Local Woman to Head UCLA Department
A Tarzana woman has been named chairwoman of UCLA’s Department of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Patricia Kapur, a professor of clinical anesthesiology and director of the UCLA Surgery Center, will assume the post July 1, becoming one of only nine female anesthesiology department chiefs in the country.
Kapur will direct the department’s educational, research and clinical programs and will step down as director of the surgery center.
As department chair, Kapur will succeed Dr. Joseph Gabel, who served five years. Gabel will remain on the UCLA faculty as a professor of anesthesiology and plans to focus his research on the molecular basis of pain.
UCLA maintains one of the largest anesthesiology departments in the country, with approximately 45 faculty members and 50 residents in training.
Kapur said the paucity of female anesthesiology department chiefs at U.S. medical schools “reflects the general situation in academia--it takes time to build the credentials.”
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