Clinical Component

Navigating the Clinical Component

Your clinical work would center on fetal diagnosis. You would spend most of the day in the ultrasound unit, interpreting studies and consulting on abnormal fetal findings, not rounding on maternal inpatients. Your practice is supported by an academic team of residents, fellows, and MFM faculty.

Clinical Snapshot

Practice Focus Fetal ultrasound, fetal echocardiography, and genetics
Primary Site Regional One Health ultrasound unit, Memphis
Fetal Center Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, two clinic days per week
Ultrasound Space Six ultrasound rooms and a reading room
Call No routine MFM call in a fetal-focused role
Trainees OB/GYN residents, MFM fellows, and medical students

Patient Population

Regional One is the destination for many of the region's most medically complex pregnancies. Hospitals across the Mid-South transfer high-risk obstetric patients here. Many patients combine serious medical disease with social challenges that affect access to care.

For a fetal specialist, this means steady exposure to pathology that lower-acuity settings rarely see.

Clinical Services

  • Routine obstetric ultrasound
  • Level II targeted anatomy scans
  • Fetal echocardiography
  • Complex fetal imaging and diagnosis
  • Genetics-focused consultation for abnormal fetal findings
  • Fetal center care at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital

Le Bonheur Fetal Center

UTROP MFM has an office on the third floor of Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, across the street from Regional One. The division sees fetal center patients there two days per week.

  • Focus on structurally abnormal fetuses and fetal cardiac disease
  • Coordination with pediatric cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery
  • Babies are delivered at Regional One, then transferred or stabilized before transfer based on need
  • The same neonatology team works at both hospitals, so care stays continuous after delivery

St. Jude Referrals

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital patients with rare conditions sometimes become pregnant and are followed by the MFM division. The division sees about 3 to 5 of these patients each year. The number is small, but the pathology is unusual and rarely seen outside a few centers nationally.

Referral Sources

  • Transfers of high-risk obstetric patients from hospitals across the region
  • Community OB/GYN practices, with UTROP actively expanding these relationships
  • Le Bonheur fetal center consultations
  • St. Jude patients with rare conditions

Call

If you practice fetal medicine only, there is no routine MFM call. If you choose to add maternal work, call comes with it.

Opportunities to Focus Your Practice

  • Build the program's first-trimester ultrasound services
  • Help shape future imaging technology and program growth
  • Keep a maternal component in your practice if you want one

Teaching

  • OB/GYN residency program
  • Accredited MFM fellowship with one fellow per year
  • Medical students rotate through the division
  • Tuesday is the division's weekly academic day

Fellows describe meaningful autonomy and high-acuity training, which makes teaching a central part of the role.

Research

Research is expected in the academic and fellowship setting, and the division supports it. The ultrasound program has a history of research output, and the department holds a research day for trainees and faculty. Studies that need substantial funding generally require grant support that you would bring or develop.

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