It was 1975 when the first class of 58 Brown medical students graduated and cemented the Women & Infants Hospital’s Ob-Gyn community faculty’s new relationship with the medical school. The community faculty would now be involved in not only teaching residents, which they had been doing since 1946, but also educating medical students in clinical care. Brown provided the academic courses that were necessary for the students in the first 2 years of medical school, and the community based faculty physicians taught the students how to care for patients in their third and fourth year, completing their training for their medical degree.

Over time, the Department of Ob-Gyn added the subspecialties to be practiced at Women & Infants Hospital. Maternal Fetal Medicine, Gynecologic Oncology, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and Urogynecology were added for the patients’ benefit. Community based faculty initially helped establish subspecialty practices through referrals, and often co-manage complex patients with subspecialty consultation, maintaining management of their patient’s care. This shared collegial approach has benefitted the community based faculty physicians and, most importantly, patient care. Community-based faculty remain integral and important educators and mentors for both medical students and residents. They are an extremely important part of not only the history of the department, but the current clinical and academic excellence the department is known for.