Academic Qualification of a Medical School Dean

One commentor made a brazen statement concerning the presumed "limited" time availability of medical school dean to perform academic research or clinical duties (etc) with all compounding issues surrounding a deans responsibilities. This particular commentor framed his point that it was nearly impossible for Paul Bunger to participate in academic, hypothesis driven research due to his dean's schedule. Of course, I countered that statement and I offer the following biographies to qualify my statements. Of course USD is NOT: Harvard, Stanford, or Johns Hopkins. But, would-it-not stand to reason that if dean's of these respective institutions can carry out their duties as a dean and still maintain highly successful academic (and clinical) research careers that the dean of USD and the faculty of the USD School of Medicine should be able to perform at some similar level?

Philip Pizzo, MD -- Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine
source: http://med.stanford.edu/leadership/dean/dean_bio.html

Philip A. Pizzo, MD, became dean of the Stanford School of Medicine in April 2001. Before joining Stanford, he was the physician-in-chief of Children’s Hospital in Boston and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Pizzo is recognized for his contributions as a clinical investigator, especially in the treatment of children with cancer and HIV.

Pizzo received his undergraduate degree from Fordham University and an MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He completed an internship and residency at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston, a teaching fellowship at Harvard Medical School, and a clinical and research fellowship in pediatric oncology at the National Cancer Institute. Pizzo served as head of the institute’s infectious disease section, chief of the NCI’s pediatric department, and acting scientific director for NCI’s Division of Clinical Sciences.

Pizzo devoted much of his distinguished medical career to the diagnosis, management, prevention and treatment of childhood cancers and the infectious complications that occur in children whose immune systems are compromised by cancer and AIDS. Pizzo and his research team pioneered the development of new treatments for children with HIV infection, lengthening and improving the quality of life for children with this disease. His research soon led to important clues about how to treat HIV-positive children and adults, and how to manage life-threatening infections. In 1988 Pizzo published the first article in the New England Journal of Medicine on antiviral therapy of HIV in children. He is also the author of more than 500 scientific articles and 14 books.

Pizzo has received several awards from the U.S. Public Health Service, including the Outstanding Service Medal in 1995. He has been cited in Best Doctors of America since 1995, and in 1990 was declared “Washingtonian of the Year” by Washingtonian Magazine for helping to found the Children’s Inn, a temporary home for children undergoing treatment at the National Institutes of Health and their families. He is a member of a number of prestigious organizations and in 1997 was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Edward D. Miller, MD -- Dean, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
source: http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/information_about_hopkins/about_jhu/principal_administrative_officers_and_deans/edward_d_miller/index.cfm

Edward Miller was named chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine, the 13th dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and vice president for medicine of The Johns Hopkins University in January 1997. His appointment followed a yearlong national search for the first CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine, an organization that formally integrates operations and planning of the School of Medicine with The Johns Hopkins Health System and Hospital to ensure their continued preeminence in education, discovery and patient care.

Under his aegis, both The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the School of Medicine consistently are ranked among the very best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and the school continues to rank at the top in NIH research funding. Johns Hopkins Medicine's expansion in the past decade ranged from Maryland to Singapore. Currently, Miller is implementing a master plan to replace aging facilities on the East Baltimore medical campus and is cooperating with the city and state on development of a life sciences park adjacent to the campus. To ensure that Johns Hopkins Medicine plays a leadership role in protecting patients, Miller has established the Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care.

An anesthesiologist who has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific papers, abstracts and book chapters, Miller joined Johns Hopkins in 1994 as professor and director of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine. He was named interim dean in 1996. He came to Johns Hopkins after eight years at Columbia University in New York, where he served as professor and chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at the University of Virginia.

Miller's research has focused on the cardiovascular effects of anesthetic drugs and vascular smooth muscle relaxation. He has served as president of the Association of University Anesthesiologists, editor of Anesthesia and Analgesia, and editor of Critical Care Medicine. He served on the board of the International Anesthesia Research Society and was chairman of the FDA's Advisory Committee on Anesthesia and Life Support Drugs.

Miller is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He is also a member of Maryland's Health Care Access and Cost Commission and is on the boards of the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Fund.

Born in February 1943 in Rochester, N.Y., Miller received his A.B. from Ohio Wesleyan University and his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He was a surgical intern at University Hospital in Boston, chief resident in anesthesiology at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, and a research fellow in physiology at Harvard Medical School. He and his wife, Lynne, have four adult children.

Jeffrey S. Flier, MD -- Dean, Harvard School of Medicine
source: http://hms.harvard.edu/public/news/bio.html

Jeffrey S. Flier was named the 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University on July 11, 2007. Flier, an endocrinologist and an authority on the molecular causes of obesity and diabetes, is also the Carolyn Shields Walker Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously he had served as Harvard Medical School Faculty Dean for Academic Programs and Chief Academic Officer for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), a Harvard teaching affiliate.

Flier is one of the country’s leading investigators in the areas of obesity and diabetes. His research has produced major insights into the molecular mechanism of insulin action, the molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance in human disease, and the molecular pathophysiology of obesity. He was one of the first to demonstrate that diet-induced obesity in rodents is associated with increased leptin expression, and that short-term starvation is associated with decreased leptin expression and blood levels. His proposal that leptin serves as a switch from the fed to the starved state has fundamentally shaped the discourse of the field.

Flier was born in New York City. He received a BS from City College of New York in 1968, and an MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1972, graduating with the Elster Award for Highest Academic Standing. Following residency training in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital from 1972 to 1974, Flier moved to the National Institutes of Health as a Clinical Associate. In 1978, he joined the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, serving as Chief of the Diabetes Unit at Beth Israel Hospital until 1990, when he was named chief of the hospital's Endocrine Division.

In 2002, Flier was named Chief Academic Officer of BIDMC, a newly created senior position responsible for research and academic programs. He worked with Beth Israel Deaconess academic department chairs to ensure the quality and breadth of academic programs at the Medical Center, through which most Harvard Medical School students pass. He also served as the formal liaison to Harvard Medical School, sitting on the Council of Academic Deans.

Flier has authored over 200 scholarly papers and reviews and has held many editorial positions, including Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and has served on the Editorial
Boards of Molecular Endocrinology, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and the American Journal of Medicine. He is currently on the Board of Consulting Editors of Science Magazine.

An elected member of the Institute of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Flier’s honors also include the Eli Lilly Award of the American Diabetes Association, the Berson Lecture of the American Physiological Society, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Athens. He has been the recipient of a five-year $500,000 Unrestricted Metabolic Research Grant by Bristol-Myers Squibb and the 2003 Edwin B. Astwood Lecture Award from the Endocrine Society. In 2005, he received the Banting Medal from the American Diabetes Association, its highest scientific honor.

Flier, the father of two, lives in Newton, MA with his wife Eleftheria Maratos-Flier, MD, who is also on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and with whom he has collaborated on research in the area of neuroendocrine control of body weight.