Monday, January 29, 2007

Harrington adds faculty directors to his executive leadership team
By Julie McKeel

In October, Dr. Robert Harrington became the new Director of the DCRI, succeeding Dr. Robert Califf. In the four months since his appointment, Dr. Harrington has continued to evaluate the DCRI organizational structure to determine the best means by which the people, programs, and services at the DCRI are aligned to advance the mission of the DCRI.

"Structures cannot remain static; they must adapt and flex to support organizational growth and development," said Harrington. "My goal is to be a source of continuity and stability for the DCRI while also being a catalyst for positive change."

Effective immediately, Dr. Harrington has added three associate directors to the DCRI executive leadership team: Dr. Eric Peterson, Dr. Kevin Schulman, and Dr. John McHutchison. The executive team includes Bunny Donohue (Chief Operating Officer), Betsy Reid (Chief Business Officer), and Michael Sledge (Chief Financial Officer).

Eric Peterson

Dr. Peterson's responsibilities will include heading the cardiovascular clinical research program and leading the DCRI-wide strategy for registry research, which will involve integrating clinical trials into registries.

The cardiology clinical research program is the largest therapeutic area at the DCRI, and Peterson will be responsible for developing strategic plans for the continued growth of the cardiology clinical research and DCRI-wide registries. He will manage all activities associated with the conduct of multi-center clinical research and registries, direct the academic and scientific agenda for cardiology, mentor faculty and fellows, and administer the operational performance of the projects in the cardiovascular clinical research program and all registries. In this role, he will work closely with the cardiovascular faculty leaders and the operations managers.

"Eric is an enormously talented and successful cardiovascular outcomes researcher,” said Harrington. “We have worked together for years, and for the past year we shared the responsibility for leading the DCRI cardiovascular group. I look to him to bring innovation and creativity to the DCRI's largest therapeutic area, developing ways to better integrate clinical trials into existing disease registries."

Kevin Schulman

Dr. Schulman will continue to head the Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics (CCGE) program at the DCRI, providing oversight for all activities associated with the conduct of CCGE projects and developing strategic plans for growth of CCGE.

In addition, Schulman will be responsible for guiding the DCRI-wide business strategy, identifying new business opportunities, investigating and overseeing the development of business plans for spin-off entities, as well as building and maintaining partner relationships that lead to product development or new entity opportunities. Dr. Schulman will work closely with Betsy Reid and Michael Sledge in this role.

"I am very grateful that Kevin has accepted this role in addition to his roles with CCGE and at the Fuqua School of Business,” said Harrington. “His unique expertise in clinical medicine and business make him the perfect leader to help us consider our business strategies and explore interesting opportunities to expand DCRI activities into novel areas. His advice and counsel on financial issues related to the DCRI will be invaluable."

John McHutchison

Dr. McHutchison will continue to lead the gastroenterology/hepatology clinical research program at the DCRI. In this role, he will oversee the academic and scientific agenda for this therapeutic area, develop strategies for creating business opportunities to provide a balanced portfolio of projects, mentor faculty and fellows, manage the financial viability and operational performance of the projects in the program.

McHutchison's new duties will include serving as the principal liaison with the School of Medicine and the newly formed Duke Translational Medicine Institute (DTMI) for the DCRI's involvement in translational research. Dr. McHutchinson will lead and oversee the DCRI's involvement in efforts that are underway at the Medical School with the creation of the Duke Clinical Research Unit and the development of the translational program at the Kannapolis, NC research complex.

"John has done an amazing job leading the DCRI's gastroenterology/hepatology clinical research program, creating one of our more successful research programs from scratch since arriving a few years ago from San Diego," said Harrington. "I will look to him for advice and help with the development of new research programs, especially as they relate to novel first-in-man investigations and the expansion of our collaborations in biomarker research."

Harrington could not be more pleased with the additions of these three talented faculty members to the DCRI executive leadership team. "They are the perfect complements to an equally talented operational leadership team. I look forward to working with them all as we take the DCRI to the next level of success and achievement," concluded Harrington.