Two well-respected maternal fetal medicine specialists and a seasoned OB/GYN family nurse practitioner with endocrinology experience have opened a physician’s office in Mesa to help women with high-risk and complicated pregnancies. Dr. Richard Blumrick, FACOG, and Dr. Julia Elizabeth Solomon, MDCM, FACOG, will be lending their support to the medical teams at Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa and Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital.

The physicians have teamed up with Raquel Castaneda, FNP-BC – an existing Physician Group of Arizona employee and a seasoned OB/GYN family nurse practitioner with extensive endocrinology experience – to assist pregnant patients who have diabetes or gestational diabetes.

“As the East Valley grows, so too does the need for highly-specialized, quality health care options, especially for patients facing complex medical circumstances,” said Jake Golich, chief executive officer of Mountain Vista Medical Center. “Adding the experience from Dr. Blumrick and Dr. Solomon in partnership with Raquel Castaneda to our network allows us to offer even more specialized services for high-risk and complicated pregnancies in the East Valley.”

The trio belong to Physician Group of Arizona’s Fetal Diagnostic Center, which is home to the network’s team of perinatology specialists. The Fetal Diagnostic Center guides at-risk patients through challenging pregnancies, providing necessary evaluations, risk assessments, advanced ultrasounds to identify medical problems early, and treatment options. The team focuses on some of the most daunting medical conditions during pregnancy, including congenital birth defects, particularly cardiac; genetic disorders; fetal or placental abnormalities; maternal health, autoimmune and hereditary conditions; pregnancy-related disorders; preterm labor; multiple gestation (twins, triplets, etc.), and blood, mineral or vitamin deficiencies.

With more than 20 years of experience, Blumrick has an intrinsic interest in medically-complicated pregnancies, including heart disease in pregnancy, and extreme prematurity. He received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and completed an internship in OB/GYN at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospitals in New York, and a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

A former adjunct at University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, Solomon is a board-certified Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist who is an internationally-renowned authority on 3-D and 4-D ultrasound and fetal echocardiography. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology and later her Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery from McGill University. Solomon completed an OB/GYN residency at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and a Fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at New England Medical Center.

Castaneda, an Arizona native, has spent the last two decades honing her skills in various areas of patient care, including Labor and Delivery, NICU, Post-partum and Prenatal Education. Due to gestational diabetes becoming more common, she has spent nearly three years hyper-focused on Endocrinology and Diabetes Management. Fluent in Spanish, Castaneda earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Arizona State University, and her Master of Science as a Family Nurse Practitioner from the University of Phoenix.

Through the addition of Blumrick, Solomon and Castaneda, patients will have access to more advanced services and technologies, including:

• 3-D/4-D obstetric ultrasound, providing multi-dimensional views of the baby and his/her developing organs.
• Fetal echocardiograms to study the anatomy and function of a baby’s heart.
• Detailed (level II) ultrasound for higher risk conditions.
• Genetic counseling for helping patients understand and evaluate treatment options for genetic conditions or birth defects.
• Amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling to screen for developmental abnormalities.
• Non-invasive prenatal screening for common chromosomal disorders.
• Cerclage placement to strengthen the cervix to help a developing baby.
• Percutaneous umbilical cord blood sampling (PUBS) to detect fetal abnormalities.
• Amnioinfusion and fetal shunt placement to balance amniotic fluid levels.

All three practitioners are currently accepting new patients, and appointments can be scheduled by calling 480-257-2699 or visiting arizonaperinatology.com.