Dean charges search committee
The Department of Orthopedic Surgery has made significant progress under the wise and sustained leadership of Dr. John Johnson. It has generally not been customary for the University of Louisville medical school dean to supply a written charge to search committees. In my opinion, this is a custom which ought not to be continued. Clearly provided instructions to the search committee are likely to facilitate your work and achieve a work product, for me, which will match my expectations. To this end, I provide the following charge to the search committee for the Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Charge to the Search Committee
Chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery
The Job Description
Musculoskeletal disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Exceptional leadership for the Department of Orthopedic Surgery is essential for patient care, teaching, and research.
You are seeking a Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery who will report to the Dean and who will, in turn, be reported to by the faculty and staff of the department. You are seeking an academic leader who will fulfill the clinical, educational, and research missions of the department. Furthermore, good negotiation skills are important to deal with the pushes and tugs of our relationships with multiple hospitals.
The Medical School has a major commitment to medical education. In the realm of Orthopedic Surgery, you will seek a department chair committed to residency education and to providing an educational experience for our undergraduate medical students. For medical students this should facilitate their general knowledge as well as promote the careers of those individuals who choose this specialty.
While I have no direction regarding which subspecialty of Orthopedic Surgery is desirable for the department chair, I do emphasize that you must identify a leader who is knowledgeable and respectful of all of the sub-disciplines within the field.
I particularly wish to emphasize that an essential skill for the new chair will be expertise in promoting and nurturing research. This department needs to grow its research enterprise both within the department and in collaboration with other departments of the School. While it would be desirable to identify an individual with a strong personal research agenda, at the least you should identify a candidate who will understand how to support the research careers of others.
You will proceed with a national search because I feel it would be a disservice to the department not to have a fulsome discussion about the department’s present and future and to have a broadly cast net for a comprehensive research.
In any economic undertaking, including the selection of a department chair, you must consider the allocation of resources compared to alternatives. The University of Louisville School of Medicine has several major commitments either ongoing or upcoming. We must identify a chair of Orthopedic Surgery and, in the spring semester, chairs of some other departments. This being the case, we will have to be good stewards of limited resources.
Interviews
The committee should conduct a series of interviews with key stakeholders during the selection of the department chair. I ask that you be certain to interview me, Dr. Johnson, members of the department faculty, members of the house staff, and appropriate individuals representing major departments and divisions that interact with Orthopedic Surgery such as: Surgery, Neurosurgery, Diagnostic Radiology, Anesthesiology, OR nursing, basic science researchers, and appropriate representatives of the hospitals. In my opinion, collegial courtesy dictates that any internal candidates are granted, at the least, a first-round interview.
Advertising
The individuals selected may either be an internal or external candidate. To identify candidates I ask that an appropriate phone and mail campaign be undertaken. In addition, please run appropriate advertising for two to three months being mindful of the considerable expense and uncertain efficacy of print advertisements.
The Process
Allow six to eight weeks to receive letters of nomination or applications with accompanying CVs.
Check references.
Conduct one to two rounds of interviews.
By April 30, 2010, and earlier if possible, please provide me with a list of three or four finalists, unranked. Under no circumstances include anyone on this list whom the Committee would not feel comfortable being offered the job.
The last meeting of the committee should be with me wherein members of the committee will have the opportunity to discuss the final list.
My thanks to the group for being willing to serve.
E. C. Halperin, MD, MA, FACR
