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In the creation and production of this textbook, we were fortunate to have the assistance and support of countless talented professionals both within and outside the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. To begin, we acknowledge that an undertaking of this magnitude would not be possible without the unwavering support provided by our recent Chairman Dr. Steven Bloom and Vice-Chairman Dr. Barry Schwarz, whose financial and academic endorsement has been essential. Dr. Bloom has served as an editor for the 22nd through 25th editions but now has assumed the important role of Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
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In constructing such an expansive academic compilation, the expertise of many colleagues was needed to add vital, evidence-based content. It was indeed fortuitous for us to have access to a trove of collaborators from our medical center. From our own Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Shivani Patel was essential to the production of our book and is an invaluable addition to our team. We benefitted from her obstetrical expertise, writing talent, and ability to translate difficult concepts into teaching pearls. Faculty with specific expertise included Dr. Claudia Werner, who lent valuable insight into the management of cervical dysplasia. Our nationally known pelvic anatomist, Dr. Marlene Corton, prepared graphic masterpieces for the anatomy chapter with artist Lew Calver. We also are grateful to the numerous faculty and residents who added seminal clinical photographs to our text.
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In addition to these contributors, we relied heavily on our colleagues in the Division of Maternal–Fetal Medicine. These professionals, in addition to providing expert consultation, graciously assisted us by covering clinical duties when writing and editing were especially time consuming. These include Drs. Scott Roberts, Oscar Andujo, Vanessa Rogers, Charles Brown, Julie Lo, Robyn Horsager, Patricia Santiago-Muñoz, Mark Peters, Elaine Duryea, Jamie Morgan, Morris Bryant, Shena Dillon, Anne Ambia, Robert Martin, Robert Stewart, Stephan Shivvers, Ashley Zink, Sarah Happe, and Christina Herrera.
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We also emphasize that production of Williams Obstetrics would not be feasible without the help of our Maternal–Fetal Medicine fellows and our residents in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Their insatiable curiosity serves to energize us to find new and effective ways to convey age-old truths, new data, and cutting-edge concepts. Their logical and critical questions lead us to weaknesses in the text, and thereby always help us to improve our work. In addition, we sincerely thank them for their vigilance in capturing photographs of spectacular examples of both obstetrical pathology and normal findings.
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This edition is heavily populated with seminal examples of sonographic findings. We are grateful for the efforts of Mary Gibbs, RDMS; Rafael Levy, RDMS; Michael Davidson, RDMS; and the many talented sonographers at Parkland Hospital.
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Thanks to generous funding from the McGraw-Hill Companies, this 26th edition now contains more than 200 color illustrations. Most of these were crafted by several skilled medical illustrators who include Ms. Marie Sena, Ms. Erin Frederickson, and Ms. SangEun Cha. All of these talented artists trained here at UT Southwestern under the instruction of Mr. Lewis Calver. Additional artistic support came from Mr. Joseph Varghese, Ms. Shreya Tiwari, Dr. Sudhi Singh, and Mr. Manoj Kumar Choudhry. Their work at Thomson Digital provided the full-color graphs and line art used to enhance this edition. Their team tirelessly coordinated efforts between author and artist and graciously accommodated our numerous changes and tweaks.
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Production of the 5000-page manuscript would not have been possible without a dedicated team. Once again, we are deeply indebted to Ms. Dawn Wilson and Ms. Melinda Epstein for their untiring efforts with manuscript production. Ms. Regina Williams also provided excellent, cheerful, conscientious manuscript assistance. Mr. Charles Richards offered knowledgeable and responsive information technology support. For these and many more that go unnamed, we could not have done our job without their expertise.
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It again has been a privilege to work with the dedicated professionals from McGraw-Hill Education. We have had the pleasure to work with Executive Editor Mr. Jason Malley in production of our textbook and are grateful for his support of Williams Obstetrics. Senior Project Development Editor Ms. Christie Naglieri has again brought her considerable knowledge to this edition of our book. Her dedication to creating the best textbook supported our efforts, and we appreciate her productive, gracious style. We thank Ms. Leah Carton, who provided professional, timely, and ever-sunny aid. Mr. Richard Ruzycka served as production supervisor for this edition of the textbook, and our book benefits from his years of experience.
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Our text took its final shape under the watchful care of our compositors at Aptara, Inc. We thank Ms. Indu Jawwad for her talents in graciously and masterfully coordinating and overseeing composition. Her dedicated attention to detail and organization were vital to completion of our project. She has created many editions with us, and we consider her an essential team member. At Aptara, Mr. Mahender Singh carried out the crucial task of quality control. He also assisted, along with Mr. Rajesh Chander, Mr. Kamlesh Bhatt, and Mr. Anil Varghese, in creating beautiful chapter layouts to highlight our content aesthetically and informatively. This edition's chapters were also posted and available online for use prior to print publication. We thank Mr. Braj Bhushan and Mr. Ashish Kumar Sharma for preparing this content so brilliantly. Special thanks go to Mr. Greg Feldman. As copyeditor, Greg added precision and clarity to our efforts. His endurance and pleasant professionalism through many challenging chapters has made our text better.
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Last, we acknowledge our significant debt to the women who have entrusted themselves and their unborn children to us for obstetrical care. The clinical expertise and many images provided in this text would not have been possible without their collaborative spirit to help us advance obstetrical knowledge. We also offer enthusiastic and heartfelt appreciation to our families and friends. Without their patience, generosity, love, and encouragement, this task would have been impossible.
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