in internal medicine, Dr. Powrie is a professor of medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at the Alpert Medical School and an instructor for the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Powrie is a member of the American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, as well as a member of the executive committee for the International Society of Obstetric Medicine.

• Charles Rardin, MD, a urogynecologist in the Division of Urogynecology and Re-constructive Pelvic Surgery and director of the Robotic Surgery Program for Women at Women & Infants, director of Minimally Invasive Surgery at Care New England, and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Alpert Medical School, was named vice president of the AUGS. This appointment starts a four-year process that will culminate in Dr. Rardin being named president of AUGS in 2017.

• Vivian Sung, MD, MPH, of the Division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology was named president-elect of the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons (SGS). As president, Dr. Sung is responsible for presiding over all meetings of the Society, Board of Direc-tors and the Executive Committee, as well as serving as an ex-offi cio member of all committees. The objective of the SGS board is to promote dissemination of knowledge revolving around gynecologic surgery; advance the understanding of anatomy, physiology and pathology of the female reproductive system; and encourage improvement in surgical skills and techniques.

Women & Infants Hospital, a Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University teaching hospital, is committed to improving the health and well-being of women and infants and to providing essential services regardless of ability to pay.

VISIONWomen & Infants will be the recognized leader in health care for women and infants.

A M E M B E R O F

A Major Teaching Affiliate of

101 Dudley StreetProvidence, Rhode Island 02905401-274-1100womenandinfants.org