The Shirley Dungan Kheel Memorial Lecture
presented
Dr. Willem Ombelet – International Specialist in Reproductive Medicine



On October 13, 2005 Willem Ombelet, M.D., Ph.D. presented a lecture at Eastern Virginia Medical School entitled “Perinatal Outcome After Assisted Reproduction.” The lecture was part of a continuing series of educational forums presented by the Foundation for the Howard and Georgeanna Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine.

Dr. Ombelet is an internationally known specialist in reproductive medicine and has extensive experience in the medical and scientific aspects of the field and the social and economic impact. He is head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the St. Jans Hospital, professor of Reproductive Medicine at the Universtiy of Limburg and Consultant at the University of Genk, Belgium.

The Shirley Dungan Kheel Memorial Lecture was established in 1994 in memory of Shirley Kheel, the mother of the fifth in vitro baby born at the Jones Institute, and the first baby born in New York. Mrs. Kheel came to the Jones Institute in l981 after reading in the newspapers about the pioneering efforts of Drs. Howard and Georgeanna Jones. David Dungan Kheel was born on August 31, 1982.

Dr. Ombelet spoke to an audience of nearly 100 doctors, scientists, nurses and medical students about the risks of multiple pregnancies and the subsequent compilations. His lecture discussed the Belgian project, a study which originated at the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology in Genk, Belgium. The project addressed the patient’s urgent wish to become pregnant versus the clinical obligation to ensure safe and economical methods of assisted reproduction. Dr. Ombelet shared statistics he complied for the Belgian Prime Minister which successfully argued a new and economical reimbursement policy for patients in his country. The project focused on the need for physicians to maintain a low ongoing pregnancy rate per patient treatment cycle that would in turn reduce the complications of multiple pregnancies and the cost to society.