URMC Joins Infertility Research Network

The University of Rochester Medical Center is a new member of the Reproductive Medicine Network (RMN), a nationwide network of centers conducting infertility research. Established in 1990 and funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the long-term goal of RMN is to improve the care of women and men with infertility and other reproductive disorders.

Under the leadership of Kathleen Hoeger, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Strong Fertility Center, URMC is partnering with Penn State – one of six main RMN sites – to recruit patients for clinical trials. The other main sites include Georgia Regents University, University of California, San Francisco, University of North Carolina, University of Oklahoma and University of Pennsylvania and each has a partner for trial recruitment. 

Hoeger’s team, including site coordinator Linda Kochman and fertility specialist Wendy Vitek, M.D., will begin recruiting for trials in 2014 and will receive funding based on the particular trial under way. New studies will likely focus on the role of obesity in infertility, male infertility and in vitro fertilization (IVF).