With summer time approaching and the topic of mosquitoes abuzz, Vanderbilt University Medical Center Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist Sarah Osmundson, M.D., has a few recommendations for women who are pregnant or want to become pregnant.

Ronald David Alvarez, M.D., Ellen Gregg Shook Culverhouse Chair in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and vice chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been named chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Donna Session, M.D., has been named to direct Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, which treats problems related to reproductive medicine including infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, endometriosis, polycystic ovarian disease, congenital uterine anomalies, fibroids and risk of genetic disorders in offspring.

Howard Jones III, M.D., Betty and Lonnie S. Burnett professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and chair of the department, will be stepping down as chair on June 30, 2016. Jones will continue his clinical practice as well as serve as a consultant on outreach projects.

Drugs that target DNA damage improve ovarian cancer cell response to platinum chemotherapies, suggesting new therapeutic opportunities.

Ted Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., Betty and Lonnie S. Burnett Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was recently elected treasurer of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). His three-year term began in May.

Pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, is experiencing a resurgence, and its tiniest victims are not armed to battle the contagious respiratory infection.