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February 2000
Volume 5, Issue 3
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February 2000
Volume 5, Issue 3
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Meet the President
John J. Sciarra, MD, Ph.D. has served as the Thomas J. Watkins
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Northwestern University Medical School
in Chicago, Illinois as well as the chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Prentice Women's
Hospital and Maternity Center of Northwestern Memorial Hospital since 1974.
With Dr. Sciarra's direction, energy, and vision, Prentice rapidly achieved the highest standards of patient care
and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology drew together an outstanding faculty, which, over the years, has
earned national and international prominence in patient care, research, and teaching. Additionally, a significant
number of the physicians trained in the Department have become heads of other key departments and assumed leadership
roles in obstetrics and gynecology.
From 1991 to 1994, Dr. Sciarra served as president of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics
(FIGO), an association representing over 100 member countries. As president, Dr. Sciarra worked on behalf of FIGO's
efforts to further maternal and child health worldwide. Dr. Sciarra presently holds the office of president of
the International Association of Supporters of FIGO (SOFIGO). He is one of the founding members of this fund-raising
arm of FIGO. In addition, he was chairman of the Scientific Program Committee for the FIGO XVth World Congress
of Obstetrics and Gynecology that was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1997 and is on the Scientific Program Committee
for the FIGO XVIth World Congress to be held in Washington, DC from September 3-8, 2000.
Throughout his career, Dr. Sciarra has maintained a great interest in Endoscopy, both scientific and practical.
Working with Prof. Robert Neuwirth he performed one of the first laparoscopic procedures in the City of New York
during the mid-1960's, using room-air insufflated with a hand pump to achieve a pneumoperitineum. Dr. Neuwirth
then extended this work into a live television presentation at the 1971 FIGO 6th World Congress on Obstetrics and
Gynecology also held in New York.
After leaving New York, he was recruited to be Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. There, he spearheaded the introduction of Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy
at the University and its affiliated hospitals. In these early years, the focus of Endoscopy was female sterilization
and diagnostic assessment of pelvic pain as well as obscure but obviously palpable pelvic masses. In contrast,
hysteroscopy was relatively unknown at that time and often termed "a procedure in search of an indication."
Dr. Sciarra's interest in Endoscopy was seminal in his being awarded a multi-year contract by the United States'
Agency for International Development to sponsor the Program for Applied Research on Fertility Regulation (PARFR).
As part of this program, a Workshop on Hysteroscopic Sterilization was held from June 22-24, 1973. The speakers
included individuals whose names are well known to members of this Society and presently enjoy international reputation.
Among them are Drs. Melvin Cohen, Ian Craft, Paul Dmowski, Motoyuka Hayashi, Hans Lindemann, John Marlow, Robert
Neuwirth, Jordan Phillips, Rudolfo Quinones, Patrick Steptoe and Rafael Valle. Sixteen-millimeter films augmented
traditional slide presentations, as video presentations were not yet popular. It was a groundbreaking workshop.
Having had the distinct pleasure of sitting in the audience, I remember the profound effect the proceedings had
on both my colleagues and myself.
The Workshop proceedings were subsequently published as the first in a series on fertility regulation. This volume,
long out of print, became a model for publications that regularly enlightened the academic world on numerous aspects
of contraceptive research and especially female sterilization. Little did I know that my casual meeting with Dr.
Sciarra in 1973 would lead to a 25 year collaboration with him commencing in 1975, when he assumed the Chair at
Northwestern.
Sadly, the quest for an optimal method for Hysteroscopic Sterilization, so eloquently described in the 1973 Workshop,
remains as one of the unanswered endoscopic problems. At least this was the conclusion that Dr. Sciarra came to
in 1996 after he and I reviewed the progress or lack thereof in this area at the Valedictory Symposium for Professor
Shan Ratnam in Singapore, November of that year.
Perhaps it is the unanswered question of developing an optimal method of Hysteroscopic Sterilization that prompted
Dr. Sciarra to help found the International Society for Gynecologic Endoscopy and to serve it in numerous capacities.
His activities for the Society brought him the honor of the ISGE Presidency at the Montreal Annual Meeting in 1999.
In this capacity, he will serve as Local Organizing Committee Chair at the 10th Annual Congress to be held in Chicago,
March 28-31, 2001. In this effort, he is being assisted by an outstanding Committee, which in turn has planned
a comprehensive educational program, along with spectacular activities that only Chicago can provide.
Dr. Sciarra's efforts on behalf of Obstetrics and Gynecology are truly unique. On a local level, he has put the
Prentice Women's Hospital and Maternity Center on the world stage. On a national level, he has served in a leadership
capacity to numerous American organizations dealing with the subject of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Internationally,
he brings the ISGE valuable leadership attributes stemming from his recent Presidency of FIGO. Clearly his work
brings distinction to the ISGE in the same manner that distinction was brought to Dr. Sciarra when he was asked
to assume its Presidency.
Sincerely,
Louis G. Keith, MD
Director, Undergraduate Education
Northwestern University Medical School
Chicago, Illinois