Alireza Shamshirsaz

I’m incredibly proud to serve as director of the Boston Children’s Fetal Care and Surgery Center in affiliation with Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As an attending physician at Boston Children’s, I diagnose and treat complex, high-risk pregnancies.

I came to Boston Children’s from Texas Children’s Hospital, where I served as chief of the fetal therapy and surgery division, co-chair of the Fetal Center steering committee, and co-director of the perinatal surgery fellowship and maternal-fetal surgery program.

My career includes clinical work, research, and teaching at national and international levels. I’ve helped establish fetal surgery centers at Stanford University School of Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, and at Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran. In Iran, I performed the first open neural tube defect (NTD) repair in 2013, the first laser ablation for twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) in 2017, the first fetoscopic repair of NTD in 2018, and the first fetoscopic endoluminal tracheal occlusion also in 2018. I also performed the first laparotomy-assisted fetoscopic NTD repairs in Israel, South Africa, Argentina, and at the University of Southern California. Today, my clinical practice focuses on fetal surgery (in utero evaluation and repair of complicated fetal structural anomalies) and management of placenta accreta.

In addition to my surgical and clinical work, I take great pride in being able to train the next generation of fetal surgeons. I currently serve as a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. Previously, I’ve served as a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, as an honorary visiting professor at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, as a distinguished visiting professor at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and I’ve fulfilled an adjunct appointment at Stanford University School of Medicine.