SZ’s New Innovative Multi-Disciplinary Ultrasound Clinic Provides Consultations for Identified Fetal Abnormalities

The Wilf Woman and Infant Center at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center has recently opened a new multidisciplinary Ultrasound Clinic designed to provide consultation for couples whose yet-unborn child has been determined to possess an identified congenital anomaly. The goal of this new service is to provide a variety of experts under one roof.  Depending on the abnormality identified, the Clinic will provide the parents with consultations with the specific physicians who would be able to assist in addressing the issue at hand.

The Clinic, directed by senior gynecologist Dr. Ori Shen, the only of its kind in all of Jerusalem, and one of only four in all of Israel, will give parents the opportunity to have a team of experts assist them in approaching the challenges associated with serious prenatal problems. By understanding the complications, parents will be better positioned to know if the condition is indeed treatable, what options there are, how to manage the pregnancy as it progresses and what appropriate preparations can be made in planning the birth.

Included on the team are first and foremost gynecologists who specialize in ultrasound diagnostics alongside geneticists, as well as neonatologists, pediatric nephrologists, urologists, cardiologists, pulmonologists, surgeons, orthopedists, ear nose and throat physicians, pediatric neurologists, and where relevant other medical experts. In certain specific cases the team may be able to advise that an in-utero surgical procedure be performed. In these dramatic approaches, surgeons are able to access the fetus and expertly perform a variety of surgeries while the fetus is still in the womb, thus correcting the abnormality before birth.

Women interested in obtaining the services of this clinic would fax a copy of the ultrasound in which the abnormality was identified to Shaare Zedek (fax 02-6666691) and make an appointment for a consultation. The multi-disciplinary team will then meet with the parents and based on their findings, which would often require additional ultrasounds, would present them with non-directive counseling, summed up in a report, based on which the couple can decide how to best proceed. According to experts, such a clinic's natural home is in fact within a major medical center environment, allowing the experience and insights of a synergetic team of medical professionals to best diagnose cases and counsel on an appropriate course of treatment.