Newswise — Cedars-Sinai Medical Center today announced the appointment of Bruce Gewertz, M.D., an internationally renowned surgeon, researcher and educator with an extensive background in academic and clinical leadership, as chair of the Department of Surgery, surgeon-in-chief and vice president for interventional services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Gewertz, who will join Cedars-Sinai on July 1, is currently chair of the Department of Surgery and Dallas B. Phemister Professor at the University of Chicago, a position he has held since 1992. Under his leadership, the department has increased its research funding more than three-fold, and is now ranked in the top 20 surgery departments in NIH funding. During that same period, the department's clinical activity increased by more than 50 percent.
He has held a number of other leadership positions since joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1981, including chair of the University of Chicago Health Plan and chair of the Board of Chicago Partners, a partnership of the academic medical center with 60 primary care physicians.
Gewertz, a vascular surgeon, has authored more than 200 scientific articles, book chapters and books, including the Atlas of Vascular Surgery, and is a director of the Vascular Surgery Board of the American Board of Surgery and editor emeritus of the Journal of Surgical Research. He also has an extensive background in medical education, having led a revision of the medical school curriculum as the University of Chicago's Faculty Dean for Medical Education. More recently, he chaired the Association of American Medical Colleges' Task Force on Integrating Teaching and Patient Care.
"Dr. Gewertz' strong experience and outstanding leadership skills are very well suited for Cedars-Sinai's Department of Surgery," said Thomas M. Priselac, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Health System. "Over the years, our Department of Surgery has developed a well-earned reputation for excellence nationally and locally, and we look forward to even greater advances in the years ahead."
"As chair of the surgery department at University of Chicago, he took a very strong department and made it even better in every aspect," said Shlomo Melmed, M.D., Cedars-Sinai's senior vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer.
Melmed noted that Gewertz' background as a vascular surgeon will be particularly valuable in the years ahead as medical specialists who traditionally worked in different departments " such as surgeons, cardiologists and radiologists " increasingly work together on newly developed interventional procedures.
"In his role as vice president for interventional services, Dr. Gewertz will provide leadership for our efforts to pioneer new interventional treatments and make sound decisions on technology investments in these areas," Melmed said.
In addition to his roles at Cedars-Sinai as chair of the Department of Surgery and vice president for interventional services, Gewertz will serve as surgeon-in-chief, overseeing all Cedars-Sinai operating-room activities to ensure maximum quality and efficiency.
"As a major freestanding academic medical center with an outstanding reputation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center occupies a unique place in American medicine, so it is a great honor to be appointed to this position," Gewertz said.
"I am very much looking forward to working with my new colleagues and continuing the tradition of innovation and quality for which the department and the institution are known."
Gewertz succeeds Achilles Demetriou, M.D., who left Cedars-Sinai in 2005 after 10 years as surgery chair to become executive vice president at University Hospitals of Cleveland.
Gewertz and his wife, Diane, have five children and two grandchildren.
The first of eight hospitals in California whose nurses have been honored with the prestigious Magnet designation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For 18 consecutive years, it has been named Los Angeles' most preferred hospital for all health needs in an independent survey of area residents. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthroughs in biomedical research and superlative medical education. It ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities and was recently fully accredited by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc. (AAHRPP). Additional information is available at http://www.cedars-sinai.edu.
RSS