Thomas R. Moore, MD discusses what’s new in the field of maternal-fetal medicine and his two texts, Women’s Health Review and Creasy and Resnik’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Women’s Health Review is great for an individual who’s trying to maintain competency and currency with contemporary research and new clinical findings. All the key points are bulleted for quick and easy review, and the newest updates are all gathered at the top of the chapter and then highlighted within the outline of that chapter. It really allows you to update in an area very quickly and efficiently.
I have had the privilege of reading Creasy and Resnik’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine: Principles and Practice since it first came out, and it’s always been the place to go to find the science that underlies most of the principles behind our practice. The current edition of Creasy and Resnik’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine pays similar attention to making sure the science is up to date. All of the science has been freshened and enriched, so I’m very proud of that part, but I think more importantly, it hones in on the facts that we need at the patient’s bedside or in the office to make a decision about changing management without having to go plow through a lot of background. So the chapters are organized in a way to bring to focus the key points that a physician needs to know to manage a problem of appendicitis in pregnancy or asthma in pregnancy: What are the best medications? What are the safest medications?
Maternal-Fetal Medicine has three audiences. The first audience is basic scientists helping advance understanding about human pregnancy and parturition. The second important audience is those studying maternal-fetal medicine as they finish their obstetrics and gynecology residency and study maternal-fetal medicine to pass a board exam. They’re required by their board to know all the details and all the science underlying decision-making, as well as the current literature. They can be absolutely certain that all that information is in this book. The third audience is the practicing advanced generalist who’s having to deal with high-risk pregnancy either by choice or because no high-risk pregnancy specialist is available.
There has been so much controversy about how to prevent premature birth, and so many papers published, that having a clear view of which way to go is difficult. A new chapter on this topic guides the reader right through that. Certainly, the whole business of health screening is a very politically and economically charged topic, and we deal with the very latest information about those health screenings in multiple places in the book, whether it’s mammography, cervical cancer screening, or risk of endometrial cancer.
I thought I wanted to do pediatrics, but I realized that the life the baby had already had inside his mother made a huge difference in its health, and we couldn’t control that if we were pediatricians. I’m interested in how, by promoting maternal health, we can promote fetal health, so that when the baby comes out we get a better citizen over the long term. What happens in pregnancy is critical for adult health and so I feel like when we get up every morning and take care of patients who are pregnant, we are having a double impact on health in our society.
I feel I can’t practice well unless I really know that we’re adapting to the changes in discovery that are happening. It allows me to explain to a family why they’re having this complication a little more effectively than if I hadn’t been so intimately involved in knowing the latest research. That’s what you do when you’re a textbook editor or chapter author: you survey the existing information and come up with the very best stuff, and then you can dish it out to your families.
Thomas R. Moore, MD is director of the Division of Perinatal Medicine and director of the obstetrical service at University of California, San Diego Medical Center. He is also director of women’s health services in the UCSD Healthcare Network and chair of the Department of Reproductive Medicine at UCSD. Dr. Moore has contributed nearly 100 review and peer-reviewed articles to medical literature, and is an editor of the sixth edition of Creasy and Resnik’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Women’s Health Review.
Upon completion of his MD at Yale University, Dr. Moore finished a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the San Diego Naval Hospital and a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at UCSD School of Medicine. He is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine. Dr. Moore is a member of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Society for Gynecologic Investigation.
Related Authors: Robert Resnik, MD; Charles J. Lockwood, MD; Philip J. DiSaia, MD
