The Department has made significant progress under Dr. Henson’s wise leadership.  We all wish her great success and Godspeed in her new position as Vice Dean of Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

It is my understanding that it has generally not been customary for former Deans 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 Anesthesiology of the University of Louisville School of Medicine: 

The job description

The smooth operation of the operating rooms accompanied by meticulous attention to patient safety is essential to our clinical enterprise.  The abolition of pain through anesthesia and analgesia represents one of the great triumphs of post Renaissance medicine.  Exceptional leadership of the Department of Anesthesiology is crucial to the school’s future.

You are seeking a Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology 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, education, and research missions of the department. Furthermore, good clinical negotiating skills are important to deal with the multiple pushes and tugs of our relationships with multiple hospitals.

This medical school has a major commitment to medical education via simulation.  This discipline, traditionally, falls within the province of anesthesiologists.  I urge you to seek candidates who will foster our simulation program.

You will proceed with a national search because I feel that it would be a disservice to the department not to have a full, fulsome discussion of the department’s present and future and to have a broadly cast net for a comprehensive search.

Please bear in mind the particular role that relations with our partner hospitals and the surgical services play in the work life of an anesthesiology chair.  You are to seek a good listener, an articulate spokesperson, a thoughtful negotiator, and an honest broker. 

As I review the current status of the department, I am concerned that there is no designated cancer pain specialist. As we attempt to achieve Cancer Center designation for the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, we need to satisfy particular needs. The management of pain requires a vigorous program, usually involving a combined modality clinic. This might mean that you ought to search for such a pain specialist or, as an alternative, be sure that the candidates that are brought forth in the search are committed to a strong cancer pain clinical service and correlative research effort.

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 Chairs of Neurology, Medicine, Biochemistry, and Anesthesiology; a Vice Dean for Research, and the Endowed Chair in Urban Health Policy.  It is likely that another two to three major chairs will be vacated in the next one to two years. This being the case, we will have to be good stewards of limited resources.

Interviews

The committee shall conduct a series of interviews with key stakeholders during the selection of the Chair.  I ask you to be certain to interview me, Dr. Henson, members of the department faculty, members of the house staff, and appropriate individuals representing the major departments/divisions that interact with Anesthesiology such as surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedics, urology, obstetrics-gynecology, OR nursing, basic science researchers, and appropriate representatives of the hospitals.

Advertising

The individual 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 in journals or websites for two to three months.

The process

• Allow 6 to 12 weeks to receive letters of nomination or applications with accompanying CV’s.

• Check references.

• Conduct one to two rounds of interviews. I believe it is appropriate, as a matter of courtesy, to offer all internal candidates at least a first round interview.

• By August 15, 2008, and earlier if possible, please provide me with a list of two to four finalists, unranked. Under no circumstances include anyone on this list who the committee would not feel comfortable being offered the job.

• The last meeting of your committee should be with me where members of the committee will have the opportunity to discuss the final list.

My thanks to the group for being willing to serve.

Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., FACR

Dean of the School of Medicine