A UT Dell Medical School center focused on fetal care will be expanding its capacity and introducing a new fellowship program, following the implementation of a new center head in March.
The Dell Children’s Comprehensive Fetal Care Center is a collaboration between UT’s Dell Medical School and Dell Children’s hospital. Dr. Alireza “Shami” Shamshirsaz is the new head of the center, as well as the first Division Chief for Fetal Medicine and Therapy at UT Dell Medical School, according to a news release.
Dr. Shamshirsaz said the center will open a fetal surgery fellowship next year as part of the expansion, which is the first of its kind at Dell Medical School. The expansion also includes doubling the number of employees at the center, from two part-time doctors to four full-time doctors, according to reporting from the Austin American-Statesman. Dr. Shamshirsaz said he brought two medical research fellows to the center from his previous occupation at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“Fetal medicine by itself, as a big picture, is a new field in which they are expanding very rapidly and quickly,” Dr. Shamshirsaz said. “We do need to have more physicians that (are) specifically trained on fetal surgery to not only take care of the patient, but also to push the envelope and do more research.”
Other aspects of the expansion will involve bringing in more innovative medical interventions and expanding research, Dr. Shamshirsaz said.
The program assists patients in managing fetal conditions from pregnancy to birth, such as congenital heart conditions and neural tube defects, according to its website.
Dr. Shamshirsaz said he hopes to further research in more complex medical interventions in the Central Texas region, such as repairing a myeloma within the womb, as well as a congenital diaphragm hernia. The birth defect occurs when a fetus’ diaphragm isn’t fully formed, allowing organs to form closer to the chest and crowd the lungs, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
The center’s expansion aims to accommodate the recent growth of the younger, child-bearing population within Austin and surrounding urban areas, Dr. Shamshirsaz said. According to the Texas Demographic Center, Austin’s population is estimated to have grown by nearly 10% from 2020-2025.
The center is the first of its kind in Central Texas, according to Dell Children’s website. Dr. Shamshirsaz said the fetal care center’s collaboration between Dell Medical School and Dell Children’s is meant to facilitate education and training for the next generation of physicians.
