25 Years of Building Families Through Science, Innovation, and Compassion
Twenty-five years ago today, our founding partners, Drs. Larry Grunfeld, Ben Sandler, Tanmoy Mukherjee, and I shared a vision: to build the best IVF program possible, grounded in science, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to patients.
We believed reproductive medicine was on the verge of extraordinary change. Advances in laboratory science, genetics, and reproductive biology were creating new opportunities for patients, and we wanted to build a practice that would not simply keep pace with those changes, but help lead them
Of course, in those early days, the future was far from certain. We had a vision, a laboratory, and a small but deeply committed team. I still remember the excitement when our first pregnancy test came back positive. At that moment, we knew we had built something special. Not because we had achieved a milestone, but because we had helped create an opportunity for someone to become a parent.
From the beginning, we believed fertility care needed to be comprehensive. In 2001, we became one of the early programs to emphasize the importance of a thorough evaluation of the male partner, and Dr. Natan Bar-Chama joined us in building what would become one of the nation's leading male fertility programs. At the same time, Dr. Georgia Witkin helped us integrate psychological support and stress management into patient care. Together, they reinforced an idea that still guides us today: successful fertility treatment requires attention not only to science and medicine, but also to the emotional well-being of the people we serve.
Over the past 25 years, we have had the privilege of helping advance the field of reproductive medicine.
We were early advocates of protocol-driven medicine and pioneers in fertility preservation, first for cancer patients and later for women seeking greater control over their reproductive future. More recently, we have expanded these efforts to support the fertility preservation and family-building needs of transgender individuals and couples.
In the laboratory, we helped establish routine extended embryo culture to the blastocyst stage and continued to invest in innovations that improved embryo development and patient outcomes.
At a time when fertility treatments routinely resulted in high-risk multiple pregnancies, we knew we had to advocate for change. We were among the early programs to lead the way in single embryo transfer because we believed the goal of treatment was not simply pregnancy, but the delivery of a healthy child while minimizing risks to both mother and baby.
As genetics transformed medicine, we worked to integrate it thoughtfully into reproductive care through expanded carrier screening, embryo screening for aneuploidy, and, more recently, genomics and multiscale biology to better personalize treatment.
As the practice grew, our mission expanded as well. What began in a single Madison Avenue location evolved into four state-of-the-art embryology laboratories across the New York metropolitan area and laid the foundation for broader national impact. Throughout that growth, our objective remained unchanged: to make world-class reproductive care more accessible while maintaining the scientific rigor, innovation, and patient-centered approach that defined us from the beginning.
Education and academic medicine have always been central to our identity. Through our longstanding partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we have remained committed to research, teaching, and training the next generation of reproductive endocrinologists. One of the most gratifying aspects of that effort has been seeing several of our fellowship graduates return to RMANY as colleagues and leaders. Few things are more rewarding than watching the next generation help shape the future of the practice.
Today, we continue to explore new frontiers, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, to help personalize care and improve outcomes for our patients.
Yet despite all these advances, our most important lesson over the past quarter century is that medicine remains fundamentally human.
The patients who come to us are not seeking technology. They are seeking hope, guidance, understanding, and the opportunity to build a family. Scientific innovation is most meaningful when paired with compassion. That is why we have worked to create an environment that values inclusion, respects diverse paths to parenthood, and prioritizes the patient experience at every step of the journey.
In 2023, we entered a new chapter by partnering with US Fertility, creating an opportunity to share expertise, accelerate innovation, and extend our impact beyond the New York metropolitan area.
When we founded RMANY 25 years ago, none of us could have imagined how many lives would be touched by that original vision. The technologies have changed dramatically. The mission has not.
One of the greatest joys of practicing reproductive medicine for this long is seeing the lasting impact of the work. Many of the babies we helped bring into the world during our earliest years are now adults, and some are beginning to build families of their own. To have played even a small role across generations is both humbling and deeply gratifying.
We remain inspired every day by the privilege of helping people build families and grateful to the patients, colleagues, partners, and team members who have made this remarkable journey possible.
The first 25 years have been remarkable. We are excited to see what comes next.