Family Planning and Reproductive Choice
The Family Planning Clinic was established in 1958 by Dr. Hans Lehfeldt. It was the first Family Planning Clinic in a New York City hospital. Together with Drs. Ernest Kulker and George Lieberman, the Clinic served thousands of women who desperately needed contraceptive services. In those days, they could not use the name "Family Planning"; instead they used the "GYN Guidance Clinic" to disguise it. In 1969, the Family Planning Division was finally formalized and Dr. Livia Wan was named its first Director. The Division did not only provide services at Bellevue Hospital Clinic, but also organize post-graduate teaching seminars under the sponsorship of Booth-Ferris Foundation.
Since then, the Division has been taking responsibility for providing Contraceptive services at Bellevue Hospital Clinic, teaching both undergraduate and graduate levels of Contraceptive technology and conducting various Contraceptive research projects.
With the reconstruction of the Bellevue Hospital Out-Patient Women's Comprehensive Care Services, it took over all patient service responsibility including Family Planning services. The Division continues to provide supervision, consultation and resource for all Family Planning Services.
The Division has been engaged in clinical research since 1970. To date, we have participated in over 50 research projects. Many of the medications or devices studied were eventually marketed for general public use, such as the Copper T device, Progesterone IUD; Loestrin OC; Norgestimate OC; Lunelle, an once-a-month injection and Norplant subdermal implants, etc.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), selected the Division to be one of the nine sites the Contraceptive Clinical Trial Network. Through the Network, we participated and completed four studies in the past seven years.
Recently, the Division was again awarded contracts to be one of the 12 Network sites throughout the country. We will collaborate with other Network sites to conduct research in the areas mostly needed such as Spermicides which are also Microbicides for contraception and the prevention of HIV spreading. The contract is signed for the next seven years. We are looking forward to collaborating with other Network sites to explore this new and exciting area.
