Stanford Report, August 23, 2006

New chair named to lead Department of Medicine

BY MICHELLE L. BRANDT

Ralph Horwitz

The School of Medicine has tapped Ralph I. Horwitz, MD, medical school dean at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, to lead its largest department. He will assume the position of chair of the Department of Medicine on Dec. 1.

Horwitz, 59, has a record of vastly expanding the scope of and budget for research at Case and in his previous position at Yale medical school. He has been a leader in promoting stronger ties between public health and medical education. And his pioneering research, which includes landmark studies on cancer, vascular disease and other disorders, helped establish the field of clinical investigation and outcomes research.

At Stanford, Horwitz will lead a department of about 150 faculty members in 14 divisions and programs. The chair works closely with leaders at the medical school and Stanford Hospital & Clinics.

"I am thrilled that Dr. Horwitz has decided to join our Stanford family," said medical school Dean Philip Pizzo, MD. "He has the knowledge, skills, experience, vision and commitment to help grow an outstanding department. His concern for the care of patients and understanding of the central importance of internal medicine in an academic medical center offer true promise for success."

At Case, Horwitz helped design and implement an innovative curriculum integrating the study of medicine and public health, furthering a legacy of advancements in academic medicine. He was instrumental in recruiting top talent to lead education, research and clinical programs. Under his leadership, the school also implemented a new primary affiliation agreement with its clinical partner, creating the Case Medical Center.

Horwitz, who is also Case's vice president for medical affairs, said his decision to come to Stanford stemmed from the appeal of helping to raise its already-strong research, education and clinical care programs to new heights.

"Both the school and hospital have committed to expanding and strengthening these programs so that the Department of Medicine will be intellectually dominant nationally and clinically dominant regionally," he explained. "Much of our effort will be devoted to new and expanded scientific programs that enable us to lead in translating scientific discoveries into clinical practice, but we also intend to enhance the quality and volume of the hospital's clinical programs."

Martha Marsh, Stanford Hospital president and CEO, added: "We look forward to Dr. Horwitz's leadership in advancing the outstanding medical care and service provided to our patients."

Before arriving at Case in 2003, Horwitz was the Harold H. Hines Jr. Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and chair of the internal medicine department at Yale. Under his leadership, research funding in that department more than doubled, and the nation's first PhD program in a clinical department was established. He also served for 25 years as co-director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale, where he prepared doctors to work across disciplines and in policy development.

Horwitz said that he is passionate about "civic professionalism"—the idea that physicians should honor the social contract between medicine and society and work to restore public confidence in physicians. Stanford leaders are anxious for him to continue his work in this area here.

"I share Dr. Horwitz's concern for the state of American medicine and the importance of winning the public trust," said Pizzo. "I've made this one of my most important goals for the medical school."

Harry Greenberg, MD, senior associate dean for research and training and interim co-chair of the Department of Medicine, added, "Dr. Horwitz will bring to Stanford an important emphasis on clinical research and public health and on what the NIH has classified a critical component of translational medicine: translating what we learn in academia into real benefit for the public."

Horwitz received his medical degree from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 1973 and did internal medicine training at McGill University and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He became a research fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale in 1975 and three years later joined the Yale faculty.

Among Horwitz's important research studies are ones that investigated the link between estrogen and the risk of breast and uterine cancer; the relationship between phenylpropanolamine (which can be found in many cold remedies and appetite suppressants) and brain hemorrhage in young adults, and the correlation between coffee consumption and bladder cancer.

Horwitz is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the American College of Epidemiology. He is also an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and of the Association of American Physicians. He was recently named a member of the advisory committee of the director of the National Institutes of Health, which focuses on policy matters relating to biomedical research, medical science, and biomedical communications. Last year, Horwitz received the Society of General Internal Medicine's Robert J. Glaser Research Award.

The Department of Medicine is currently being led by interim co-chairs Greenberg and Norman Rizk, MD, professor of medicine and senior associate dean for adult clinical affairs.

The search process that led to Horwitz's selection was helmed by Harvey Cohen, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and Gary Glazer, MD, chair of the Department of Radiology. In a joint statement they said: "He is a highly articulate clinician and investigator with a keen grasp of academic issues. We were impressed with his superb leadership skills and his dedication to the discipline of internal medicine as a foundation of the medical school."