STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305 e (415) 321-1200

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STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics

April 10, 1973

Professor Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
Stanford Medical Center
Stanford, California 94305

Dear Professor Lederberg

Charles McLennan recently showed me a portion of a grant application
from your department in which you implied that in the Department of Gyne-
cology and Obstetrics at Stanford there was absence of a faculty with
interests in the field of fetal physiology. Since | have worked in this
area for the last nineteen years (twelve at Stanford), ! would appreciate
being allowed to briefly outline what | have done.

| was the first in this country to collect a large series on the use
of amniocentisis beginning my studies in 1954; following my failure to
obtain continued support for the development of an apparatus to maintain
an extrauterine fetus, in 1967 | began developing alternate techniques for
clinical fetal monitoring. In the subsequent five years | published more
than 25 titles relative to fetal or obstetrical physiology and was invited
to present my data to both national and international congresses.

Excluding the Los Angeles County Hospital (which is part of the U.S.C.
system) | have been asked during the past two years whether | was interested
in heading up four of the five or six other American obstetrical centers
which have facilities for large scale fetal monitoring. Like many Stanford
faculty, | declined all four invitations and have chosen to remain in the
Palo Alto area, believing that it is a superb place to rear a family. |
believed that | could accomplish certain goals using even a small clinic
population.

However, after Charles McLennan agreed, with the support of N. Kretchmer
and J. Bunker, to appoint in April 1972 an individual as head of the Stanford
obstetrical service (a position |! had long sought) who had no experience in
either investigational or academic medicine, | did move elsewhere. My major
efforts now are in the area of community medicine at the Santa Clara Valley
Medical Center where | am under Ernest Lowe in the Department of Obstetrics
and Gynecology. (1 spend one half day a week at the Stanford Hospital.)
| write this note not in the sense of imposing upon you by asking for
your support or interest but simply to point out to you that there has been
an active program at Stanford in the study of fetal physiology. 1 know
that other Stanford faculty have voiced opinions similar to yours over the
alleged deficiency in our department. I personally believe that such a
concept has been in error and that its expression to various NIH bodies has
been damaging both to myself and to the department in our efforts to obtain
funding and support at a national level.

Sincerely yours

Robert C, Goodlin, M. D.
Associate Director

Department Gyn-Ob

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center

Enclosure

RCG:poa