Newswise — MAYWOOD, Il. - David W. Hecht, MD, MS, MBA, has been named Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for Loyola University Health System (LUHS), effective immediately. Dr. Hecht has been serving as interim Senior VP for Clinical Affairs since January, 2012.

Dr. Hecht, who joined Loyola in 1988, is the John W. Clarke Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Dr. Hecht will continue to serve as department chair until a replacement is named. Dr. Hecht, an infectious disease specialist and internationally known researcher, is also a staff physician at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, Wayne PA.

In his new position, Dr. Hecht serves as Loyola’s senior physician. Reporting to Dr. Hecht are the Chief Quality Officer, Vice President for Clinical Affairs, Chief of Staff, clinical medical directors and other medical officers. In addition, and in conjunction with the Dean of the Stritch School of Medicine, Dr. Hecht will be responsible for overall leadership of clinical department chairs. Dr. Hecht will report to Larry Goldberg, president and CEO of LUHS.

“After a nationwide search, we identified Dr. Hecht as the top candidate for this extremely important position,” Goldberg said. “Quality of care and patient safety are our highest priorities, and Dr. Hecht has done an exemplary job in the months he has served as interim Senior VP for Clinical Affairs. He is a recognized leader in academic medicine, and is well liked and respected by colleagues and patients alike.”

Dr. Hecht said he felt honored to be named Senior VP for Clinical Affairs. “I am privileged to work with some of the top physicians in their fields,” he said. “I look forward to continue working with my colleagues to make Loyola a leader in quality of care, access and patient satisfaction, as well as a preferred physician employer.”

Dr. Hecht added that Loyola’s progressive model, in which physicians are fully integrated with LUHS, “will be an advantage to us as we face the changes and challenges of healthcare reform and patient care. Loyola physicians have forged a unique partnership with the administration to provide the best care for our patients.”

Dr. Hecht’s responsibilities include working with senior management on finance, quality of care and patient safety; overseeing service line development; facilitating strategic partnerships; leading the ongoing development of integrated academic faculty management; and the recruitment and credentialing of clinical faculty. Dr. Hecht will work collaboratively with the Dean of the Stritch School of Medicine on issues related to academic agenda of the institution including graduate medical education, clinical research initiatives and Loyola’s relationship with the Hines VA Hospital.

As a physician, Dr. Hecht’s clinical interests include HIV/AIDS and general infectious diseases. He has published numerous scholarly articles in both basic and clinical sciences, and has been a guest lecturer at dozens of medical symposiums and conventions worldwide. Throughout his entire career, Dr. Hecht has had research funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Administration. His current research grants include studies of antibiotic resistance genes and their dissemination in colonic bacteria.

Dr. Hecht earned his masters degree in microbiology in 1979 at the University of Missouri, Columbia and medical degree in 1982 at Stritch School of Medicine. In 1985, he completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, followed by his fellowship in infectious disease and geographic medicine and molecular microbiology at Tufts University, Boston. He joined the faculty at Stritch School of Medicine and Hines VA in 1988. In 2009, he earned an MBA in health care at Loyola University Chicago School of Business.

### Loyola University Health System (LUHS) is a member of Trinity Health. Based in the western suburbs of Chicago, LUHS is a quaternary care system with a 61-acre main medical center campus, the 36-acre Gottlieb Memorial Hospital campus and more than 28 primary and specialty care facilities in Cook, Will and DuPage counties. The medical center campus is conveniently located in Maywood, 13 miles west of the Chicago Loop and 8 miles east of Oak Brook, Ill. The heart of the medical center campus, Loyola University Hospital, is a 569-licensed-bed facility. It houses a Level 1 Trauma Center, a Burn Center and the Ronald McDonald® Children’s Hospital of Loyola University Medical Center. Also on campus are the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola Outpatient Center, Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine and Loyola Oral Health Center as well as the LUC Stritch School of Medicine, the LUC Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and the Loyola Center for Fitness. Loyola's Gottlieb campus in Melrose Park includes the 255-licensed-bed community hospital, the Professional Office Building housing 150 private practice clinics, the Adult Day Care, the Gottlieb Center for Fitness, Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care and the Loyola Cancer Care & Research at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center at Melrose Park.