When we talk about women’s health care, people often think of annual exams, or sometimes of care during pregnancy. But while annual exams and maternity care play a large role, comprehensive health care for women should encompass much more than that, and should be easily accessible to all women.
Though Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) is not a full maternity hospital, we know the importance of comprehensive health care for women, and are always looking for ways to provide cutting-edge care to patients. Now, we seek to expand this capacity for care with our center for gynecology and women’s health. PPMC patients will be able to receive a wide breadth of health care services from this program, primarily operating out of Penn Medicine University City (PMUC) at 3737 Market Street.
Prior to 2014, a single independent gynecology provider operated out of PPMC. Between 2014 and 2020, PPMC added another provider, Uduak U. Andy, MD, who is now chief of Gynecology at PPMC. Beginning in the summer of 2020, PPMC began aggressively building out the Women’s Health program, adding six providers and their teams, with a breadth of specialties across the spectrum of health care for women, from family planning, to management of pelvic floor disorders to minimally invasive procedures for removal of uterine fibroids and hysterectomies. In the future, we also aim to incorporate care with the Breast Cancer and Gastrointestinal programs, in order to care for all women’s health needs.
This ongoing expansion further establishes PPMC as a national and global leader in women’s health, building on our expertise as one of the largest centers for women’s health research in the country and our extensive clinical enterprise.
The PPMC providers, led by Dr. Andy, will provide a suite of services to patients, from birth control consultations, to colposcopy, hysteroscopy, and ultrasounds, to other, minimally invasive surgeries for conditions like endometriosis.
While many PPMC patients come from the area surrounding Philadelphia, many of our patients are also University of Pennsylvania and health system employees. We want to encourage these employees, especially the ones here at PPMC, to utilize these services. Our providers are not only recognized as some of the best in the nation, but it’s also convenient and close to home and work.
We are committed to providing the best possible care to all patients, and making it as accessible as possible. This expanded approach to women’s health is an ambitious step toward reaching this extremely important goal.