Dr. David Keefe

August, 31, 2009 — David Keefe, MD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at USF Health, has accepted a position as the Kaplan Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York University and Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tish and Belleview Hospitals.

Catherine Lynch, MD, has been appointed interim chair of OB/GYN by Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, CEO for USF Health and dean of the USF College of Medicine.

“While this is a loss for us, I’m happy that Dr. Keefe is able to take this step and wish him well as he tackles the Big Apple. I’d like to thank him for all he has done to elevate our own department,” Dr. Klasko said.

“The mark of a great academic leader is a department with many members of the faculty who feel empowered to excel. That is what Dr. Keefe has accomplished in OB/GYN and why we are so optimistic about the future. In the more than four years that Dr. Keefe has been here, our OB/GYN department has gained recognition as one of the top 25 programs in the country in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report ranking.”

Dr. Catherine Lynch

Professor and Chief of the Division of General OB/GYN, Dr. Lynch was a key member of Dr. Keefe’s leadership team in building the department. “Dr. Lynch a proud graduate of our medical school and also graduated from the USF Health Leadership Institute — a great example of one of our own achieving success,” Dr. Klasko said.

Dr. Keefe came to USF to head the OB-GYN Department in 2005 from Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, RI. He is well-known for his work as one of nation’s leading reproductive endocrinologists and infertility specialists, researching ways to improve in-vitro fertilization success rates and how women lose their fertility with age.

A recent top medical news story described how U.S. researchers used the Oosight imaging system to develop a gene transfer technique with potential to prevent inherited diseases from being passed from mothers to their children through mutated mitochondrial DNA. That system was based on innovative imaging technology originally developed by scientists at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, in collaboration with Dr. Keefe.

Dr. Keefe’s leadership has helped bring other top-notch talent to USF. He significantly expanded the department’s reproductive medicine team, which now offers cutting-edge in-vitro fertilization services at satellite locations across West Central Florida as well as in Tampa. He also developed a high-quality research and treatment team for pelvic floor disorders.