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Welcome to the second episode of season three of Conversations in Fetal Medicine, where we talk to Professor John Kingdom.

Prof Kingdom's bio:

John Kingdom is a consultant in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics at Mount Sinai
Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada, where he established their Placenta Clinic in 1999 with his career-long friend Rory Windrim. English by birth, John lived in the southern counties, then in the “Troubles” of Northern Ireland, before medical school Dublin, where he graduated from Trinity College in 1984. Living in the busy Rotunda Hospital in Dublin for 3 months, followed by a summer elective at the Fetal Medicine centre at the Queen Mother’s Hospital Glasgow, the home of Obstetric Ultrasound, set him firmly on his career path. He spent the next decade as a trainee in Glasgow, before moving to UCH, London to one of the very few UK subspecialty training positions at that time in Fetal Medicine. He held a senior lecturer position at UCL for only 3 years, before making the decision to cross the Pond to take up a unique opportunity as a clinician-scientist in major MFM centre. There he managed a molecular pathology research lab linked with his work as a high-risk Obstetrician, producing over 400 basic and more clinical publications thus far in his career, including guidelines on placenta accreta spectrum disorder and fetal growth restriction. In 2017, John led the first launch of real-time placenta growth factor testing (PlGF) in North America, which in 2023 is fast changing many aspects of care in our specialty.

Since 2013, John has been Chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, spanning a city of over 6 million. With over 300 consultants across all sub-specialities, working in a citywide network of 10 hospitals and over 40,000 births annually, UofT ObGyn now ranks second to Harvard. Mount Sinai MFM Division of over 20 consultants provides 24/7 in-house care in all dimension of Fetal Medicine, and is home to both the Ontario Fetal Centre and a new Complex Obstetrics Surgery program. Their city-wide MFM fellowship currently has 12 subspecialty trainees in 2-3 year programs, as a mix of Canadian and International trainees, including from the UK. John’s current passion beyond his own research focuses on mentorship across the fellowship to consultant transition, and ongoing academic career development. In Fall 2023 he was elected to fellowship of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Podcast information:

We have not included any patient identifiable information, and this podcast is intended for professional education rather than patient information (although welcome anyone interested in the field to listen). Please get in touch with feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics: [email protected], or via Twitter (X) or Instagram via @fetalmedcast.

Music by Crowander ('Acoustic romance') used under creative commons licence. Podcast created, hosted and edited by Dr Jane Currie.