AUSTIN, Texas—William M. Sage, a leading expert in health law and policy, has joined The University of Texas at Austin as vice provost for health affairs and will teach in the School of Law as the James R. Dougherty Chair for Faculty Excellence. The appointments were effective Friday, Sept. 1.
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William M. Sage
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Sage, M.D., J.D., comes to Texas from Columbia University where he has taught health law, antitrust, regulatory theory and professional ethics since 1995.
The office of vice provost for health affairs is a new position at The University of Texas at Austin created to oversee, coordinate and nurture all the university’s related health affairs activities for the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, said Dr. Stephen Monti, interim executive vice president and provost.
Monti said Sage’s responsibilities will include participating in the development of the Dell Pediatric Research Institute, serving as the university’s liaison with The University of Texas System on health-related initiatives and projects, and working with the M.D.-Ph.D. Dual Degree Program that combines a medical education with research training in biomedical engineering, cell and molecular biology or neuroscience, which was introduced in fall 2005 by The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB). His evolving portfolio also will include working with faculty groups involved in drug-related research, nursing and public health activities.
Lawrence Sager, dean of the School of Law, was instrumental in working with the Office of the Provost to recruit Sage to The University of Texas at Austin.
“We live in a time and place where the myriad questions concerning the delivery of medical services are of preeminent interest and concern,” Sager said. “There is no one in legal education who is better versed or more influential in these matters than Bill Sage. That he is joining us at the University of Texas is a cause for celebration.”
Kenneth Shine, executive vice chancellor for health affairs with The University of Texas System, said, “Bill Sage provides professionally the best elements of the law and medicine as he approaches issues in health policy, including issues of patient safety and the tort system. He will provide important leadership for UT Austin as it enlarges its role in health sciences research and public health in collaboration with the UT Health campuses.”
Sage said he is delighted to become a part of the faculty and community at The University of Texas at Austin.
“What happens to health care in Texas over the next decade will be critically important for the people of the state and for the nation as a whole,” Sage said. “I believe that The University of Texas at Austin has a lot to contribute to the law and public policy of health care, to medical innovation, and to the training of health professionals. In addition to collaborating with UT’s dynamic group of law teachers and legal scholars, I look forward to working with faculty and students across the campus and throughout the University of Texas System.”
Sage has edited two books, including “Medical Malpractice and the U.S. Health Care System” (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and has written about 75 articles in legal, health policy and medical publications. From 2002 through 2005, he was the principal investigator for the Project on Medical Liability in Pennsylvania funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
In 2002, Sage served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Rapid Advances in Health Care. In 1998, he received an Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is an elected fellow of the Hastings Center on bioethics, and is a member of the editorial board of Health Affairs.
Sage received his A.B. from Harvard College and his medical and law degrees from Stanford University. He completed his internship at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in San Diego, and served as a resident in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
In addition, Sage practiced corporate and securities law in Los Angeles and, in 1993, headed four working groups for the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform.
For more information contact: Laura Castro, School of Law, 512-232-1229; Robert D. Meckel, Office of Public Affairs, 512-475-7847.