Announcing the appointment of a team of Co-Directors of physician scientist career development

Congratulations to CTSI leader, Mitchell Wong, for his new role with the Office of Physician Scientist Career Development

Following a competitive internal search that considered many highly qualified candidates, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is happy to announce the appointment of a team of Co-Directors of Physician Scientist Career Development.

The Office of Physician Scientist Career Development will focus on identifying and implementing key strategic priorities for making UCLA a distinguished center of excellence for physician scientists. The Office will initiate a broad stakeholder consultation, leading to a data-driven strategic plan with goals of recruiting and supporting diverse, research-engaged, medical trainees at all levels, and creating programs to ensure the career success of all DGSOM physician scientists.

The five Co-Directors are Dr. Mitchell Wong (General Internal Medicine & Health Services Research, chair of the co-directors), Dr. Linda Demer (Cardiology), Dr. O. Kenrik Duru (General Internal Medicine & Health Services Research), Dr. Patti Ganz (Oncology and Health Policy & Management), and Dr. Otto Yang (Infectious Diseases). All five are successful and active physician scientists with considerable insight and expertise to support and mentor other physician scientists at every stage of their career. The Office of Physician Scientist Career Development sits within the office of the Vice Dean of Research and instantiates DGSOM’s commitment to fostering the unique value physician scientists bring to addressing challenging problems in research and medicine.

Dr. Mitchell Wong is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine & Health Services Research; Co-Director of the UCLA CTSI Education Core and Director of the CTSI KL2 Program; Vice Chair of Research Training in the Department of Medicine; and Co-Director of the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program. He received his MD from UCSF and completed his residency at The New York Hospital at Cornell University Medical College. After completing the UCLA NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship and obtaining his PhD in Health Services Research, he joined the faculty in 2001.

Dr. Linda Demer is a Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Bioengineering; Vice Chair of Research Training in the Department of Medicine; Director of the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program; and former Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development at the Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. She received her MD and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Heart Institute; and did a fellowship in Cardiology at University of Texas, Houston, School of Medicine. She joined UCLA in 1988.

Dr. O. Kenrik Duru is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine & Health Services Research. He received his MD from UCSF and completed his residency at University of Chicago Hospitals. He joined the UCLA faculty in 2004 after completing the UCLA NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship and obtaining a master’s degree in Health Services Research. He received the UCLA Health Teaching Humanism Award in 2014.

Dr. Patti Ganz is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Health Policy & Management; Director of the UCLA Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research; and Associate Director for Population Science Research at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. She received her MD from UCLA and completed her residency and fellowship training at UCLA. She has been a clinical trials investigator for more than three decades and is an expert in patient-reported outcomes. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).

Dr. Otto Yang is a Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics; Associate Chief of Infectious Diseases; Interim Director of the UCLA AIDS Institute; and Co-founder, Chief Medical Officer: CDR3 Therapeutics. He received his MD from Brown University, completed Internal Medicine residency at Bellevue Hospital New York University, and completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard University. He has had an NIH-funded laboratory studying T cell immunology in HIV infection and other diseases since 1997 and joined UCLA in 1999.

The Co-Directors will be supported by a six-member Advisory Group to provide insight and guidance on maximizing broad impact. The inaugural members of the Advisory Group are Dr. Justine Lee (Surgery); Dr. Carlos Portera-Cailliau (Neurology); Dr. Peter Szilagyi (Pediatrics); Dr. April Thames (Psychiatry); and Dr. Peter Tontonoz (Pathology).

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA would like to thank the members of the search committee, chaired by Dr. Emilie Marcus (Biological Chemistry), and including Dr. Olujimi Ajijola (Medicine/Cardiology), Dr. Pejman Azarmina (Medicine), Dr. Paul Boutros (Human Genetics, Urology), Dr. Deb Krakow (Obstetrics & Gynecology), and Dr. Daniel Lu (Neurosurgery).

Adapted from a UCLA Health and David Geffen School of Medicine news release. 

Image caption: Mitchell D. Wong, MD, PhD.

Image source: UCLA