Newswise — Dr. Michael L. Good, an anesthesiologist who helped invent sophisticated simulation systems used for medical training around the world, has been named the ninth dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine.
The appointment, the result of an exhaustive national search, was announced today by David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System.
“As interim dean for 18 months, Mike Good has proven himself to be an exceptional leader who has gained the confidence of the medical school’s department chairs, faculty and staff, and the enthusiastic support of hospital and university leadership,” Guzick said. “At this moment when we are building a team to transform UF and Shands — a unique collection of six colleges, five major research institutes and centers, and a major health system comprising seven hospitals — into an academic health center of national distinction, Mike Good is the right medical school dean at the right time for Florida.”
Good’s appointment as dean begins on Jan. 1, 2010.
“Dr. Good was extremely effective in leading the College of Medicine and partnering with Shands teams to open the cancer hospital,” said Tim Goldfarb, CEO of Shands HealthCare. “He has been a powerful force as chair of the board for the Florida Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville. We have developed a closely collaborative working relationship to build clinical programs by linking faculty expertise with hospital resources. I now look forward with great enthusiasm to working with Dean Good to accelerate our progress in the development of these and other new programs.”
Good was selected in a process that began with more than 40 highly qualified candidates, and progressed to include nine semifinalists who made campus visits and three finalists who underwent more extensive interviews, according to Winfred Phillips, D.Sc., chair of the search committee and UF’s vice president for research.
“Dr. Good was seen by the committee and others who interviewed him as an experienced and highly effective clinician, scholar and academic administrator,” Phillips said. “He was recognized for working to promote the success of the faculty and institution, for being a superb communicator, and for always conducting himself with utmost integrity and fairness.”
Good said he is honored to be given the privilege of leading the UF College of Medicine as its dean.
“Faculty will continue to be the focus of my work,” Good said. “Patients seek care at UF and Shands because of the unique expertise of our clinical faculty. The world looks to our scientists and research faculty for discoveries that cure disease and optimize health. And the best and brightest students come to UF for their professional education because of our talented and dedicated education faculty. I look forward to working with our faculty and ensuring that they are fully supported in their important work.”
As interim dean of the College of Medicine since May 2008, Good set in motion installation of an electronic medical record system in UF faculty clinics, appointed a senior associate dean for research affairs, and filled open chair positions in neurology, surgery, neuroscience, obstetrics and gynecology, and molecular genetics and microbiology.
In a challenging fiscal environment, he fostered faculty development, including the recruitment of a nationally recognized radiation oncologist and researcher to direct the UF Shands Cancer Center and one of the nation’s leading Alzheimer’s disease researchers to lead a new research center in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
In addition, Good reshaped and enhanced College of Medicine support that enabled the university to receive a $26 million National Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Award to transform laboratory discoveries into patient therapies, oversaw the transition of patient care from Shands at AGH and the Shands at UF emergency department to the Shands Cancer Hospital at UF, and worked to elevate the College of Medicine’s physician assistant program to “school” status.
He was also instrumental in development, helping raise more than $60 million in gifts and pledges during the 2008-09 academic year.
After receiving his medical degree at the University of Michigan Medical School in 1984, Good arrived at UF, where he completed a residency in anesthesiology before joining the faculty in 1988. During this period, Good teamed with UF colleagues to invent the Human Patient Simulator, a sophisticated computerized teaching tool that is now used in health-care education programs throughout the world.
In 1994, Good became chief of anesthesiology at the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Gainesville and two years later was named chief of staff and system medical director at the VA. He returned to UF and Shands in 2003 and was appointed senior associate dean for clinical affairs in 2005. In January 2009, he was appointed the Folke H. Peterson Dean’s Distinguished Professor in the College of Medicine. Good and his wife, Danette, have five children — a son who is working in electrical engineering research, two daughters in college, and a son and daughter in high school.
Established in 1956, the College of Medicine is the leading educator of physicians, physician assistants and biomedical scientists for the state of Florida. In association with Shands HealthCare, College of Medicine faculty physicians in Gainesville and Jacksonville provide advanced medical care to residents of Florida and patients from around the world. The college earns more than $200 million in external grants and contracts for research each year, part of a budget that exceeds $600 million annually.
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