Alumni
Interviews:
 Herman Hein, M.D.
"It has truly been a privilege to have served
the mothers and babies of Iowa all these years."
His UI career has been "a dream come true," said Herman
Hein, professor of pediatrics and director of the Iowa Statewide
Perinatal Care Program. Hein joined the University faculty in 1973,
the year he established the statewide program, and since has worked
to aid newborns and their mothers throughout Iowa.
The perinatal care program was Hein’s response to difficulties
he had encountered as a pediatrician in Dubuque, Iowa, where high-risk
babies often needed resources unavailable at any single area hospital. "I
said to my colleagues, ‘We’ve got to change this,’" Hein
recalled.
These discussions resulted in a first-of-its-kind regionalized
system for perinatal care. Community physicians now refer women
with high-risk pregnancies and seriously ill newborns to facilities
equipped to care for them, while the program offers training for
physicians and neonatal/obstetric nurses statewide.
Widely credited with helping bring a dramatic reduction in neonatal
deaths due to preventable causes—particularly at small community
hospitals and regional referral sites—the program has taken
Hein and his team to every maternity service in Iowa.
"
It’s like a conscience for those who practice in the perinatal
realm in this state," Hein said. "It makes a difference
for women and babies, and I also think it’s good for the
University of Iowa for all the right reasons."
Hein has initiated other programs aimed at mothers and babies.
These include the Iowa High-Risk Infant Follow-up Program, which
serves babies who previously received intensive care or who have
other risk factors, and the Barriers to Prenatal Care Project,
a state survey that assesses prenatal care. The latter project
grew out of Hein’s work with the National Commission to Prevent
Infant Mortality, on which he served from 1997 to 1993.
Hein also served as clinical supervisor of the Newborn Nursery
at UI Hospitals and Clinics from 1990 to 2001 and has consulted
for many years on maternal and child health for the Iowa Department
of Public Health.
His achievements have earned Hein statewide, national and international
recognition. Now in phased retirement, he considers himself "very,
very lucky," he said. "It has truly been a privilege
to have served the mothers and babies of Iowa all these years."
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