Effective Sept. 7, Louis Rice will be taking on the positions of chair of the Department of Medicine at Alpert Medical School and chief of medicine at Rhode Island Hospital and the Miriam Hospital.
Prior to this appointment, Rice served as professor of medicine and chief of medical service at the Cleveland V.A. Medical Center for 20 years, in addition to being chairman of the department of medicine at the University Hospitals of Cleveland.
Rice will be replacing Professor of Medicine Lance Dworkin, who served as interim chair for two-and-a-half years, Rice said. Dworkin had replaced current Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing, who was the chair of medicine for 10 years.
"I am thrilled with the appointment of Lou Rice. He is a seasoned researcher, clinician and educator. His appointment is another important step in raising the profiles of the hospitals and the medical school nationally," Wing said in a press release. "His reputation and experience as an expert researcher in infectious diseases, combined with his work with the National Institutes of Health, make him a tremendous asset to our students and faculty."
Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the new hire would help the University continue to develop the Med School.
"Louis Rice is an internationally respected educator and researcher in infectious diseases and an experienced medical administrator," Kertzer wrote. "His arrival in September as chair of our Department of Medicine continues a period of robust growth in medical education, biomedical research, and the provision of top quality care to the people of Rhode Island."
While it is fortunate that both Dworkin and Wing will be around to help when he starts, Rice said, he has "big shoes to fill." There are "absolutely terrific people working there," he said.
There was a lot of growth under previous chairs, he added, and there is "a lot of potential to get better."
Rice will also be appointed as executive chair of the Providence V.A. Medical Center, Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island. As executive chair of medicine, Rice will be responsible for educational and training programs as well as academic programs, and performing tasks such as promoting faculty, he said.
"I think it's great," Rice said of his position at the hospitals. "There will be plenty to do," he added. "I will never get bored."
Rice will be the president and chairman of the board of University Medicine Inc., a business organization for many of the doctors of internal medicine at Rhode Island Hospital. This will be the business end of Rice's new appointments and will be "a big responsibility," he said. He said he hopes to "organize the practice in a way that is satisfactory to the doctors."
Although the medical academic year begins this month, Rice elected to assume his position in September.
"I needed time to tie things up," Rice said, which includes packing up his laboratory and saying goodbye to people at Case Western Reserve University. After some vacation time, Rice will be moving to Providence in the second week in August, he said.
Rice said that he did not think that it would be too difficult to start late in the year. He will still have to take time to figure out where everything is and who everyone is, but "the people managing right now are terrific," he said, adding that he plans to contribute what he can.
His wants to enhance the growth of the Med School and get more research funding, he said. He will "identify areas of excellence" and "be fully engaged in the hospital," Rice added.
Another goal is to "make clinical programs nationally known," he said, as well as to make the academic programs even better.
Rice said that he intends to use his experience at the Cleveland V.A. Medical Center to achieve his goals. "The V.A. system is well-known around the country," he said, and he plans to bring a lot of what he has learned over the past ten years to the system in Rhode Island.
"I am absolutely thrilled to be coming to Brown," Rice said. "I am very grateful for getting offered this opportunity."
