Our Team
Our faculty in the Harborview OBGYN Generalist Division are:
- Sara Mazzoni, MD, Division Director
- Alson K. Burke, MD
- Linda O. Eckert, MD
- Esther Fuchs, MD
- Alicia Scribner, MD
- Porshia Underwood, MD
- Sarah Villarreal, MD
Our Vision
The Harborview Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology will continue to be a leading OBGYN care provider for underserved people in Seattle/King County, and for people from the WWAMI region with severe acute obstetric or gynecologic trauma. We will provide a site for innovative research and mentorship, and quaternary cutting edge care in areas such as genital dysplasia, midlife OBGYN health, gynecologic infectious diseases, and immigrant reproductive health. This will be achieved through sustainable sources of funding for our most promising projects, leveraging applications for state and federal funding and thereby maintain the existence of our unique programs.
Our goal is to collaborate with community and global partners to support innovative service, teaching and research that serves our patient populations and focuses on the obstetrical and gynecological care of people – thus providing the foundation for a cohesive family unit and a successful social structure within our community and our world.
Our physicians balance three top priorities:
- Delivering excellent patient care
- Conducting innovative research
- Mentoring and teaching the next generation of OBGYN care providers
Our Site
Harborview Medical Center is a comprehensive 413-bed healthcare facility (~100 are ICU beds). It is:
- Mission driven
- Owned by the citizens of King County
- Managed by the University of Washington since 1967
- Governed by a Board of Trustees appointed by King County
- Receives no operating budget support from King County
Primary Mission:
- To provide healthcare for the most vulnerable residents of King County
- To provide and teach exemplary patient care;
- To provide care for a broad spectrum of patients from throughout the region;
- To develop and maintain leading-edge centers of emphasis
- To continue to provide the only Level I Adult and Pediatric Trauma Center in WA state
- To provide comprehensive emergency services to patients throughout the region, and serve as the disaster preparedness and disaster control hospital for Seattle and King County
Clinical Care
The clinic providers work with registered nurses, dieticians, counselors, social workers, and patient care coordinators to provide full spectrum team based care. We have interpreter services for over 90 languages and dialects, with top 5: Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Amharic, and Cambodian. All faculty are board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and all faculty consistently achieve outstanding marks in patient satisfaction and communication. Faculty members are certified Spanish language providers (Drs. Fuchs, Burke, and Unger), Mandarin (Drs. Connie and Jennie Mao), German (Dr. Fuchs), and French (Dr. Fuchs). Approximately 60% of our faculty have been honored with local Best Physician or Top Doctor awards and over 40%hold the HMC Cares award for "patient care and service that exemplifies the values of Harborview and UW Medicine" – statistics estimated to be above the 90% for all divisions at HMC for clinical service. HMC OBGYN clinic faculty are specialists in medical and surgical management of a wide spectrum of gynecologic conditions including uterine fibroids, pelvic infections, polyps, adenomyosis, and endometriosis.
Unique HMC Services and Programs include:
- OB/GYN severe trauma and burn care
- Sexual assault care
- Female circumcision revision
- Preventative OBGYN health care for immigrant people
- Integrated mental health services
- Specialty areas include abnormal pap smears and cervical dysplasia, midlife gynecologic health (menopause), uterine fibroids, and gynecologic infectious diseases
- High-risk obstetrics related to mental health conditions, substance abuse, recent immigrant status, poverty or social disarray
Our providers are dedicated to extending the Harborview mission into the community and decreasing barriers to care. We currently provide gynecologic consultation services at Sea Mar Community Clinic in South Park and high-risk obstetrics. In addition, the HMC faculty provide gynecologic consultation services at HMC Adult Medicine Clinic, the UW Neighborhood Clinics at Factoria and Belltown, and obstetrics and gynecology care at the Maternal-Infant Care Clinic at UWMC, and Hall Health Clinic. The goal of these outreach clinical services is to partner with the community and to increase patient access to care at UW Medicine.
Research
Clinician-Scientists in the division include Dr. Eckert, Dr. Connie Mao, Dr. Reed, and Dr. Unger. All currently hold National Institutes of Health (NIH), Center for Disease Control (CDC) or United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding. Dr. Eckert and Reed have served as NIH Ad Hoc Reviewers. Dr. Reed is the WRHR Program Director for the NIH K12 training grant, UW Women's Reproductive Health Research. The majority of HMC research faculty have appointments in other departments and these relationships increase collaborations at the university and within our community. The Harborview Women's Health division's key areas of research include:
- Global Health
- Infectious disease including HPV, dysplasia, and vaccine development
- Midlife reproductive hormonal changes and impact on health
Education
Drs. Burke and Fuchs are the two appointed Clinician-Educators in our division. All of our faculty are involved in medical student and resident curriculum development and teaching, as well as simulation for Ob/Gyn residents. Over half of the faculty teach women's health to Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Adavanced Registered Nurse Practitioner residents in obstetrical and gynecological health. Eighty-five percent of faculty members teach in either an undergraduate or graduate course at UW and multiple faculty have either led a thesis committee, or have participated as committee members. Dr. Unger is a course director. Nearly all faculty have mentored Ob/Gyn residents, medical students, or graduate students in research projects that resulted in a national presentation and or a publication.
Harborview generalist faculty are active in national teaching efforts. Dr. Eckert and Dr. Burke contribute substantially to ACOG Teaching Bulletins and Expert Advisory Committees. Over half of the Harborview generalist faculty has been honored with the National Faculty Award in Teaching Excellence from the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology and over 40% of faculty hold research mentoring awards from the University of Washington.
"The problems our patients face are medically important, and they are often complicated by social, economic, educational, psychiatric or emotional concerns. It is in these patients that our skills are tested, and in whose lives we can make a significant impact. Training the next generation of clinicians to provide quality clinical health care is essential. " --Dr. Jennie Mao, Medical Director, HMC OBGYN Clinic