Israel Zighelboim, MD, FACOG, FACS, is focused on the future of St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. As its new Chair, he has a deep appreciation for the generations of babies who were born at St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Bethlehem and Allentown campuses and now are coming back to have their babies there.

He wants today’s new parents to have the same good experience their parents had and his plan is to have the Network continue to distinguish itself by continuing to focus on its small, user-friendly practices.

“We will maintain this model because it allows a woman to know all the names and faces of the people who are taking care of her. Women who are patients in much larger network practices often feel they’re being cared for by strangers,” Zighelboim said.

“For the past 100 years, our department has been women’s preferred care provider and we are going to build on that by making access to great care very easy no matter where a woman finds herself on the age spectrum. Whether she’s a teen, a new mom, pre-menopausal, menopausal or beyond, every woman will find her best patient care experience here at St. Luke’s,” he said.

His strategy is working: Year-over-year new patient numbers have increased more than 100 percent.

Dr. Zighelboim’s vision is to grow St. Luke’s already burgeoning OB-GYN Department by getting more national visibility. To do that, the Network will be taking its excellent medical education and clinical research into its main areas of focus.

Additionally, to keep up with the growth spurred by two new hospitals, St. Luke’s will continue to recruit physicians who are interested, experienced and who have a track record of success in academic endeavors as well as in patient care.

“We’re lucky to be positioned between New York and Philadelphia,” Dr. Zighelboim said, “And there are specialties we have not yet tapped.”

Five years from now, he said, “We’ll be twice the size we are now, and the Network that is already the Lehigh Valley’s preferred care provider will be nationally positioned at an academic level in a very competitive way.”

Dr. Zighelboim is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and gynecologic oncology and is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American College of Surgeons. He is an ad hoc reviewer for the journals Gynecologic Oncology, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Journal of Clinical Oncology and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and is Editorial Board Member of Gynecologic Oncology Case Reports.

He is experienced in minimally invasive surgery and managing cancerous and noncancerous diseases of the female reproductive system. His special interest and expertise is in cancer genetics. His research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute and private foundations.