Two nationally known innovators will be the first department chairs for the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Kevin Bozic will chair the Dell Medical School’s Surgery department, and Dr. Amy Young will chair the Obstetrics and Gynecology department.
As inaugural department chairs, Bozic and Young will build departments that help make the Dell Medical School a nationally recognized institution, transforming the way medicine is taught in the classroom and health care is delivered across the community, said Clay Johnston, dean of the Dell Medical School.
“We’re proud and excited that these recognized, world-class health care pioneers are coming to help us build the Dell Medical School. They both are creative about how a medical school should work the way it should teach medicine, the role it should play in the community, and the innovative systems it can create,” Dean Johnston said. “They also have a strong community focus that will benefit the people of Travis County who voted to help fund this school two years ago.”
Bozic, a national leader in health care redesign, currently holds the William R. Murray, M.D. Endowed Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery and is a professor and vice chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He also serves as core faculty for the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF and is a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School. He is a graduate of the UCSF School of Medicine and the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program. He holds a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has conducted extensive research focusing on issues such as health care technology, cost-effectiveness analysis, shared decision making and value-based payment and delivery models.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redesign the way we teach, evaluate, deliver and pay for health care,” said Bozic. “I am looking forward to working with Dr. Johnston, community leaders and health care providers and patients throughout Central Texas to develop what I am certain will become a world-class academic health system in Austin. With the creative energy, talent and entrepreneurial spirit that already exists in Austin, the sky is the limit in terms of what we can accomplish together.”
Young has extensive experience in initiating and leading programs and collaborative partnerships in obstetrics and gynecology. She is currently the Abe Mickal Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans. She came to LSU after a long tenure at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where she served as program director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Program and later director of Medical Education. She also was appointed by Baylor to serve as service chief for Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Harris County Hospital District’s Ben Taub Hospital, a Baylor-affiliated hospital, and was then promoted to Director of Operations Affiliated Medical Services-Baylor. She is a graduate of the University of Mississippi Medical School in Jackson and holds chemistry and biology degrees from Vanderbilt University. She has served as the District XI (Texas) chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and is currently immediate past president of the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
“Improving women’s health is an essential part of the Dell Medical School’s mission, and it’s an honor to help create innovative new models to do that,” Young said. “I recognize that we share the responsibility for all aspects of women’s health care, and so we have a special obligation to the people of Austin and Travis County to provide care across the depth and breadth of women’s health. By fulfilling that duty in creative, responsible, inclusive and expansive ways, we can reshape health and health care delivery that improves outcomes for women here and helps catalyze positive change across the country. This opportunity is unparalleled. I can’t wait to get started working on it.”
Wednesday’s announcement of department chairs is the first of several that Dean Johnston will make as he builds out the school’s academic leadership.
“This is an exciting time. The decisions we make now will help make Austin a healthier place and a model for the world,” Johnston said. “The vital, inclusive health ecosystem we want to create is starting to take shape.”
