The ART of the Ovum Pick Up: Eggs Over Easy

Brad Van Voorhis, M.D is Professor and and interim Chair in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Since 2003, he has directed the IVF program at Iowa which is regarded as one of the best in the world based on published outcomes. His research has focused on improving the safety and efficacy of IVF. He has collaborated with the CDC to mount a national campaign to reduce prematurity and multiple birth following IVF treatment. He, along with an excellent team of physicians and embryologists, have pioneered the use of single embryo transfer in the United States, which is now the standard of care based, in part, on research done at Iowa. , Dr. Van Voorhis has been the president of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinologists (SREI) and president for the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART).

Amy Sparks, PhD is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology of the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. She completed her undergraduate studies in Animal Science at Michigan State University and her graduate studies in Dairy Science at Virginia Tech. After graduation she “jumped the fence” to human reproduction and has served as the director of the andrology and in vitro fertilization laboratories at the University of Iowa since 1993.
Throughout her career, she has strived to optimize patient outcomes by developing cost-effective, evidence-based best practices with an emphasis on elective single embryo transfer. She has served as President of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART), co-President of the Society of Reproductive Biologists and Technologists, chair of the SART Registry Committee and currently serves on the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s board as a director at large.