Midwest Fetal Care Center
At the Midwest Fetal Care Center (MWFCC), we are experts in providing the best medical care for babies before they are even born. But we don’t just care for our patients – we also study how to make health care for expectant parents and their babies even better through research.
We perform our own research to look for ways to improve our care and outcomes. We also share our treatment outcomes so families can feel confident in their fetal care decisions.
The MWFCC is a collaboration between Allina Health and Children’s Minnesota, and we also work with other top hospitals and universities to perform large collaborative studies and move the field of fetal medicine forward. We are active members of the North American Fetal Therapy Network (NAFTNet), the Fetal Heart Society, and associations of top medical centers with expertise in fetal interventions.
We are continually researching ways to improve fetal diagnosis, in-utero interventions and clinical outcomes for pregnancies complicated by a fetal diagnosis.
Current clinical trials
Ongoing focus areas
Our major research areas include:
- Fetal interventions including the diagnosis and treatment of fetal myelomeningocele
- Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome
- Fetal cardiac diseases and echocardiography
- Fetal diagnosis
- Patient-centered care
- Congenital diaphragmatic hernia
- Gastroschisis
Midwest Fetal Care Center research staff
Research Director: Clifton Brock, MD
Fetal Cardiology Director: Lisa Howley, MD
Dr. Lisa Howley is a pediatric cardiologist and the medical director of the Fetal Cardiology Program at Children’s Minnesota. She earned her medical degree at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr. Howley is a talented fetal cardiologist, previously serving as the co-director of the Perinatal Cardiology Program at the Colorado Fetal Care Center. Dr. Howley is also a nationally renowned educator and researcher in the field of fetal cardiology. She is strongly committed to advancing fetal cardiology through local and national research projects, and under her leadership, the Children’s Minnesota Fetal Cardiology Program is involved in numerous research endeavors. In her spare time, Dr. Howley enjoys downhill skiing and paddle boarding. She is a wife and mother and loves spending time with her family.
Sr. Scientific Investigator: Stephanie Eyerly-Webb
Stephanie Eyerly-Webb, Ph.D., grew up in Minnesota and attended university on the east coast where she received a B.S. in Biological Engineering from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University. Dr. Eyerly-Webb uses her training in advanced medical imaging to adapt new imaging methodologies into practical fetal diagnosis and care. Outside of medical research, Dr. Eyerly-Webb enjoys reading, traveling locally and abroad, and spending time outdoors with her two energetic kiddos and husband, who is a professor at the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota.
Medical Director: Saul Snowise
Saul Snowise, MD, specializes in maternal and fetal medicine (high-risk pregnancy) and has professional interests in antenatal diagnosis and the management of fetal anomalies, the management of complicated twin gestations, fetal anemia and intrauterine transfusions, fetal surgery, chorionic villus sampling, and amniocentesis.