American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is a voluntary non-profit professional organization dedicated to serving as a strong advocate for quality health care for women; maintaining the highest standards of clinical practice and continuing education of its members; promoting patient education and stimulating patient understanding of and involvement in medical care; and increasing awareness among its members and the public of the changing issues facing women’s health care. The ACOG was founded in Chicago in 1951 and currently consists of more than 37,000 physicians specializing in obstetric-gynecological care. The College promotes a number of specialized programs including its adolescent health care program, the National Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Program, and its awareness program to prevent violence against women. The ACOG has a long-standing interest in the development of adequate and comprehensive health services for adolescents, especially in regard to reproductive health services. Since 1964, the College has conducted organized activities in the area of adolescent health and produced numerous policy statements, committee opinions, and other reports on issues of particular importance to this population. The National Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Program (FIMR) is an action-oriented community process that continually assesses, monitors, and works to improve service systems and community resources for women, infants, and families. When infant mortality occurs, trained staff reviews medical and other records of the infant and mother to gather information. When staff members interview the mother, they obtain essential information and ensure that the family is linked with needed resources. A multi-disciplinary team then reviews case summaries with all identification removed with the objective of recommending actions to improve services or resources. Finally, a community action team works to implement and track recommendations. Over the years, the ACOG and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau have worked together as partners to refine and promote the FIMR process by funding demonstration projects, providing training and technical assistance, and developing the NFIMR resource center. The resource center assists in establishing FIMRs and fine-tuning specific aspects of the process in established programs; in addition, the center works with states to explore methods to manage multiple reviews and to identify models that integrate local FIMR recommendations into regional or statewide assessments. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also has established a departmental web site dedicated to providing information for both physicians and their patients to help prevent violence against women. In addition, the College conducts an annual clinical meeting, offers postgraduate courses, and provides professional publications and materials including journals, ACOG guidelines, the “ACOG Update,” coding resources, outpatient encounter forms, case list software, surgical videos, CD-ROM packages, domestic violence speaker’s packages, adolescent sexuality speaker’s packages, and other materials. The ACOG also publishes a variety of patient education materials including a series of women’s health columns; videotapes; and pamphlet series on contraception, gynecologic problems, physiology and sexuality, adolescent topics, pregnancy, special procedures, women’s health, and labor, delivery, and postpartum care.