Duke University hires new medical leader from UCLA

Duke University Health System announced the hiring of a new president and chief executive Tuesday, naming A. Eugene Washington, a gynecology professor who is currently dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine and CEO of the UCLA Health System.

Washington, 64, will assume his new post at Duke on April 1, overseeing the sprawling academic health care system with a medical school, nursing school, biomedical research program and three regional hospitals. He will succeed Victor Dzau, who left in June for a new job as president of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Washington leaves UCLA in the wake of a conflict-of-interest scandal, following disclosures that health care conglomerate Johnson & Johnson paid Washington $260,000 last year as a company director. Washington was re-elected to J&J’s board in April, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Washington said Tuesday that his job change has nothing to do with the whistleblower lawsuit against UCLA and that he will remain on J&J’s board. He characterized his Duke post as a promotion within a highly esteemed institution in the academic world.

“In this job, I’m a dean. In that role, deans will report to me,” Washington said. “The principal draw at this stage of my career is the opportunity I will have in more abundance to work across disciplines.”

Duke University will allow Washington to remain on J&J’s board, said Duke spokesman Michael Schoenfeld. Duke lets its officers and administrators sit on corporate boards as long as any potential conflicts are disclosed internally.

“Dr. Washington’s board service will be governed by Duke’s long-standing policies and procedures to protect against conflicts of interest,” Schoenfeld said.

The UCLA scandal was exposed by a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Robert Pedowitz, the university’s head of orthopedic surgery, who alleged the University of California system is rife with ethics conflicts among medical school faculty. The suit, alleging retaliation by UC, was settled in April with the UC system paying Pedowitz $10 million, the LA Times reported.

UCLA said Pedowitz’s allegations were unfounded; J&J said Washington’s position on the company’s board raises no financial conflicts.

Washington was selected to head Duke University Health System in a national search by a 15-member Duke committee, and approved by Duke’s board of trustees. Duke described Washington as a renowned clinical investigator, health-policy scholar and an executive at the University of California, Los Angeles.

As CEO of the Duke health system and as chancellor of academic affairs, Washington will oversee Duke University Hospital, Durham Regional Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, clinical laboratories as well as Duke Primary Cary and Duke HomeCare & Hospice.

He said one of the tasks facing Duke and all academic medical systems is the deployment of big data to track patient populations and improve community health.

Washington said he and his wife expect the Duke post to be his last job until he retires, and noted that his retirement is not imminent.

“We come as individuals who are all in and expect to be there,” he said. “We’re not looking to do anything else.”

Among his lengthy list of professional accolades, Washington received the David E. Rogers Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Duke’s announcement lauded Washington’s contributions to the medical field, including his recognition with the Outstanding Service Medal from the U.S. Public Health Service and his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and also to the Institute of Medicine, now headed by Dzau.

He has also been on the board of trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the scientific management review board of the National Institutes of Health, the board of directors of the California HealthCare Foundation, the board of directors of the California Wellness Foundation, and the editorial board of the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association.

In April, the AMA journal published a study that the LA Times characterized as raising “a red flag generally about university officials such as Eugene Washington.” The study warned of the ethical minefield created by medical school officials who sit on corporate boards, typically collecting hefty fees.

“These relationships present potentially far-reaching consequences beyond those created when individual physicians consult with industry or receive gifts,” the study said.

The AMA journal said suggestions to stem the potential conflicts include limiting corporate compensation for board service to a percentage of academic salary. Such a requirement would create a mechanism to insure that board membership remains secondary to the moonlighting university official’s academic duties.

This story was originally published January 13, 2015 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Duke University hires new medical leader from UCLA."