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What does it take to become chair of a department at an academic institution? Board certifications? Medical license? Other skills?
what are the typical requirements for chairs of pathology department?
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I think the answer is "other skills".
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There is a very wide range of "credentials" for current sitting chairs and one size does not fit all. More than one academic medical center has an internist as the Chair of Pathology. In some institutions, the Chair is a Ph.D.
Typically the institution makes a decision about the needs of the institution and finds a chair to fulfill those needs. For example, they may decide that pathology support for the department of surgery is not effective and look for a leader who will raise that service to the expected level.
Many time it is decided that research or the international stature of the department is not at the appropriate level and recruit a pathologist with strong research credentials to lead that initiative.
Chair search committees will often spend time writing a job description, which may include specific requirements such as board certification or the credentials to be licensed in the state. But often those are not listed in order to have a a broad range of applicants.
Daniel Remick, M.D.
Chair and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center
Typically the institution makes a decision about the needs of the institution and finds a chair to fulfill those needs. For example, they may decide that pathology support for the department of surgery is not effective and look for a leader who will raise that service to the expected level.
Many time it is decided that research or the international stature of the department is not at the appropriate level and recruit a pathologist with strong research credentials to lead that initiative.
Chair search committees will often spend time writing a job description, which may include specific requirements such as board certification or the credentials to be licensed in the state. But often those are not listed in order to have a a broad range of applicants.
Daniel Remick, M.D.
Chair and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center
It is always baffling to me when a search committee, which probably only has a token pathologist on the committee, for a path dep't chair selects a non-pathologist to head up the department. Typically, that decision is motivated by a dean that is far more interested in recruiting someone with active grant support. The result being a chair that subsequently tends to focus on hiring others with grant support, as opposed to those that are far more capable of discharging the teaching and service work details of the day to day operations of the department. There is no shortage of path department chairs that have no idea where the on button of the microscope is even located, which seems to be woefully out of touch with one of the fundamental principles of an academic teaching institution.
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ummhmm... I am at a place where the chair is not a pathologist. He did not even do a residency in the US. He doesn't have active grant support. One of his private venture was shut down. To top it all off, he mumbles and talks in a way that is nearly impossible to understand. However, he is the chair of the self-proclaimed largest pathology department in this country. This must be a horrible joke.
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It is odd that several pathology chairpersons do not or cannot diagnose. Kind of like a chief of surgery who can't operate and doesn't know where the OR is. Of course research is important- but how can numero uno really understand patient care issues if they have no role in signout?
D
deleted314957
that is not "numero uno's "job
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EXACTLY. I think the vast majority of chairpersons are not really diagnostic pathologists. It seems to me the job is usually about managing the research arm of the dept and keeping the financial house in order. Surg path directors/vice chairs are more in charge of the day to day signout.
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The primary job of the chair is to promote all three academic missions, clinical service, research, and teaching. While clinical service is a critical aspect, it is not the only mission. Included in the clinical service are running laboratory medicine which in many institutions actually has a much larger budget than anatomic pathology. Additionally, the research budget is also larger than the clinical service budget in some institutions.
The chair does not need to be the best surgical pathologist to understand the needs across the entire department. Just like a football coach does not need to be the best nose guard understand how offense and defense works.
Daniel Remick, M.D.
Chair and Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center
The chair does not need to be the best surgical pathologist to understand the needs across the entire department. Just like a football coach does not need to be the best nose guard understand how offense and defense works.
Daniel Remick, M.D.
Chair and Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center
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No, I am talking about the position of the chair of the department of pathology of the one of the supposed "academic" institution in this country... LOL.
You sure you not talking about the president?
I suspect that he is referring to Mt. Sinai, where the chair of pathology has not completed a pathology residency.
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The chair needs to be able to oversee/guide/manage the research and clinical branches of the pathology department. It is one reason why a disproportionate number of chairs I have met along the interview path trained at BWH. It is a breeding ground of pathology chairs.
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And here I was thinking "well, 5 rollers for stability and mobility, probably black or dark brown, definitely adjustable, leather is nice but not necessary and sometimes hot.. in some lab areas it needs to be fluid impervious.."
We can, and in some cases perhaps should, mock department chairpersons and/or the choices made in recruiting and hiring them. But as has been said, what an institution wants out of that position is their own choice -- it doesn't have to be a "good" choice or a "right" choice or the one I might make. There's no universal recipe for a wannabe to follow in order to become a chairperson. But, there may be commonalities.. usually a fairly strong personality (unless the institution wants someone they can push around), usually an MD, usually a pathologist, usually an above average research background, usually prior administrative/management experience as a lab, AP, or CP director, and so on. A non-pathologist or non-MD MIGHT be a good chairperson, but IMO they are at a horrible disadvantage and it's not the way I would suggest an institution going.
Being the right person in the right place at the right time, however, counts for a lot. Especially with relatively low turnover of chairs at many places, in stark contrast to the turnover at the lower ranks -- peons looking for better jobs at the bottom end, and others higher up bumping against some ceiling or other so looking for advancement at other institutions.
We can, and in some cases perhaps should, mock department chairpersons and/or the choices made in recruiting and hiring them. But as has been said, what an institution wants out of that position is their own choice -- it doesn't have to be a "good" choice or a "right" choice or the one I might make. There's no universal recipe for a wannabe to follow in order to become a chairperson. But, there may be commonalities.. usually a fairly strong personality (unless the institution wants someone they can push around), usually an MD, usually a pathologist, usually an above average research background, usually prior administrative/management experience as a lab, AP, or CP director, and so on. A non-pathologist or non-MD MIGHT be a good chairperson, but IMO they are at a horrible disadvantage and it's not the way I would suggest an institution going.
Being the right person in the right place at the right time, however, counts for a lot. Especially with relatively low turnover of chairs at many places, in stark contrast to the turnover at the lower ranks -- peons looking for better jobs at the bottom end, and others higher up bumping against some ceiling or other so looking for advancement at other institutions.
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HAHAHA. "well, 5 roller..... very funny.
Someone did hit the nail on the head above.
How about trust fund men who have nothing better to do? Of all the qualified and excellent candidates that interviewed for the job, most were not interested in the job, and those that were interested were probably a threat to the department's dysfunction, and would not be hired. Finally, the person they hired is a total shill with no experience in pathology.
The former chair is still running around causing havoc, and kissing and hugging his former male secretary on several occasions, in front of me, no less, probably to show off just how he still runs the show. Yuck.
Yes, the former chair is juvenile and yes, people wanted to kick him out because money could not be accounted for. He does have an overpriced mansion in a sleepy port-town in CT. It's mostly inhabited by bankers but somehow the former chair and his buddy, a regular staff pathologist, now a chair at another hospital near nyc, have managed to buy these mansions and own sail boats and so on. Gross. Frankly, the former chair should probably retire given his incapacity related to well publicized lyme disease and melanoma, but he won't. Normally, I am not one to begrudge these types of individuals, but sometimes it's your duty and exercise in due diligence to engage their incompetence and maliciousness.
Someone did hit the nail on the head above.
How about trust fund men who have nothing better to do? Of all the qualified and excellent candidates that interviewed for the job, most were not interested in the job, and those that were interested were probably a threat to the department's dysfunction, and would not be hired. Finally, the person they hired is a total shill with no experience in pathology.
The former chair is still running around causing havoc, and kissing and hugging his former male secretary on several occasions, in front of me, no less, probably to show off just how he still runs the show. Yuck.
Yes, the former chair is juvenile and yes, people wanted to kick him out because money could not be accounted for. He does have an overpriced mansion in a sleepy port-town in CT. It's mostly inhabited by bankers but somehow the former chair and his buddy, a regular staff pathologist, now a chair at another hospital near nyc, have managed to buy these mansions and own sail boats and so on. Gross. Frankly, the former chair should probably retire given his incapacity related to well publicized lyme disease and melanoma, but he won't. Normally, I am not one to begrudge these types of individuals, but sometimes it's your duty and exercise in due diligence to engage their incompetence and maliciousness.
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wtf?
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It seems like some screwed up people were running the show for too long without oversight and with immunity.
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company founded by the chair of a department of pathology - total failure - not the first failure. bad science, bad research and even worse - cancer patients stuck with a bills.
http://www.cafepharma.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=522
http://www.cafepharma.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=522
