The faculty of the Division of Family Planning at Brigham and Women's Hospital conduct a wide variety of clinical, public health, educational, and health services research funded by the National Institutes of Health, foundation grants, and institutional grant mechanisms. We have collectively published over 150 peer-reviewed publications, and our work has been extensively covered in the lay press, as well as cited in court briefs, legislative hearings, and other venues that impact public policy.
Dr. Goldberg's research focuses on the use of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion and miscarriage, improving cervical preparation before second trimester dilation and evacuation procedures, investigating interventions that enable first trimester uterine aspiration in an office or low-resource setting and improving utilization and expanding access to effective contraceptive methods.
Dr. Bartz's research focuses on expanding primary care specialist, resident, and medical student training in reproductive justice, contraception, and abortion provision, especially through the use of simulation to train on surgical techniques. She has particular interests in expanding our understanding and teaching of women’s health across multiple disciplines and through the use of modalities such as social media. In all of her research, Dr. Bartz considers health care through a social justice and equity lens, including within our learning environments for trainees and within our abortion clinics and other reproductive healthcare provision.
Dr. Braaten’s research has focused on pain with abortion and IUD insertion, as well as complex IUD management. She has collaborated with other researchers (Dr. Janiak) on care for abortion patients with opioid use, and pregnancy intention screening. Dr. Braaten also has interests in adolescent care and care of LGBTQ+ individuals, and providing inclusive reproductive health care.
The primary focus of Dr. Fay's research is on gender-based violence. Through this work, she aims to improve the quality of sexual and reproductive health for all through education and intervention. Her prior efforts have focused on measuring health-related impacts and clinician preparedness to care for violence survivors. Her current efforts, supported by the NIH Women’s Reproductive Health Research Program, are focused on developing an assessment instrument to better identify those affected by reproductive coercion as well as generating survivor-identified clinician support measures for sexually transmitted infection, contraception and pregnancy options counseling.
Elizabeth Janiak is an interdisciplinary social science researcher jointly appointed at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. As the Principal Investigator of the CARE Lab, Dr. Janiak uses her research to advance equitable access to quality contraception and abortion care, and to train the next generation of reproductive health researchers. Her current research focuses on improving access to medication abortion and evidence-based miscarriage care, understanding the impacts of the Dobbs decision on abortion travel experiences, and identifying and eliminating barriers to postpartum contraceptive use.
Lab for Contraception and Abortion Research and Education in the Social Sciences.
The ASPIRE Center of Sexual & Reproductive Health at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts works to advance excellence and equity in sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.
For over a century, a leader in patient care, medical education and research, with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery.
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