Dr. Norman Miller followed Dr. Reuben Peterson as chairman of the department from 1931 to 1964 and the department grew steadily in size, multiplicity of activities, and the quality and volume of its investigative activities.
In 1950 the department and its clinical facilities in "Old Mat," which had been built in 1910 as the eye and ear ward, moved into the long awaited, newly constructed "Women's Hospital." At the outset this building provided all available facilities for obstetrics as well as gynecology. In recent years the gynecologic segment of the clinical activities has been moved into the Main Hospital where it had previously been accommodated.
On the retirement of Dr. Miller, Dr. Robert Willson was appointed as his successor. The affiliation in obstetrics and gynecology of University Hospital and Wayne County General Hospital has expanded yearly. It is now an essential part of the department providing an experience for residents and students, which is impossible in Ann Arbor. The directors of this affiliation have been Drs. John Gosling, David Anderson, Charles Bollinger, and Crosby Eaton.
The Affiliated Hospital Program has been expanded. Since 1965 representatives of the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology of our group of affiliated hospitals have met each month as a study and planning group designed to improve better communication between the University and the community hospitals.
The department has had a strong division of endocrinology, starting with James Bradbury and Gardner Riley. The Endocrine Laboratory has been expanded and new assay methods have been introduced. The facilities of the laboratory have been made more available to physicians throughout the state.
A Steroid Research Unit was established in 1964 and has expanded progressively since. This program now includes increasing use of radioimmunoassay methods.
Fellowship training is available in endocrinology, reproductive biology, fertility control, and gynecologic oncology.
The Medical Director and the Director of Research of the local Planned Parenthood affiliate are members of the department.
A combined health-care-educational program for unwed pregnant schoolgirls has been developed in conjunction with the Washtenaw County Intermediate School District. All pregnant schoolgirls in the county are transferred to a special unit in which they continue their education. We provide health care, health education, and preventive and rehabilitative services.
Department members are active in community and University sex education programs.
A new unit designed for perinatal research, financed by a contribution from the Holden Foundation, has been constructed between the Mott Children's Hospital and Women's Hospital; the facilities of each of the latter two institutions are utilized. The new unit contains two labor-delivery rooms equipped for electronic monitoring of high-risk pregnant women, intensive-care newborn nurseries, research laboratories, and offices for public health nurses and social workers necessary for the care of high-risk obstetric patients.
Fred J. Hodges
The University of Michigan, an Encyclopedic Survey Supplement, Pages 196, 197
