Bowling Green, Ky. - Dr. Stephen Fortunato, director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Women’s Hospital at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, will present the 2005 L.Y. Lancaster-Hugh Puckett Society lecture at Western Kentucky University.

In his lecture, “Pathways to Prematurity: Elucidation of a Host Response Disease,” Dr. Fortunato will be discussing causes of premature births and innovative ways to help those infants survive.

The lecture will begin at 6 p.m. Nov. 17 at Thompson Complex North Wing, room 224, and is free and open to the public.

A reception, sponsored by Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-medicine Society, will begin at 5 p.m. on the first floor of Thompson Complex North Wing.

Dr. Fortunato, a senior partner of Maternal Fetal Group, received his maternal fetal fellowship training at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. He held faculty positions at East Tennessee State University and at Wright State University School of Medicine where he was Vice Chairman, Director of OBICU.

He came to the Nashville group from Tulane University School of Medicine where he was Section Chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Director of OBICU and Director of Maternity Service for the Tulane Medical Center.

Dr. Fortunato has been published and won international acclaim for his work on placental transport, premature rupture of the membranes and the molecular basis of prematurity. His research has won national and international awards from ACOG, the Society of Perinatal Obstetricians, the Society of Gynecologic Investigation, the Society of the Fetus as a Patient and the Central Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists. He serves as Medical Director of the Perinatal Risk Management Program for HCA and serves as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Proterm, a newly formed pharmaceutical company.

Dr. Fortunato is a reviewer for Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Journal of OBGYN and sits on study sections for the National Institute of Health and the New Zealand Health Research Council. His clinical interests include echocardiography, medical complications of pregnancy, invasive fetal procedures and prematurity.

Dr. Fortunato graduated from University of Cincinnati, received his fellowship training at University of Texas Southwestern and completed his residency at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Fortunato is board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as Maternal Fetal Medicine.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Bruce Kessler at (270) 745-4449.