POSITION PROFILE: CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE

Georgetown University Hospital (GUH), a 609 bed tertiary care teaching hospital and faculty practice group, and Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC), a private, comprehensive research university, seek to recruit a new Chair of the Department of Medicine.

The Department of Medicine is the most diverse department within the internationally recognized Georgetown University Medical Center, with ten clinical and academic divisions, including: Cardiology; Dermatology; Endocrinology and Metabolism; Gastroenterology; General Internal Medicine; Hematology and Oncology; Infectious Diseases; Nephrology and Hypertension; Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine; and Rheumatology and Immunology. The Department is comprised of more than 100 full-time clinical and research faculty, 594 part-time faculty affiliated with various programs and centers situated on the campus of Georgetown University, as well as over 170 residents and fellows in the Graduate Medical Education program at Georgetown University Hospital.

The Chair will be responsible for fostering the clinical, educational and research missions (clinical, translational and basic) of the Department. The Chair will operate in a unique position, where he/she will be employed by Georgetown University Hospital and have a dual reporting structure to M. Joy Drass, MD, President of Georgetown University Hospital for Department clinical operations and residency education, and to Dr. Howard Federoff, the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences of Georgetown University for Department research and medical student education. This dual reporting structure was designed to provide maximum support to the strengths and mission of each of these areas, provide access to resources and opportunities for growth from multiple entities, and has contributed greatly to the success of the Department.

The Chair will oversee and lead the robust and diverse clinical activities of the Department that currently generates over 93,000 patient visits each year, representing over 251,000 work RVUs and annual charges in excess of $45 million. In addition, the Chair will maintain the graduate medical education programs of the Department, and provide quality undergraduate education for the medical students of Georgetown University.

The research focus of the Department is broad and includes active programs in basic translational and clinical research. With ongoing significant investments in systems biology and integrative medicine, the Chair will play an active role in the development of these areas. In addition to the research programs and centers within the Department, research is conducted in collaboration with other departments of GUMC including the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (the only NCI-designated Center in the Washington metropolitan area), and many other national and international institutions and organizations. Furthermore, with over 60 active clinical trials and 76 funded research studies in progress, including many on the NIH-funded Georgetown University General Clinical Research Center, the Department of Medicine contributes over $32 million to the $125 million research enterprise of GUMC.

In addition to the professional qualifications listed below, the Chair should have a record of acting with integrity, a commitment to diversity, a high level of energy, ease in working with a wide range of constituent groups and organizations, and a wide degree of comfort in maintaining a high-visibility public persona. Demonstrating a track record of recruiting and retaining outstanding clinical, educational and research (basic and translational) faculty, he/she should be able to articulate a vision for academic medicine in a complex funding and clinical environment that fulfills the tripartite mission of the Department.

The Chair position brings with it unparalleled opportunities for leadership, innovation, initiative, and growth as well as the opportunity to live in the dynamic environment of our Nation’s Capital abounding with national and international cultural and sporting events, recreational activities including parks, museums and national monuments, a thriving local economy, moderate weather with all four seasons and some of the best primary and secondary public and private schools in the Nation.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

The following professional qualifications and personal characteristics are sought:

• Leadership: Substantial experience as a faculty member in a distinguished academic or comparable medical setting. An established record of effective, strong and collaborative leadership. The capacity to formulate and articulate a shared vision for medical affairs, to persuade a wide range of audiences of its value, and to engage others in its implementation.
   
• Academic and Research Management: Significant academic credentials, including a track record of success in funded medical research; an in-depth understanding of the clinical practice of academic medicine; and operational leadership demonstrating clinical excellence, growth and financial effectiveness. Scholarly accomplishments in the health sciences are critical to success in the position, as well as an in-depth understanding of Georgetown’s academic and research mission as a private research institution, and an ability to recruit outstanding new faculty in basic and translational research. He/she should be persuasive in his/her ability to retain the Department’s strongest faculty, while leading a plan to increase extramural funding of the Department.
   
• Educational Management Experience: A successful track record in fostering an educational mission for both medical students and physicians-in-training, up to and including fellowship training.
    
• Clinical Management Experience: A distinguished record of health care practice operational leadership demonstrating clinical excellence, growth and financial effectiveness, the ability to recruit and retain outstanding clinical faculty, expertise with the efficient and cost effective utilization of clinical resources, as well as an ability to improve the quality and safety of care in an environment of increased transparency.
    
• Development Experience: The ability to lead an aggressive fundraising plan with the Directors of Development for GUMC and GUH, obtaining funding from foundations and individual donors.
    
• Administrative Experience: Experience in the preparation and oversight of a significant operating budget that include clinical, education and research funding sources. The ability to deploy people and resources with the highest standards of ethics and uncompromising integrity, establish effective operational units across departments and specialties, and to create a working environment consistent with the implementation of a well articulated vision.
    
• Relations with the University Community: The ability to engage faculty, staff, and students in the mission and vision of the Department, as well as to recruit renowned and accomplished faculty and administrative colleagues to the department. Demonstrating an interest in the evolution and growth of the department as a whole, he/she should have the experience and ability to build a strong leadership team and to work effectively with them for the benefit of GUMC and GUH, embrace interdisciplinary research, and foster research with colleagues across the campus.
    
• Focus on Students and Physicians-in-Training: A genuine understanding of the clinical and research teaching mission, and the importance of providing graduate medical students and physicians-in-training with the highest quality educational experience. The successful candidate will need to recognize the importance of employing effective marketing and recruitment strategies in order to attract high caliber applicants to the Department.
    
• Relations with Partner Organizations: An ability to maintain strong working relationships with Georgetown’s academic research partners and clinical affiliates; to work effectively with major regional foundations; to maintain and develop strong partnerships with hospitals and medical centers in which education and training takes place; and, to nurture synergies with regional, state, national, and international institutions.
    
• Familiarity with the Life Sciences: Experience working with faculty and health care professionals in the fields of medicine and biomedical sciences. The candidate should have a record of achievement in proposing and implementing solutions to the challenges posed today by the medical and health sciences.
    
• Communication Skills: Strong interpersonal and communication skills that are effective in articulating GUMC and GUH’s mutual values and goals to a wide range of constituencies.