After 15 years, the medical arm of the University will have a new leader.
Dr. Victor Dzau will replace Dr. Ralph Snyderman as chancellor for health affairs and president and chief executive officer of Duke University Health Systems. He comes to Durham from Boston, Mass., where he is Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dzau, who will report to President-elect Richard Brodhead, will officially assume the post July 1--the same day Brodhead will assume the presidency.
"I believe he has the appropriate background and characteristics to be an excellent chancellor for health affairs and the leader of our Health System," Snyderman said in a statement. "I have great confidence that the future leadership of our medical enterprise is in excellent hands."
Dzau is no stranger to Duke. He has served as a visiting faculty member twice and jokes that after living in many countries--he was born in China and spent his childhood in Hong Kong before receiving both his undergraduate and medical degrees from McGill University in Canada--he is excited to live in the South.
However, his real excitement stems from his desire to take on what he termed "the best job in health care."
"There's so much opportunity to collaborate and when you think about where science is going, particularly medical science, there's a lot of places that it intersects with physical sciences, social sciences," he said, adding that research and classes at all levels ought to reflect such trends.
Dzau comes from an accomplished medical background. In addition to his positions at Harvard, he is physician in chief and director of research at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He has also served on the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Although most of Dzau's administrative experience is on the departmental level, he said he will have no difficulty adjusting to the more complex structure of DUHS.
"When I think about health care, it's a whole spectrum. It's a mission which includes patient care, research, education and community," Dzau said, noting that his background is grounded in this vision of health care. "This [new job] is an extension of what I've been doing."
He said he envisions greater collaboration among DUHS, the Medical Center and other areas of the University. He said he looks forward to "working for Dick Brodhead" to achieve this vision.
Brodhead, who helped select Dzau as chancellor, pointed to his enthusiasm and knowledge as reasons for his appointment. "I've been impressed by your shrewd strategic sense and your grasp of the lay of the land," Brodhead told Dzau. "I will regard you, as the chancellor, as a crucial member of my senior management team."
In his new position, Dzau will oversee Duke's extensive health care empire, which includes Duke University Hospital, two community hospitals, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing and multiple research centers and clinics.
Dzau, who will be the only high-ranking Asian administrator at the University, said he plans to maintain and strengthen DUHS's commitment to diversity as he advances its health care goals.
"Diversity and giving the right people the opportunity to succeed, that's what America is all about," he said.
DUHS has primarily focused its previous diversity efforts on its faculty and students in the medical school, but now it is beginning to concentrate on increasing administrator diversity, said Dr. Sandy Williams, dean of the School of Medicine.
Williams also noted Dzau's strength and interest in dealing with the interface between academia and industry--a key area of growth in health care.
Dzau will face several ongoing challenges when he steps into his role in DUHS, including an out-of-date technology system and the implementation of newly developed patient safety measures. Dzau noted that he is already working with his colleagues to continue to improve DUHS's safety record.
Although DUHS is in a relatively stable financial position at the moment, the financial landscape of health care is tenuous, as Medicare and other reimbursements continue to decline and improved technology continues to drive up treatment costs.
As far as DUHS's pecuniary situation is concerned, Dzau said the various departments must work together to provide optimal care. "It's a whole team. There are some areas that can't be totally on their own. They do things for the underserved community... but there are obviously important components of an organization that should perform to provide the kind of [financial] margin necessary," he said. "We should think about how to allocate resources so that we are a whole system."
He already has a keen sense of the fluid health environment and the need to continually reallocate resources to keep up with trends. He noted the need to develop venues for interdisciplinary collaboration and education. "But when the purpose of the center has become the fabric of what we do every day and we don't need a center to provide it, then we ought to think about sunsetting it and using the resources for something else," Dzau added.
He has been credited with developing the newly founded Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women's Hospital and said he intends to maintain a strong commitment to social medicine during his time at Duke.
He also called himself "a great supporter" of genomics-based medicine. His research has concentrated on molecular and genetic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease, and he has worked with applied genomic and gene transfer technologies to develop therapeutic treatments.
Dzau has received many awards and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the European Academy of Science and Arts. He has served as chair of the National Institutes of Health Cardiovascular Disease Advisory Committee and currently sits on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the NIH.
Dzau's wife, Ruth, is president of Second Step, a Massachusetts-based transitional housing and counseling program for survivors of domestic violence, and she will likely commute to Boston for the remaining two years of her term.
Snyderman, who served as chancellor for 15 years and as CEO of DUHS since its inception in 1996, announced his plans to step down in March 2003. He plans to take a year-long sabbatical before returning to the University to concentrate on research, health care policy and teaching.
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