Carl Smith, M.D., has returned to his alma mater as chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology.
In 1988, Dr. Smith joined the UNMC faculty as an assistant professor. Over the years, he served UNMC’s department of obstetrics and gynecology in varying capacities: associate residency program director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine division director, residency program director, vice-chairman, and interim chairman.
In 1999, he went to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where he served as professor and chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology. He returned to UNMC April 1, succeeding John Repke, M.D., as chairman.
“In many ways it’s like I never left,” said Dr. Smith, who earned his medical degree at UNMC in 1978.
As chairman, Dr. Smith’s goals are to stabilize the clinical and teaching programs in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, as well as boost the department’s clinical and basic science research component. “We’re actively recruiting new faculty and planning training opportunities for medical students and residents,” he said. “I also want to create an environment which allows people interested in clinical research to thrive.”
He also plans to reinstate UNMC’s high-risk ob/gyn practice, by redeveloping relationships with physicians across the state and region.
“The department has many talented and dedicated faculty who are committed to the mission of the organization,” Dr. Smith said. “We’re not rebuilding from scratch, but utilizing what’s already here. We’d like to be the provider of choice for ob/gyn care on the campus and in the community.”
Dr. Smith’s clinical interests are in obstetrical ultrasound, prenatal diagnosis, assessment of fetal well-being and pre-term labor.
Teresa Berg, M.D., his clinical partner at UNMC and then at the University of Arkansas, also has returned to campus and will help provide consultative obstetric care. Her clinical interest is in fetal diagnosis.
Following his post-degree training, Dr. Smith served as a clinical research fellow and clinical instructor at the University of Southern California College of Medicine. He continued his career in the Navy, serving as chief of obstetrics and gynecology at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and later medical director of Labor and Delivery at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md.
During his tenure in Arkansas, Dr. Smith inherited a financially-troubled department, which he made profitable. He helped the department maintain its clinician volume despite declining resources and established a helicopter transport program for emergent, high-risk pregnancy cases. The University of Arkansas has the only high-risk pregnancy program in the state.
Dr. Smith and his wife Sheryl have two grown children. The couple looks forward to reestablishing themselves in the Omaha community.