WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --
Air Force Institute of Technology Civilian Institution Programs medical fellow, Maj. Viviana de Assis, DO, was awarded the 2023 Gottesfeld-Hohler Benacerraf Visiting Ultrasound Fellowship. She was one of only two recipients of this prestigious award in the United States.
The fellowship, named in honor of Dr. Beryl Rica Benacerraf, a pioneer in the field of obstetrical and gynecologic ultrasound, aims to expand the ultrasound training of physicians dedicated to the highest quality imaging in women’s health care.
The fellowship will enable de Assis to further her education in fetal echocardiography. She will spend one month at Eastern Virginia Medical School, learning from world-renowned fetal echocardiography specialists Drs. Alfred Abuhamad and Elena Sinkovskaya, to perform and interpret diagnostic ultrasounds and ultrasound-guided procedures.
“We perform numerous fetal ultrasounds as surveillance to ensure that babies do not have heart conditions because unrecognized heart conditions in the womb could lead to death at the time of birth,” said de Assis. “Being able to accurately recognize pathology, or things that are abnormal in the baby's heart, is very important.”
De Assis emphasizes the importance of this training, especially as a military doctor where access to specialties can be more limited than in civilian hospitals.
“If I can help catch an abnormal heart in a patient I may be able to spare that baby's life because we will do the right thing when the baby is born,” she said. “The biggest fear that I have in my career is missing a diagnosis and it not being recognized until after birth. That could put the baby in danger as well as complicate the work of pediatric colleagues as they try to figure out what's going on. So any opportunity that I can take to make myself better for my patients is important to me.”
De Assis recently completed a three-year maternal fetal medicine fellowship at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine through AFIT’s Civilian Institution Program. In 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked USF as the number six hospital in the nation and the number one hospital in Florida for obstetrics and gynecology.
“I was very fortunate that I was able to train at USF,” she said. “I learned so much. I gained extensive experience in clinical research, translational research and clinical practice.”
Her clinical and research interests include maternal sepsis, preterm birth, diabetes, and global health. As an AFIT Fellow, she was the first author on three research papers with an educational reach to over 43,000 health professionals.
In recognition of her groundbreaking thesis research, de Assis received the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists’ Armed Forces District Founders Award for best original research at the ACOG annual meeting in September 2023.
“My thesis was a translational research project on chorioamnionitis mediated preterm birth looking at an enzyme called HPGD, that is a key mediator of uterine contractions,” she said. “I found that maternal cells regulate the expression of HPGD in fetal cells via paracrine interactions. That is important because if we can determine the key regulators within those interactions which increase or decrease the expression of the enzyme, then we can target them therapeutically for patients affected by preterm labor associated with chorioamnionitis.”
De Assis is starting her next assignment as an attending physician in maternal fetal medicine at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. A first-generation immigrant from Colombia, she learned about the Air Force Health Professions Scholarship Program from friends and attended a recruiter presentation during her first year of medical school.
“I felt very compelled at that point to apply because the people that I am serving are the people protecting our nation and I am very grateful for the country that we live in,” she said. “In the military, you can build a career and have mentors along the way to guide you. My most influential mentors are people that are active duty or prior military that are years ahead of me and have shown me how to navigate each area of my career.”
De Assis completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Central Florida, majoring in molecular biology and microbiology. She attended medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Bradenton, Florida, completed an internship at St. Petersburg General Hospital, and trained in in obstetrics and gynecology at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.