Community Physicians of Indiana

Community Reproductive Endocrinology believes in a team approach to patient care. Please click here to meet our medical team, including Dr. Carnovale, Dr. Boldt, our lab biologist, and nurses who specialize in infertility treatment.

Our philosophy: a team approach

Patients and referring physicians alike can be confident that Community Reproductive Endocrinology's medical and laboratory teams are led by board-certified specialists with a proven track record of success who embrace the team approach to care. Due to the demands of providing some of the most advanced fertility therapies available, our team holds regular patient care conferences. At these meetings, the physicians, nurses and in vitro laboratory team members review the plan for each couple's upcoming attempt to conceive. The communication and exchange of ideas among team members ensures that the best possible plan is developed and executed for our patients.

Our team approach extends to our patients as well. In fact, one of the advantages of Community Reproductive Endocrinology is the regular, close communication that goes on between the embryologists, nurses, physician and most importantly, our patients.

We understand that having well-informed patients, who feel they are part of the process, is essential. This communication enhances the care plan being developed, which can then be refined and adjusted as new issues arise.

Our physician and staff are available to spend as much time as needed to ensure that our patients are comfortable with the therapies they will be undertaking.

It is not uncommon for our embryologist, Dr. Boldt, to sit in on and participate in discussions with patients when egg, sperm or embryo quality issues arise. He is also available to meet with any patient or couple that requests an appointment with him.

 

David E. Carnovale, M.D.
Medical Director

Dr. David E. Carnovale is the medical director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Community Health Network. He is board certified in obstetrics, gynecology, reproductive endocrinology and infertility. For the last ten years, Dr. Carnovale was the director of assisted reproductive technologies at Central Georgia Fertility Institute in Macon, Georgia. While at Central Georgia Fertility Institute, Dr. Carnovale personally oversaw all aspects of the Assisted Reproductive Technology program. Under his direction, the first children in central Georgia conceived and born through in vitro fertilization (IVF), sperm injection, and frozen embryo transfer occurred at his facility. Read more about Dr. Carnovale's success at Central Georgia Fertility Institute

He has also been involved in a number of research studies that have been presented at major fertility conferences. During his time in Georgia, Dr. Carnovale was also the director of third-year medical student education in obstetrics and gynecology for Mercer University School of Medicine. He received an appointment as faculty at the associate professor level in obstetrics and gynecology, and was responsible for training residents becoming practicing ob/gyns.

Selected publications

Younis A, Carnovale DE, Butler WJ, Eroglu A. Applications of intra- and extracellular sugars and dimethylsulfoxide to human oocyte cryopreservation. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2009;26(6):341-45.

Butler WJ, Carnovale DE. Normal and abnormal uterine bleeding. In: Rock JA, Jones HW, editors. TeLinde’s Operative Gynecology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2008. p. 585-608.

Younis A, Carnovale DE, Eroglu A, Butler WJ. Enhanced survival of human failed to fertilize oocytes cryopreserved using intra- and extracellular sugars and dimethylsulfoxide. Fertil Steril. 2008;90:S272.

Carnovale DE, Butler WJ. Hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer. Postgrad Obstet Gynecol. 2002;22(1).

Carnovale DE. Ovarian sex-cord stromal tumors. Poster presentation: Georgia Obstetrics and Gynecology meeting, Savannah, GA, September 2001.

Carnovale DE, Fukuda A, Underhill DC, Laffan JJ, Breuel KF. Aspirin dose dependently inhibits the interleukin-1 beta-stimulated increase in inducible nitric oxide synthase, nitric oxide and prostaglandin E(2) production in rat ovarian dispersates cultured in vitro. Fertil Steril. 2001;75(4):778-84.

Carnovale, DE. The effect of aspirin on the interleukin–1B stimulated increase in nitric oxide in rat ovarian dispersates cultures in vitro. Poster presentation: Society for Gynecologic Investigation meeting, Atlanta, GA, March 1998.

Klein SL, Carnovale DE, Burnett AL, Wallach EE, Zacur HA, Crone JK, Dawson VL, Nelson RJ, Dawson TM. Impaired ovulation in mice with targeted deletion of the neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase. Mol Med.1998;4(10):658-64.

Carnovale DE, Zacur HA. Amenorrhea. In: Rackle, RE, editor. Conn’s Current Therapy 1997. Philadelphia: WB Saunders Co.; 1997. p.1084-1088.

Carnovale DE, Wallach EE. Endometriosis. Postgrad Obstet Gynecol. 1994;15(9).

Dr. Carnovale was recognized early in his career as an outstanding physician, being awarded the distinguished title of “Outstanding Laparo-endoscopic Resident Surgeon" by the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. During training, Dr. Carnovale also attained the highest test score among his peers for two out of four years while doing his residency at Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York. He completed his undergraduate work at St. John’s University in Jamaica, New York and graduated from medical school at S.U.N.Y. Health Science Center in Brooklyn, New York. Following residency, he completed a two-year fellowship at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Following his fellowship, he was appointed director of assisted reproduction and assistant professor at East Tennessee State University's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Jeffrey P. Boldt, Ph.D.
Scientific Director

Dr. Boldt is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Indiana University School of Medicine.

He received his board certification as an embryology and andrology laboratory director by the American Board of Bioanalysts and has established and directed a number of successful fertility and andrology laboratories for the past 20 years, including the laboratory of Assisted Fertility Services.

Dr. Boldt received his Ph.D. from State University of New York at Buffalo and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in reproductive sciences at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, where he was actively involved in one of the first IVF programs in the United States. He also has held faculty positions at the Medical College of Georgia and Albany Medical College. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the fields of mammalian reproduction and clinical IVF.

He is currently involved with the pioneering work of egg freezing and fertility preservation at Community Health Network. Dr. Boldt has co-authored multiple articles about egg freezing—also known as human oocyte cryopreservation. The following are samples of his published work:

• Human oocyte cryopreservation: 5-year experience with a sodium-depleted slow freezing method (Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Vol. 13, No. 1. 96–100, June 2006) 
• Human oocyte cryopreservation as an adjunct to IVF–embryo transfer cycles (Human Reproduction, Vol. 18, No. 6, 1250-1255, June 2003)

He is a member of several professional societies, including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, American Society of Andrology, and the Society for the Study of Reproduction. Dr. Boldt is the former chairman of the Reproductive Biology Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

He and his wife have lived in Indianapolis since 1993 and have two daughters.

Mary Ellen Sleva
Reproductive Biologist

Mary Ellen Sleva joined Assisted Fertility Services at Community Hospital North as a reproductive biologist in April 2008. She was born and raised in southern Indiana and has lived in Indianapolis since 2007.

Mary Ellen graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana in 2006. She will graduate with a master's degree in biomedical sciences with a specialization in clinical embryology and andrology from the Eastern Virginia Medical School in May 2011.

Sarah M. Amrine, R.N.

Sarah received her nursing degree from Indiana University, where she graduated valedictorian of her class, and also holds a bachelor degree in psychology from Butler University and a master's degree in clinical psychology from the University of Indianapolis. Prior to working at CRE she was coordinator of gynecological procedures at the Indiana Surgery Center, where she gained extensive experience in gynecological surgery.

She is very excited to be part of the dynamic team at CRE and strives to deliver compassionate, understanding and personal patient care.

Sarah is married and in her free time enjoys fine arts, spending time with friends and family, and playing with her miniature pinscher Freud.