David C. Foster, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Foster attended The University of Vermont as an undergraduate and received his Medical Degree from the Thomas Jefferson University in 1976. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Foster completed a fellowship in Gynecologic Pathology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital under Dr. J. Donald Woodruff. Following a seven-year private practice, Dr. Foster returned to Johns Hopkins to join the full-time faculty in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. In 1989, he became the Director of the Division of Gynecologic Specialties and the Director of the Residency Program in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Foster earned his Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1995. He was promoted to Associate Professor at Hopkins in 1996. That year he received the J. Donald Woodruff Teaching Award by the Chief Residents at Hopkins for the best faculty teacher. Dr. Foster joined the University of Rochester in 1996 and is now Associate Professor and Director of Ambulatory Care, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In 1997, he received the CREOG National Faculty Award for Excellence in Residency Education. Dr. Foster is active at an advisory level with the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease where he is chairman of the Committee on Clinical Trial Development for Vulvar Disease. He recently was PI on an NIH-funded 5-year RCT on chronic vulvar pain (vulvodynia).

Dr. Foster is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He maintains an active clinical practice in general gynecology with a particular focus on diseases of the vulvovaginal region, pain diagnosis and management of the lower genital tract, and diagnosis and management of disorders of the lower urinary tract.

Current areas of interest:

Vulvar disease, Vulvodynia, Interstitial Cystitis

How to contact Dr. Foster:

E-Mail Address: David_Foster@urmc.rochester.edu
Link to: Strong Health

Current research and publications:

• Poleshuck EL, Dworkin RH, Howard FM, Foster DC, Shields CG, Giles DE, Tu X. Contributions of physical and sexual abuse to women's experiences with chronic pelvic pain.  J Reprod Med. 50(2);91-100, 2005.

• Foster DC, Dworkin RH, Wood RW. Effects of intradermal foot and forearm capsaicin injections in normal and vulvodynia-afflicted women. Pain 117:128-36, 2005.
• Haefner, HK, Collins, ME, Davis,GD, Edwards, L,  Foster, DC, Hartmann, EH, Kaufman, RH, Lynch, PJ, Margesson, L J, Moyal-Barracco, M, Piper, CK, Reed, BD, Stewart, EG, Wilkinson, EJ, The vulvodynia guideline. J Lower Genital Tract Dis. 9(1):40-51, 2005

• Bachmann GA, Rosen, R, Pinn VW, Utian WH, Ayers C, Basson R, Binik YM, Brown C, Foster DC, Gibbons, Jr. JM, Goldstein I, Graziottin A, Haefner HK, Harlow BL, Kellogg Spadt S, Leiblum SR, Masheb RM, Reed BD, Sobel JD, Veasley C, Wesselmann U, Witkin SS.  Vulvodynia:  Definitions, Diagnosis and Management.  A State-of-the-Art Consensus J Reprod Med., 51(6);447-56,2006.

• Baglole CJ, Smith TJ, Foster D, Sime PJ, Feldon S, Phipps RP. Functional assessment of fibroblast heterogeneity by the cell-surface glycoprotein Thy-1.  Chaponnier C, Desmouliere A, Gabbiani G (eds.) Tissue Repair Contraction and Myofibroblasts.   Springer Science and Business Media, 2006.

• Foster DC, Piekarz KH, Murant TI, LaPoint R, Haidaris CG. Phipps RP Enhanced synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines by vulvar vestibular fibroblasts:  Implications for vulvar vestibulitis.  Am J Obstet Gynecol 196(4):346.e1-8, 2007.
• Hanjani NM, Foster DC, Scott GA, Mercurio MG. A genital mass due to HSV in a renal transplant recipient.  J Lower Genital Tract Dis. 11(3):173-6, 2007.
• Foster DC, Piekarz KH, Murant TI, LaPoint R, Haidaris CG. Phipps RP Enhanced synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines by vulvar vestibular fibroblasts:  Implications for vulvar vestibulitis.  Am J Obstet Gynecol. 196(4):346, 2007.
• Hanjani NM, Foster DC, Scott GA, Mercurio MG. A genital mass due to HSV in a renal transplant recipient.  J Lower Genital Tract Dis. 11(3):173-6, 2007
• Foster DC, Deucy E,  Gynecologic Disorders, Chapter 42,  in Practice of Geriatrics 4th Ed.  Duthie EH, Katz PR, Malone ML (eds). Phila. PA, Elsevier Inc. 2007.
• Foster DC. Vulvodynia:  etiology, epidemiology and research.  In Urogenital Pain in Clinical Practice.  Baranowski A, Fall M, Abrams P. (eds.) Egerton + Alden, 2007.

Updated November 21, 2007