Philip Darney

University of California, San Francisco, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Faculty Member

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Philip D. Darney is Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Health Policy. Dr. Darney received his undergraduate degree in experimental psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he swam and played water polo for the Golden Bears from 1961 to ‘64. He came to UCSF for his M.D., graduating with this years’ fiftieth anniversary class of 1968. He joined the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps as a surgical intern then as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at The Centers for Disease Control. The CDC sponsored his M.Sc. in demography at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1971-72. He was board-certified in preventive medicine and obstetrics and gynecology after training at the CDC then Brigham and Women's Hospital. He taught at Brigham and Women’s, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Oregon Health and Science University, and, since 1981, at UCSF where he was Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General until 2012.Dr. Darney is the author of more than 300 scientific papers, scholarly reviews, abstracts, and book chapters on contraception and gynecology and 4 books on family planning. He founded the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health to study abortion, develop contraceptives, prevent reproductive infections, and evaluate interventions to reduce maternal mortality. The Bixby Center provides post-doctoral training in family planning and reproductive infectious diseases to physicians and social scientists and serves as the national headquarters of the Ryan Residency Training Program and the Fellowship in Family Planning, both of which Dr. Darney initiated at UCSF and which now include nearly 100 medical schools nationwide. Dr. Darney has been a scientific advisor and consultant to governments on every continent as well as to all the major non-governmental family planning organizations. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Engender Health, and the Guttmacher Institute. Dr. Darney is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and has been honored by the American Public Health Association, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Abortion Federation and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for his contributions to family planning research and training. From UCSF he has received the Chancellor’s Awards for Public Service and for Advancement of Women and has an endowed distinguished professorship in his name.

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The Supreme Court Joins the Multispecialty Group Practice of the Congress and the President

Obstetrics & Gynecology, Nov 1, 2007

U ntil recently, the practice of medicine has been supervised and guided by licensing bodies such... more U ntil recently, the practice of medicine has been supervised and guided by licensing bodies such as the American Council on Graduate Medical Education, the American Board of Medical Specialties, and professional organizations like our own American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In the past, the government has taken a role in the protection of the health of its citizens and in general ethical issues-not in the details of medical care. However, the United States Supreme Court has lately joined the two other branches of government, the legislative and the executive, in dictating medical practice by outlawing a particular, although rarely used, technique of uterine evacuation without regard to the health consequences for patients, using language that is more ideological than medical. From now on, we physicians can anticipate that all three branches of government will help us decide how to care for our patients. The Supreme Court should send referring physicians an engraved notice of its intent to engage in a practice limited, for now, to obstetrics and gynecology. Board certified or not, five of the nine justices want to hang out a shingle. Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, made clear his rejection of evidence-based practice by failing to include a single medical reference in support of his opinion. Paradoxically, Justice Ginsburg, writing for those who doubted their qualifications in our specialty, cited several (including some from this journal) in the minority's more scholarly statement of their lack of interest in joining the Congress' and the President's practice of medicine. After consultation with retired thoracic surgeon, Dr. Frist, a nowretired senator who has also retired his presidential hopes, the 108th Congress and the President opened their practice of neurology specifically for the case of Terry Schiavo. Ignorant of the tenets of modern medicine, they violated the 80-hour work rule by making rounds on Ms. Schiavo in the darkest hours of a Palm Sunday night. Dr. G. W. Bush, who currently limits his practice to neurology and obstetrics and gynecology, flew from his Crawford, Texas, office to make Monday morning rounds and put his signature (no DEA number required) in the chart, enacting the only law ever in American history to diagnose a patient's medical condition and dictate her care. Thanks to lower courts, the Supreme Court did not get a referral in the Schiavo case, but, since they reject evidence-based medical practice, we can speculate that their neurological diagnosis and plan of care would have agreed with that of their practice partners, Drs. Frist and Bush.

Philip Darney

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