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In This Issue:
Ron Walls
Ron Walls, MD, chair of the BWHC Department of Emergency Medicine, has been named BWHC executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective Jan. 1, 2015. He succeeds Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN, who retired at the end of December.
"Ron is deeply dedicated to this institution and possesses an extraordinary understanding of our operations and culture," said BWHC President Betsy Nabel, MD. "I have the utmost confidence that he will step in and build upon what we have accomplished in the last few years with a keen focus on preserving our precious mission."
Walls, who joined BWH as the first chair of Emergency Medicine in 1993, also serves as chair of the board of the Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization and Neskey Family Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Under his leadership, Emergency Medicine has expanded from four board-certified emergency medicine specialists in 1993 to more than 50 today, as Emergency Department volume grew during that time from 38,000 visits to more than 80,000 per year. Walls also worked to establish a highly sought after residency in Emergency Medicine, improve patient safety and quality, and establish the STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation.
Last year, Walls played an important role during the hospital's response to the Boston Marathon bombings.
"Our institution, and the entire city, found great comfort and reassurance in Ron's unshakeable calm and wisdom during one of the most difficult chapters in our history," said Nabel.
A native Canadian, Walls attended medical school at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Denver General Hospital. He then served as assistant professor of Emergency Medicine, associate director of the Trauma Service and director of the Hyperbaric Medicine Program at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. From Washington, he went to Vancouver as head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Vancouver General Hospital and associate professor and head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of British Columbia, prior to joining BWH.
Walls is a noted leader and educator in emergency medicine, and is widely recognized for his transformative work in improving techniques and outcomes of emergency airway management across North America and around the world. He has received major awards from all three emergency medicine national societies and is the past-president of the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine. He has more than 130 scientific publications and is editor-in-chief of the leading emergency medicine textbook, "Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice," as well as UptoDate and Journal Watch.
Walls is also a renowned mentor with an intense focus on developing the careers of those around him, and he counts eight current academic chairs of emergency medicine among his former residents, faculty members and mentees.
Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH, vice chair of the BWHC Department of Emergency Medicine, is serving as interim chair of Emergency Medicine as a national search is conducted for Walls' successor.