CHOP Surgeon-in-Chief N. Scott Adzick Wins Strittmatter Award for Contributions to Field of Fetal Surgery

The Philadelphia County Medical Society (PCMS) has awarded N. Scott Adzick, MD, Surgeon-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the 2021 Strittmatter Award, its most prestigious scientific honor. The award recognizes a PCMS physician who has demonstrated the most valuable contributions to the practice of healing, whether surgical or medical.

Adzick is considered a pioneer in the field of fetal surgery, having founded the Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment (CFDT) at CHOP in 1995. The CFDT is now the largest and most comprehensive fetal program in the world, treating expectant mothers and their unborn babies from all 50 states and more than 70 countries. Adzick and his colleagues in the CFDT have performed more than 2,000 fetal surgeries and cared for more than 25,000 expectant mothers, making the procedure a widespread and life-changing option for babies and families.

Since the inception of the CFDT, Adzick has continued to study and refine the practice of fetal surgery. He was a lead investigator for the landmark National Institutes of Health (NIH) Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS), which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011 and demonstrated that fetal surgery could significantly improve outcomes for children with spina bifida. He has also co-authored follow-up studies showing that these benefits endure up to ten years into childhood, leading to better mobility and quality of life for patients who undergo fetal surgery.

“I am honored to receive this award from the Philadelphia County Medical Society, recognizing work that has helped so many patients and families,” Adzick said. “At CHOP, we hope that continued research in the field of fetal surgery will bring better treatments to even more patients, both here in Philadelphia and around the world.”

The Strittmatter Award is named after Isidore P. Strittmatter, MD, the sixty-third president of PCMS, who established the award in 1923. The award commends the recipient’s contribution to one of the fundamental sciences of medicine, having a beneficial impact on either surgery or medicine.