In September 2009, the University of California, San Francisco named Sam Hawgood, M.B., B.S., dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs. A distinguished physician-scientist and international leader in neonatology, Hawgood had served as chair of Pediatrics and physician in chief at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitalsince 2004, and as interim dean of the medical school
UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, M.D., M.P.H., proposed Hawgood's appointment, noting that "his willingness to tackle the most significant challenges, even while in an interim role, has created a level of confidence, cooperation and respect in the school that can only serve to promote further growth and excellence."
Over the last few years, Hawgood has been a leader in advancing a campuswide strategic plan that includes expanding translational research, fostering patient-centered care and furthering global health. He also has been instrumental in creating the plan for a new, state-of-the-art children's hospital due to open at Mission Bay in 2014, a project that inspires in him hope and optimism about the future of pediatrics.
"The new hospital at Mission Bay — with its leading-edge facilities and unprecedented regional access, including a helipad — will dramatically enhance access to world-class care for children and families of all socioeconomic classes," he says. "It will be the realization of a more than 40-year dream of a specialty hospital dedicated to the care of kids, built adjacent to one of the world's most exciting centers of biomedical research."
In the meantime, while an international search is well underway for the next pediatrics chair and hospital physician in chief, "UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital is in good hands under Kevin Shannon's interim leadership," says Hawgood. Kevin Shannon, M.D., is the Roma and Marvin Auerback Distinguished Professor in Pediatric Molecular Oncology at UCSF, leads the Hematopoietic Malignancies Program at UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and directs the UCSF Medical Scientist Training Program.
"Looking ahead, this is an enormously exciting time in medicine," says Hawgood. "I'm an optimist about our ability to manage through our current budget cycle, and I believe — especially with the continued growth at Mission Bay — that UCSF will stay at the leading edge of discovery and innovation."
Childhood Obesity Interventions Must Begin Early
In a Perspective piece that appears in the April 22, 2010, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, two UCSF experts assert that optimizing First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" obesity prevention program requires targeting pregnant women, infants and toddlers.
Clinical Trial Recruits Children to Test Type 1 Diabetes Drug
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital is one of 10 centers nationwide recruiting patients age 12 to 17 for a clinical trial aimed at resolving type 1 diabetes. The project is studying whether the drug Thymoglobulin can delay — or permanently stop — a malfunctioning immune system's attack on insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
Farmer Inducted into Royal College of Surgeons
On January 20, 2010, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Surgeon in Chief Diana Farmer, M.D., was inducted as a fellow into the Royal College of Surgeons of England.