Longstanding UMSOM OB-GYN Chair and Physician-Scientist Dr. Christopher Harman to Retire After Successful 40-Year Career

Dr. Harman Led Department to Prominence and National Recognition

Christopher Harman, MD, the Sylvan Frieman, MD Endowed Professor and Former Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, has announced that he will retire from his academic position in UMSOM’s Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, effective July 1, 2023.

Dr. Harman, an internationally recognized physician-scientist, joined UMSOM’s OB-GYN Department in 1997 as Co-Director of its Center for Advanced Fetal Care. In 2010, he was named the department’s Interim Chair, and then Permanent Chair from 2012 to 2022. Under Dr. Harman’s leadership as Chair, the Department advanced significantly in research, clinical care, and education, and is internationally known for its work in fetal medicine and biology, and fetal therapy. Services launched during his chairmanship include the Fetal Heart Center, a major referral center for the region and part of the Center for Advanced Fetal Care at the University of Maryland Medical Center, and the Complex OB Surgery Program, which provides intensive care for women with dangerously abnormal placentas, referred from many high-risk services across the mid-Atlantic. The Department is currently ranked #13 in the Blue Ridge Research Rankings, among all 204 medical schools in the U.S.

Under Dr. Harman’s tenure, the Department also opened an expanded, state-of-the-art Labor & Delivery Suite in 2018, located in the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). The new Suite is three times the size of the previous space — close to 30,000 square feet of additional space and from 17 to 25 delivery rooms — to accommodate an expected 35 percent increase in deliveries by 2024.

As a widely recognized authority in fetal medicine for decades, Dr. Harman began his 40-year medical career after receiving his MD from the University of Manitoba (Canada) in 1976, where he also completed his residency training in Obstetrics & Gynecology and his Fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

He was a member of the original team that developed Biophysical Profile Scoring (BPS), an internationally recognized assessment system now used around the world to describe fetal behavior in health and disease. He also led the team that performed the first ultrasound-guided intravascular fetal transfusions in North America, and among the first ultrasound-guided fetal shunts for lower urinary tract obstruction. As a founding member of the North American Fetal Therapy Network (NAFTNet), Dr. Harman served as Chairman of the Scientific Steering Committee and Chairman of the Executive Committee and contributed to numerous NAFTNet studies and publications.

Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Dean Emeritus and Former University Executive Vice President, who is a faculty member in the Department of OB-GYN, said: