Administration– Dean's Office

The Dean's Newsletter:
April 23, 2007

Table of Contents

v Dr. Hugh O'Brodovich Is Named New Chair of Pediatrics
v NCI Designation At Last!
v Dr. Paul Berg Is Remarkable in So Many Ways
v Appreciation to Wonderful Friends and Remarkable Students
v Medical Students Win a Number of Prestigious Fellowships
v Industry Relations and Conflict of Interest
v Exchange on Tobacco Raises More Smoke than Illumination
v HHMI Opens a New Round of Competition
v Medical Senate By-Laws Continue Their Journey
v Good News on Trips and Traffic
v Reaching Out to High School Students: Stanford 101
v Upcoming Events
v Awards and Honors
v Appointments and Promotions

Dr. Hugh O'Brodovich Is Named New Chair of Pediatrics

I am enormously pleased and excited to announce that Dr. Hugh O'Brodovich has accepted my invitation to serve as the next Chair of Pediatrics at Stanford and Chief of Staff at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH), succeeding Dr. Harvey Cohen who served with distinction in the roles during the past thirteen years. While I must admit that the search for the new chair went on much longer than I anticipated, due largely to some unexpected events and very challenging circumstances, I am most pleased with the outcome and believe that we have identified the most outstanding leader possible to help move Stanford Pediatrics and the LPCH to a new level of excellence.

In making this appointment I would like to thank the diligent work of the Pediatric Chair Search Committee, led by Dr. Tom Krummel, Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery. That committee identified over 140 possible candidates and interviewed more than 20 excellent pediatric leaders. They worked long hours and helped to enlighten the broad pediatric community about the excellent opportunities available at Stanford. While Dr. O'Brodovich was very highly considered by the Search Committee during the early phase of the search in 2005, he declined to pursue the position for a variety of personal and professional circumstances. Thankfully a number of those issues changed in the intervening 15 months, permitting me to re-engage him in mid-January 2007. Since then we have each learned a tremendous amount about each other, culminating in his acceptance of the offer to serve as Chair on Friday, April 20th. I want to thank in particular Mr. Chris Dawes, President and CEO of LPCH, along with his hospital leaders for the important role they played in the search. I also want to thank the Dean's Office, particularly Marcia Cohen, Julia Tussing, Rebecca Trumbull, Mira Engel and Kendra Baldwin for their diligent work in helping to make this recruitment successful. This took more than a village to achieve successful resolution -- indeed it took a University!

Dr. Hugh O'Brodovich, Professor of Paediatrics and Physiology, is uniquely qualified to assume the exciting responsibilities at Stanford and LPCH based on his long and exemplary track record as a leader, researcher, educator, scholar and clinician. He served as Chair of the Department of Paediatrics and Paediatrician-in-Chief at the world-renowned Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) and the University of Toronto from 1996-2006. At these institutions individuals are not permitted to exceed ten years in their leadership position. During his tenure as chair at the University of Toronto and Paediatrician-in-Chief at HSC, Dr. O'Brodovich increased the HSC's full time pediatric faculty from 110 to 175 full time pediatricians (163 FTE) with 45% being recruited from outside of Canada, more than one third being clinician-scientists and researchers and 30% belonging to visible minorities. The University-wide Department of Paediatrics consisted of 341 pediatricians located at four fully affiliated academic health science centers and community sites. He, his executive committee and the faculty developed novel faculty mentorship programs for clinician scientists and clinician teachers that played a significant role in the success of his Career Development and Compensation program. This novel performance-based pathway for academic departments has been published in the peer-reviewed literature. As published, relevant aspects of this model have been adapted by all Canadian pediatric academic health science centers as part of their career development strategies, organizational structure and physician work-force planning.

Dr. O'Brodovich received his medical degree in 1975 from the University of Manitoba, where he then completed his residency training in Paediatrics and Respiratory Medicine. At that time, one of his senior residents was our own Dr. Charles Prober, Professor of Pediatrics and Senior Associate Dean for Medical Student Education. Dr. O'Brodovich then completed a three-year post-doctoral research fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He then spent five years on the faculty at McMaster University, moving to the Hospital for Sick Children in 1986 where he served as senior scientist, Head of the Research Institute's Division of Respiratory Research and Division Chief of Respiratory Medicine prior to becoming chair. Dr. O'Brodovich received the R.S. McLaughlin Foundation Chair in Paediatrics at HSC. Throughout his entire career he has continuously held research grants from the Medical Research Council of Canada, now the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, in addition to other national peer-reviewed funding agencies.

Under his direction, Dr. O'Brodovich built a tremendous leadership team in the Department of Paediatrics that has enabled the development of a number of programs that impact clinical care, research endeavors and educational programs. Some of the many accomplishments include: a fellowship program that started out with three positions in 1996 and which has now grown to an internationally renowned program with over 30 fellows per year; the enhanced presence of pediatrics within the undergraduate medical education program; the establishment of a new Division of Developmental Pediatrics; an expanded postdoctoral program which in 2005 had 219 Department of Pediatrics' subspecialty training fellows from 26 countries training during a single year; an increase in the number of department faculty holding appointments within the Research Institute; an increase in research grant funding; implementation of Career Development and Compensation Program; and integral involvement with the National Coalition for Child and Youth Health. The Hospital for Sick Children is one of the world's best children's hospitals with an international reputation no doubt strengthened by the leadership of Dr. O'Brodovich. The hospital is known for its leadership in scholarly clinical care; basic, clinical and health outcomes research; and the education of medical students, postgraduate and specialty trainees and continuing education participants.

Dr. O'Brodovich was also instrumental in establishing the Medical Research Council's Group in Lung Development and established and was the inaugural head of the HSC's Lung Gene-Based Therapy research program. The impact of his research contributions is reflected by his international reputation in the scientific community as acknowledged through the receipt of the Scientific Achievement Award from the American Thoracic Society, the Polgar Lectureship from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Kendig Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics/American College of Chest Physicians, and the Fleischner medal, amongst others. He has also been a leader in education; prior to becoming Chair of Paediatrics he was the Chairman of the sub-specialty board for pediatric pulmonology of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Vice-Chair for Respiratory Medicine with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

An individual of renowned reputation internationally, Dr. O'Brodovich has held numerous positions of leadership, among them the inaugural presidency of the Paediatrics Chairs of Canada and member of the Executive Committee of the American Medical Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, Inc. Currently President-elect of the Fleischner Society and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Dr. O'Brodovich is also an elected member of the American Physiological Society, the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation, the Society for Pediatric Research, and the American Pediatric Society. His dedication to advocacy of children's health is reflected in his role as one of the founding members of Canada's National Coalition for Child and Youth Health. He is presently on the Advisory Board for the Canada's Institute for Human Development Child and Youth Health, Canada's NICHD.

Despite my personal knowledge of Dr. O'Brodovich during my past role as a pediatric department chair in Boston, I carried out extensive reference checking from leaders in Canada and the USA. A consistent theme emerged of a visionary leader who is highly regarded by basic science and clinical colleagues, who is able to work successfully with hospital and academic leaders, who is able to bring positive change to institutions through his energy, focused determination and commitment to excellence and who is highly recognized as a transformative leader. I would also add that Dr. O'Brodovich was highly recommended by Dr. Tom Boat, a member of the School of Medicine National Advisory Council (and chair of Pediatrics at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital) as well as Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health, both of whom felt that recruiting him to Stanford would be a great coup.

At this juncture in the history of Stanford Pediatrics and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, I believe that we are ready to move to the next level of excellence and I am confident that Dr. Hugh O'Brodovich has the professional and personal skills and abilities to help us achieve our goals and beyond. Please join me in welcoming Dr Hugh O'Brodovich as our new Chair of Pediatrics at Stanford.

| Back to Contents |

NCI Designation At Last!

On Wednesday, April 18th we received the wonderful news that we could announce our designation by the National Cancer Institute as an NCI Cancer Center (see: http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2007/april/NCI.html). Depending on one's perspective, this great news took either 5 years or 35 years to come to fruition. Before my arrival in April 2001, Stanford had made at least five other attempts to apply to the NCI for designation as a Cancer Center -- none of which actually resulted in a formal application. I placed the issue of becoming an NCI Cancer Center and/or a Ludwig Center before a faculty task force in 2002, and, while there was receptivity to pursuing one or both, there was still a culture of disbelief that we could achieve either. This is not at all to say that Stanford didn't have all the ingredients -- a world-class cancer biology program, outstanding clinical investigators and an integrated medical center. It was simply that the culture of the institution was not really aligned to such cooperative efforts -- a criticism that we heard from our first External Advisory Board. But we found our ways to success -- now being both an NCI Designated Cancer Center as well as a Ludwig Cancer Center.

The keys to success included engaging faculty leadership and collaboration under a dedicated leader (and, to a degree, taskmaster). This was Dr. Karl Blume, Professor Emeritus and world-renowned leader in Bone and Stem Cell Transplantation. Dr. Blume played a critical role in bringing together an outstanding group of basic and clinical scientists and in forging the initial interactions with the Northern California Cancer Center, whose members would enrich our expertise in population based research. In catalyzing our faculty, a truly wonderful effort was unleashed. The results were exemplary projects that were highly rated by a return visit of the External Advisory Board and ultimately by the Site Visit Team from the NCI. Coupled with the faculty initiatives were the selection of institutional leadership and the recruitment of individuals who would complement and enrich the leadership team. A critical appointment was that of Irv Weissman, Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Professor for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research, as the Director and Principal Investigator of the NCI cancer center proposal, which was submitted in February 2006. In addition to Dr. Blume, key to the ultimate success of the grant proposal were the recruitments of Dr. Steve Leibel as Clinical Director and Dr. Bev Mitchell as the Deputy Director. This team encompasses the full range of connectivity from basic to translational research to patient care. And they do it with passion and excellence.

While we have known since the summer of 2006 that we achieved an excellent score in our 2006 application, we were prevented from making any public announcements until a number of budgetary and administrative issues were worked out at the NCI. That now being done, the April 18th announcement was wonderful news to our entire community.

I feel confident that we are uniquely poised to make important contributions to the future of cancer diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Equally important, we are well positioned to continue and enhance the basic discovery research that has led to so many innovations from Stanford over the years. By becoming an NCI designated Cancer Center I believe that our community will work even more closely together and join with others around the nation and the world to advance basic discovery, treatment and prevention. I also believe that the NCI designation will have an important impact on the quality, depth and breadth of our clinical programs and will permit us to be one of the most important and significant centers of excellence in cancer in the nation.

It did take a while to get to this point of success and affirmation --but it is a moment to celebrate, and it represents a new beginning and era for Stanford and our community locally and globally.

| Back to Contents |

Dr. Paul Berg Is Remarkable in So Many Ways

Since coming to Stanford I have had the privilege of interacting and getting to know remarkable individuals who have transformed our world by their discoveries, innovations and accomplishments in patient care. Without doubt, one of the most extraordinary among these is Dr. Paul Berg, Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor of Cancer Research, Emeritus, who has also served as a Senior Advisor to me -- a confidante, colleague and friend. Of course Paul Berg is world renowned for his scientific discoveries that led to the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his fundamental work in recombinant DNA -- which also spawned much of the revolution in biotechnology.

Because Dr. Berg has been part of the Stanford Medicine community since the Medical School moved to the University campus in 1959 he has both participated in and helped launch many of the remarkable changes that have characterized the past five remarkable decades and that have brought the medical school to international renown. In addition to being an extraordinary scientist and scholar, Dr. Berg has also been a committed and highly respected teacher and educator, admired and remembered by generations of Stanford students.

And now he has taken another step in demonstrating his dedication to Stanford and our community. Dr. Berg and his wife Millie have announced that they will contribute $4 Million dollars to help launch the Learning and Knowledge Center (LKC) -- see also: http://lkc.stanford.edu/. As you know, the LKC will be the centerpiece for the medical school -- housing special facilities of simulation and virtual reality learning, small and large classrooms for medical and graduate students, a new conference center, quiet rooms and exercise facilities for students and more. It will be at the intersection of the school's missions in education, research and patient care and will help link these missions to the rest of the campus and to the hospitals. It will embody and facilitate our missions in Translating Discoveries and in the training and education of future leaders in medicine and science.

I am deeply touched by Millie and Paul's gift on so many different levels. Thanks to their generosity we are now one step closer to bringing the LKC to fruition (although we still have lots of additional such steps to make it a reality). But this gift also represents an affirmation by two wonderful members of our Stanford community of the value they place in our vision for the future -- which the LKC will symbolize and embrace. Please join me in thanking Millie and Paul Berg for not only what they have contributed but also for what they will help to create and foster during the years and decades that lie ahead.

| Back to Contents |

Appreciation to Wonderful Friends and Remarkable Students

On Thursday evening, April 19th we held our annual "Student Financial Aid Dinner." I must confess that this is one of my favorite events of the year -- largely because it brings together wonderful individuals who have contributed to medical scholarships and financial support with the very students whose lives they have changed because of their contributions. It is an evening when students and donor families share stories about each other and get to know who they are and what matters to them. It helps start new relationships and give credence and life to the reality of how much it matters to have individuals who are committed to enabling students receive an education that might have been out of their reach. At a time when medical school student indebtedness continues to soar we are also pleased that, thanks to the personal contributions of many individuals in our community, Stanford medical students have among the lowest levels of indebtedness at graduation -- even though the majority are doing five or more years of medical school. As someone who needed scholarship support to attend college and medical school, I am personally cognizant of how much this means in shaping one's life and career -- and in opening doors that might have remained un-open or even unknown.

Among the highlights of the dinner were presentations by three students -- who represent their classmates and colleagues, since the personal story and sojourn of each of our terrific students is remarkable in its own right. This year our speakers were Cindy Mong, SMS III, Olushola Bidemi Olorunnipa, SMS II, and Cheri Blauwet, SMS IV. Each has traveled a different path and all shared how their passions in life both personally and professionally led them to careers in medicine and Stanford -- and how their experiences as medical students and the support they have received from donors and our community will enable, foster and enrich their future lives and professional undertakings. Their words, as well as their artistic and athletic accomplishments, were inspiring and, together with the many talents and accomplishments of their classmates, serve to affirm why we are all so fortunate to be at Stanford -- and to have students who will transform the future and donors who help to make that possible.

| Back to Contents |

Medical Students Win a Number of Prestigious Fellowships

As you surely know, we have tremendously talented students at Stanford -- in the MD and in the PhD programs. This year 24 of our medical students have won prestigious awards from a number of the most noteworthy and competitive foundations and organizations. They include the following:

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Programs

HHMI-Cloisters (at the NIH):

HHMI Fellowship:

Doris Duke Fellowship:

Sarnoff Fellowship:

Soros Fellowship:

Fogarty Fellowship:

Mt. Sinai International Exchange Fellowship:

Rotary Club International Fellowship

AOA Fellowship

Please join me in congratulating each of these students.

| Back to Contents |

Industry Relations and Conflict of Interest

More than six months have passed since we implemented the Stanford Industry Interactions Policy in October 2006 (see: http://med.stanford.edu/coi/siip/). Since then our policy and stance has attracted national attention and many other medical centers across the nation are beginning to take steps in a similar direction. On Sunday, April 15th I participated in a panel at the annual Council of Dean's Meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) on the status and consequences of our policy. I have written about this topic a number of times in past Newsletters (see: http://deansnewsletter.stanford.edu/archive/06_26_06.html#1), and our Stanford Industry Interaction Policy (SIIP) Oversight Committee has been monitoring the implementation of the guidelines and addressing questions or concerns that arise from our internal or external community. If you are unfamiliar with the current guidelines you should review them at http://med.stanford.edu/coi/siip/ since we fully expect all members of our community to be compliant with them.

To date the policy seems to be working across the medical center; for instance, to the best of our knowledge, the presence of industry related marketing that is not consistent with the policy has disappeared. This assessment is further supported by the inquiries and questions coming to the telephone or email hotline, although we recognize this is an organic and evolving process. We are also further refining the policies to address potential conflicts that might arise in physician prescribing practice and will be making questions about this area part of our annual conflict of interest disclosure. Coupled with this is the need and responsibility to train and educate students, trainees, faculty and staff on appropriate and acceptable interactions with industry and, perhaps most importantly, to create a culture of ethics that permeates our entire community. I should add that the public attention being given these issues -- by the press and by congressional leaders -- affirms the importance of taking the kinds of steps we have done at Stanford to address concerns. Failure to do this will almost surely lead to external regulation that will likely be even more stringent and challenging.

| Back to Contents |

Exchange on Tobacco Raises More Smoke than Illumination

In the April 9th Dean's Newsletter I wrote about the tobacco, human health and academic freedom (see: http://deansnewsletter.stanford.edu/archive/04_09_07.html#1), a topic that has engendered debate within the school and across the university. In my recent commentary I referred to a proposal put forth by Professors Robert Proctor, Hank Greely and Rob Jackler that, at its heart, stated that "Stanford University will not enter into sponsored research agreements with companies that make or market tobacco products. In addition, Stanford University will not enter into research agreements with entities controlled by such companies, where those entities fund research on tobacco-related diseases, alternative causes of such diseases, or the uses and effects of tobacco, tobacco products, or their components." (The resolution would be reviewed in ten years time.)

As I noted in the last Newsletter, this proposal, which would change the current policy that "Individual scholars should be free to select the subject matter of their research, to seek support from any source for their work and form their own findings and conclusions," prompted considerable debate and discussion at the School's April 6th Executive Committee. That debate continued at our April 20th Executive Committee and mirrored the April 18th discussion at the University Academic Senate that followed the reading by Professor Bernd Girod of the report from the Committee on Research -- of which Dr. Girod serves as chair. As I discussed in my past Newsletter, no one seriously questions the abhorrent behavior of the tobacco industry. However, there is concern that accepting the Proctor proposal and, thus, deviating from the current policy, which has been in place since 1971, would challenge academic freedom and/or create a "slippery slope" that could infringe on the right of faculty to accept certain sources of funding or lead to a widening of the ban in the future. I certainly appreciate these concerns and believe that the best policy is to allow individual faculty to make the personal choice of what research they will do or how it will be supported. As such, I would not want to see any erosion of academic freedom or the opening of a door to a slippery slope of exceptions that could paralyze or politicize future research agendas, initiatives or pursuits.

That said, and as I conveyed in the April 9th Newsletter (http://deansnewsletter.stanford.edu/archive/04_09_07.html#1) I believe that this matter is more one of professional ethics than of academic freedom. The tobacco industry stands far apart from virtually every other comparison in continuing to produce and market a product that is associated with serious health consequences and death. They have done this in the past, do it presently and give evidence of doing so in the future. As such, I continue to believe that it is important to differentiate this industry from others and to make an institutional statement about objections to this highly detrimental behavior. As we launch efforts to treat and prevent disease, it seems prudent to acknowledge that tobacco has been a major cause of morbidity and mortality and that, based on the tobacco industry's marketing in other nations (including developing nations), these health consequences will continue to mount in the decades ahead.

I fully appreciate the importance of universities being neutral to political agendas -- although many faculty contribute to them in their professional or personal pursuits. But I also recognize that in our history universities have taken stands on important society issues, and the role of tobacco in our society is certainly one such example -- and perhaps among the most egregious ones. If the concerns about infringing academic freedom by the Proctor proposal seem too onerous, perhaps other stances, such as banning all tobacco use on campus, would be a serious statement of concern. That too deserves serious discussion and consideration.

| Back to Contents |

HHMI Opens a New Round of Competition

I hope that all faculty who are eligible have learned about the plan of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to open a new round of competition. Unlike prior competitions, all eligible faculty are welcome to apply -- there is not an institutional limit or cap on applications as has been the case in previous competitions. The deadline for application is June 13, 2007. Potential applicants must have a doctoral degree, hold a tenured or tenure track position as an Assistant Professor or higher rank (based on prior rulings from HHMI, only UTL faculty at Stanford are eligible) and they must have at least four but not more than ten years experience since first appointed as an Assistant Professor. Several other conditions also apply. If you think you are eligible and would like to apply please review http://www.hhmi.org/research/competitions/investigator2008/. Additional facts on HHMI or on being an HHMI investigator are available at http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/investigator_faq.html.

I encourage faculty members who are interested in pursuing this opportunity to discuss this with their department chairs or with other HHMI investigators at Stanford (we currently have 14 HHMI members on our faculty). While the process is highly competitive, this is a unique opportunity and I hope that one or more of our faculty will be successful in this upcoming competition. HHMI welcomes applications from outstanding women and minorities underrepresented in the sciences.

| Back to Contents |

Medical Senate By-Laws Continue Their Journey

As I reported in a recent Newsletter, (http://deansnewsletter.stanford.edu/archive/02_26_07.html#5), in February, the Medical School Faculty Senate unanimously approved a major revision of its Bylaws based on a year-long effort that included the establishment last summer of a committee led by Drs. Ron Ariagno, Professor of Pediatrics, and Oscar Salvatierra, Professor Emeritus of Surgery, who worked in close collaboration with Senate Chair Dr. Sherry Wren and the Committee of Five. I am pleased to report that both the Executive Committee and the School's faculty at large have also voted their approval. The revised Bylaws will now be sent to President Hennessy and to the University Board of Trustees for final approval.

I believe that the revised Bylaws will be a significant improvement in the governance of the School, and I look forward to working with the Senate in their implementation. I also want to thank all the members of the committee who worked on this project: Ronald Ariagno, Carl Feinstein, Raymond Gaeta, Kathy Gillam, Ann James, Sarah Michie, Elizabeth Porter, Ellen Porzig, Oscar Salvatierra, and Sherry Wren. Their work is greatly appreciated.

[Faculty Senate site: http://med.stanford.edu/senate/]

| Back to Contents |

Good News on Trips and Traffic

I have learned from Julia Tussing, Managing Director, Finance and Administration, that the results of this year's Parking and Transportation Services Peak-Period Trip Survey are in, and they are very encouraging for the School of Medicine.

I was pleased to see a the very significant increase in response rates for this year's survey, which rose from 33% last year to 52% this year, an increase of 58%. I was even more pleased with the results, which can be summarized as follows:

Even assuming there are some sampling bias and size issues, these results are impressive. Congratulations and many thanks for the efforts of the Trip Reduction Coordinators in each department as well as the individuals who have made and kept their commitment to reduce trips!

| Back to Contents |

Reaching Out to High School Students: Stanford 101

Thanks to the efforts of Michele Brandt and our Office Communications and Public Affairs, Stanford held a Med School 101 for approximately 130 high school students from Palo Alto, Gunn, East Palo Alto Academy and Menlo High Schools on Friday April 20th. After an orientation to careers in medicine the students divided into small group sessions that focused on such topics as "Mind control for better living;" "Germs from the silver screen;" "Young at heart;" "Virtual surgery -- performed by you!;" "To sleep, perchance to dream…but why?;" among others.

This was a great opportunity for students to learn more about the exciting opportunities unfolding in the biosciences and medicine. I am very appreciative to Michele Brandt and the Office of Communications for putting together this wonderful program.

| Back to Contents |

Upcoming Events

| Back to Contents |

Awards and Honors

| Back to Contents |

Appointments and Promotions

| Back to Contents |

A downloadable Microsoft Word version of the newsletter is available. If clicking on this following link does not initiate a download, right-click (Windows) or click-and-hold (Mac), then use the command most similar to "Download Link To Disk" or "Save This Link As" and save the Word file to your disk.

Microsoft Word version: DeanNews04-29-07.doc

| Back to Contents |

Stanford Medicine Resources:

Footer Links: