Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship
Welcome to the Ohio State University Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program
The Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Ohio State University is strongly committed to providing our fellows with an unparalleled educational experience that will prepare them well for their future careers as perinatal subspecialists and academic leaders. Working within a large academic medical center with high volume and patient acuity, our fellows graduate with the competency to provide exceptional care for patients and families facing the most complex conditions in pregnancy. The mentorship provided by a supportive group of faculty with diverse clinical and research interests and expertise ensures that each of our eight fellows achieve their personal educational and research goals.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about our MFM Fellowship Program. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact our Fellowship Manager, Erica Johnson at erica.johnson@osumc.edu.
Kind regards,
Heather Frey, MD, MSCI
Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship Director
Clinical Associate Professor
Train at a regional perinatal center
Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center serves as a regional perinatal center for central and southeastern Ohio. Our medical center performs more than 5,000 deliveries annually, over 400 of which are maternal transports. Our division performs over 30,000 ultrasounds each year, and fellows are trained to perform amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, and cordocentesis. The OSU MFM division is nationally recognized for expertise in the care of pregnant individuals with diabetes, hypertensive disorders, maternal cardiac disease, and complex maternal medical conditions. Additionally, fellows have the opportunity to care for patients in the prenatal Substance Abuse and Prevention Clinic (STEPP), which is a well-established and innovative program for individuals with substance use disorders in pregnancy and postpartum.
Our fellowship program is structured in two-week blocks with 15 months of research and 3 months of elective over the three years of training. Core clinical rotations include:
- Labor and delivery: This rotation combines a supervisory role on L&D with the care of high-risk antepartum and postpartum patients.
- Outpatient clinical rotation: Fellows on this rotation provide care for patients in a number of specialized MFM clinics (high-risk obstetric, diabetes, and STEPP clinics at OSU). One day a week is also dedicated to hands-on ultrasound experience.
- Prenatal diagnosis: Fellows on this rotation develop important skills related to the performance and interpretation of prenatal ultrasound and procedures such as amniocentesis and CVS. Our fellows become proficient at counseling patients and families regarding abnormal findings and developing management plans.
- Genetics: Fellows spend most of their genetics rotations working closely with the three genetic counselors in our MFM practice. In their second year, our fellows rotate for two weeks at Nationwide Children’s Hospital spending time in the cytogenetics laboratory and working with the clinical genetics team.
- Intensive care rotation: This rotation at OSU exposes fellows to the care of critically ill patients with most of the time spent in the surgical and cardiac ICUs.
Participate in research
The MFM division at OSU has exceptional research resources and a large team to support the multiple studies conducted by faculty and fellows. The division is part of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network. This provides us with a unique opportunity for access to data and publications. We are also part of the MPRINT Research Hub sponsored by the NIH for the study of maternal and pediatric therapeutics, and multiple fellows have conducted drug studies through the support of this network.
Mentorship of fellows in research is a priority in our division. While all fellows are supported to ensure that they successfully complete a high-quality thesis study, most graduate having completed multiple projects and with numerous publications. Opportunities also exist to collaborate with researchers in other Ohio State departments. Fellows are encouraged to participate at national meetings with an opportunity for all fellows to attend the annual SMFM Pregnancy Meeting each year.
Fellow didactics and conferences
Fellows have two hours of protected didactic time each week on Wednesday afternoons. The didactics curriculum covers core topics related to pregnancy biology and physiology, maternal and obstetric complications, ultrasound, fetal and neonatal care, genetics, research and quality improvement. Additionally, there are a number of multidisciplinary weekly/monthly conferences that are attended by fellows:
- Ob/Gyn department grand rounds (weekly)
- Fetal/genetics case conference (monthly)
- MFM maternal/obstetrics meeting (monthly)
- Cardio-obstetrics conference (monthly)
- MFM and Neonatology conference (monthly)
- OB/MFM Research meeting (twice per month)
- Ob/Gyn Department Journal Club (monthly)
- MFM Division Journal Club (quarterly)
- Ob/Gyn Department Anti-racism Book Club (quarterly)
Application Process
The Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship participates in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) for all positions. Our application requirements are the same as the standard ERAS application, which include:
- Complete application
- CV
- Personal statement
- Medical student performance evaluation (MSPE)
- Medical school transcript
- USMLE Step I, USMLE Step 2
- Three letters of recommendation (one of which has to be from your residency program director)
For more information, contact:
Erica Johnson, MS
Program Manager
614-366-6224
Erica.Johnson@osumc.edu