Acknowledgments (Second Edition)

Diana W. Bianchi, MD: Since the publication of the first edition of Fetology, I have jokingly referred to it as my “third child”. It weighs 7 pounds and it is never far from my mind! Alternatively, I refer to it as my “external hard drive”, because it is a convenient compilation of all the facts I need or want to know when I perform a prenatal genetic consultation for a fetus with an anomaly or an abnormal karyotype. However, in the past 10 years, many sections of the book have become outdated. We seriously questioned whether we had the time or energy to perform a thorough revision for a second edition. In the end, Drs. Crombleholme, D'Alton, and I decided that we could do it only if we added a fourth author. The choice of Fergal Malone was a natural one, given his long association with Tufts and his expertise in prenatal diagnosis and fetal medicine. In contrast to the first edition, when Drs. Crombleholme, D'Alton, and I would meet for coffee in one of our offices at Tufts to review and discuss the chapters, we are now scattered across the US and Ireland. Thus, most of the writing and editing for the second edition was done via email, with occasional “marathon” meetings at the McGraw-Hill offices in Manhattan. Thanks to our editors, Alyssa Fried and Karen Davis, we received food, shelter, and administrative support during those sessions.

In addition to the people I thanked in the first edition I would like to specifically acknowledge Linda Keys, who helped me immensely with reference retrieval and typing the revised chapters. Dr. Nick Guerina transferred original color slides to digital files so that we could add color to this edition. I would also like to thank the staff at the Prenatal Diagnosis Center at Women and Infants' Hospital in Rhode Island, where I provided prenatal genetic consultations from 2000–2007. In particular, the genetic counselors Jacquelyn Halliday, Carolyn Slack and Kerry Lurix identified cases of interest for images and discussion. I would also like to thank Drs. Francois Luks, Steven Carr and Marshall Carpenter for referring interesting cases to me. At Tufts Medical Center I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable help of the genetic counselors Beth Berlin, Paula Delerme, Amy Sachs, Denise Lafayette, and Lauren Lichten for their help in proofreading and making editing suggestions. Similarly, Drs. Michael House, Terri Marino, Steven Ralston, and Sabrina Craigo have been enormously helpful in making the second edition even better than the first! I would also like to thank the Tufts maternal-fetal medicine fellows who have worked in my research laboratory, specifically Drs. Barbara O'Brien, Neeta Vora, Linda Kleeman, and Adam Urato, who have always stimulated me by asking great questions. Lastly, I would like to express my profound appreciation to my family, in particular my husband John, who have been understanding of the fact that the “third child” is a demanding one, and requires individual time and attention.

Timothy M. Crombleholme, MD: During the writing of this second edition, (which my children fondly refer to as “Fetology II: The Fetus Strikes Back”) our understanding and approach to diagnosis and management of many fetal conditions has continued to evolve. Progress has only been possible through the supportive interactions of numerous professional colleagues in many disciplines who bring their unique expertise to bear on the fetus. I would like to acknowledge my past and present research fellows and colleagues who have contributed to the development of the field of fetal surgery and fetology: at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in the Center for Molecular Fetal Therapy, Elliott Kozin MD, Anna Katz MD, Jignesh Parvadia MD, Ahmed Marwan MD, Suzi Demiberg MD, Arturo Maldonado MD, PhD, Ursula Harkness MD, Sachin Vaikunth MD, Maria Ripberger, Fernando Vuletin-Solis MD, Lee Morris MD, Shuichi Katayama MD, Swathi Balaji PhD, Datis Alaee MS, Chuck Klanke MS, Helen Jones PhD, Louis Le MD, and Kim Lyons RN, BSN. In the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati, Emmie Blayer, Rachel Jones, Cheryl Snell, Jenni Mason RN, Gina Sharp RN, Deborah Voet RN, Karen McGirr RN, CNM, Christine Spaeth MS, Diana Smith MS, and Erin Hillman MSW, Judith Hostiuck RNC-OB, Steven Imhoff RNC, our obstetrical nurses in The Fetal Care Center: Gina Allaire RN, Melissa Brewington RN, Judy Bryant RN, Kasey Casson RN, Kasey Duffens RN, Elizabeth Geiger RN, Deborah Kocis RN, Kelly LaFlamme RN, Lori Macke RN, Pam Mitchell RN, Monica Newman RN, Lisa Pickett RN, Amanda Thacker RN, Autum Thompson RN, Susan Turner RN, Michelle Wesselman RN, and Lisa Wisby RN.

I wish to acknowledge the loyal support and guidance of Richard Azizkhan MD, Foong-Yen Lim MD and Kelli Young RN MS APN, and who have been instrumental in the development of the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati. I would like to acknowledge my partners in the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati from whom I learn from every day for their support and encouragement during the writing of this book: Sundeep G. Keswani MD, Mounira Habli MD, Jeffrey Livingston MD, William Polzin MD, Ray Bahado-Singh MD, Ronald Jaekle MD, David Lewis MD, James Van Hook MD and Kim Brady MD. I would like to acknowledge Michael R. Harrison MD, mentor and friend, who as the father of fetal surgery was practicing fetology before it had a name. I would particularly like to thank my colleagues in other disciplines who have taught me so much and contributed to our understanding of the fetal patient, including Erik Michelfelder MD, James Cnota MD, William Gottliebson MD, William Border MD, and Russell Hirsch MD in Pediatric Cardiology; Beth Kline-Fath MD, Eva Rubio MD, Maria Calvo MD, and Kyuran Choe MD in Radiology; Tariq Siddiqi MD in Maternal Fetal Medicine; James Greenberg MD, Beth Haberman MD, Paul Kingma MD, Amy Nathan MD, Tanya Cahill MD, and Kurt Schibler MD in Neonatology; Robert Hopkin MD in Genetics; Pramod Reddy MD, and Paul Noh MD in Pediatric Urology; Karin Bierbrauer MD, Francesco Mangano MD and Todd Maugans MD in Neurosurgery; Ravi Elluru MD in Pediatric ENT; Connie Bitters, Kristina Stenger, Linda Faulkner-Snyder, and Michelle King for their sonographic skill and enthusiastic support of fetal surgery; In the operating room I would like to acknowledge the contributions of Ik Lee MD, Dean Kurth MD, Anne Boat MD, Ximena Soler MD, Mohamed Mahmoud MD, Margaret Linker, and Bonnie Hugus RN, who have done so much to advance the anesthetic management of fetal surgical patients. Also, acknowledged in the operating room are Missy Ritter RN, Tracy Heidrich RN, Doug Dunbar, Britany Freeman, Todd Forte, Mary Ratliff, Latressa Rector, Curtis Johnson, Teco Gaines and most particularly, in the postnatal care and evaluation of our fetal patients, the fellows: Ala Stanford-Frey MD, Shawn Rangel MD, Sean Barnett MD, Timothy Lee MD, and Mubeen Jafri MD. Lastly, for their ability to decipher my hieroglyphic writing and secretarial support, I give special thanks to Marsha Corbett, Anne Riestenberg, Bonnie Killen and Tammie Day.

Finally, I am indebted to my co-authors Mary D'Alton MD, Diana Bianchi MD and Fergal Malone MD for the opportunity to continue a collaboration that has been the most rewarding of my professional career and continues to provide new opportunities to learn, teach and grow the field of Fetology.

Mary E. D'Alton, MD: Since coming to Columbia University Medical Center, our team has worked to create a system of seamless prenatal diagnosis and therapy for our patients described in the first edition of Fetology.

With support from New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, we have created the Center for Prenatal Pediatrics, a program focused specifically on providing multidisciplinary care to patients carrying pregnancies with fetal anomalies. Under the superb leadership of Dr. Lynn Simpson this center now sees over 500 families every year. Other physicians integral to success of the center are the other directors of the Center for Prenatal Pediatrics including Dr. Charles Kleinman, Dr. Richard Polin, Dr. Wendy Chung, Dr. Charles Stolar, and Dr. Ron Wapner. Their experience, camaraderie, and vision keep pushing us to strive for greater results. The staff of the Center act as the glue for our patients and include Ushta Davar Canteenwalla, Anne Van der Veer, Rosalie Perez, Angel Otero, and Kimberly Cordero.

It is fitting that this 2nd edition of Fetology will be published the same year that our Center for Prenatal Pediatrics moves to its new space. This state-of-the-art facility has been made possible by a naming gift from Carmen and John Thain and with additional funding from Sally and Mike Martell and the Klingenstein-Martell Foundation as well as ongoing support from New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

I also wish to acknowledge the support of my current and former fellows who have played an integral role in preparing and presenting the new cases at our weekly multidisciplinary Prenatal Pediatrics conference. They include Patricia Devine, Annette Perez-Delboy, Joshua Weiss, Jane Cleary-Goldman, Tracy Shevell, George Graham, Dorothy Przydzial-Smok, Andrew Healy, Alexandra Spadola, Heather Lipkind, Young Mi Lee, Blair Wylie, Russell Miller, Danny Wai Fu Wu, Clarissa Bonanno, Karin Fuchs, Samuel Bauer, Fadi Mirza, Freddy Montero, Shai PriPaz, Jaclyn Coletta, and Joy Vink. In particular I wish to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Richard Berkowitz, Dr. Jane Cleary-Goldman, and Dr. Karin Fuchs who critically read many of the chapters and who provided input, support, and encouragement throughout the revision process.

As I did in the first edition, I would like to extend a special thank you to Dr. John Hobbins. Dr. Hobbins not only served as a model mentor to me early in my career, but also is rightfully considered the father of obstetric ultrasound who irreversibly changed the way in which maternal fetal medicine is practiced today.

Fergal D. Malone, MD: I am indebted to my co-authors, Drs. Bianchi, D'Alton and Crombleholme, for their encouragement and support during the long process of developing and rewriting this edition. In particular, I would like to especially acknowledge Mary D'Alton for giving me my start in obstetrics, steering my career development in maternal-fetal medicine, and spurring my interest in prenatal screening and fetal therapy. Without her constant advice and mentoring, I would likely not have pursued an academic career in maternal-fetal medicine. Despite moving to Ireland in 2005 to establish a new fetal treatment program, I remain in close contact with my colleagues in the United States. In this era of globalized medicine, I believe that continued international collaboration across continents represents the way forward for advancing the original goals of Fetology for all of our patients.

Finally, I would like to particularly acknowledge the never-failing support, loyalty, and inspiration of my wife, Marie. From traveling across continents in unwavering support, to being the gel that holds personal and professional lives together, I could not have achieved any of my accomplishments without her constant presence.