UCSD Dean Resigns; Will Take Medical Schools Post
Dr. Robert G. Petersdorf, dean of the UC San Diego School of Medicine, has resigned to become president of a prestigious organization that helps set the nation’s health policy by shaping the way medicine is taught.
Petersdorf will leave Aug. 31 to head the Assn. of American Medical Colleges, a Washington D.C.-based group which represents 127 medical schools and more than 400 teaching hospitals around the country.
As the association’s new president, Petersdorf will exert influence on the way medicine is taught and, hence, the way health care is delivered in the future. The association helps determine the curricula for medical schools, and Petersdorf has been outspoken about the need for reforms in the way physicians are trained.
“The opportunity to have an influence on medical education and the delivery of health care in this country through leadership of the AAMC is a compelling challenge that I cannot refuse,” Petersdorf said Tuesday after word of his appointment had been leaked to the New York Times in Washington. Petersdorf had previously been offered the organization’s top post but had turned it down.
Petersdorf, 60, has been dean of the UCSD medical school since September 1981. He chaired the department of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 1964 to 1979. After what Petersdorf called an unsatisfactory two years in Boston as president of three teaching hospitals associated with Harvard University, he joined UCSD.
UCSD Chancellor Richard Atkinson on Tuesday called Petersdorf a powerful force in attracting new faculty to the San Diego school and in improving relations between the School of Medicine, the local community and the UCSD Medical Center. Petersdorf has long argued that clinical expertise should be as respected as research and academics in terms of judging a medical community’s excellence.
In fact, Petersdorf sometimes is referred to as a “triple threat,” with longstanding credentials in teaching, research and as a practicing physician. He is well-known as an specialist in infectious diseases, having written authoritative works on the origins of fevers. He is editor of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, a major textbook used at medical schools today.
In recent years, Petersdorf has emphasized the need for reforms at medical schools, especially in limiting the number of specialists who are trained. He said that teaching hospitals must recognize the need to maintain their excellence by awarding clinical work as well as research.
