Leadership change for the Department of Emergency Medicine
Following five years of exceptional leadership at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, Bentley J. Bobrow, MD, has announced his plan to step down as professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, effective June 30.
In the coming months, Bobrow, the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Chair and Nancy, Clive and Pierce Runnells Distinguished Professor in Emergency Medicine, will work closely with the department’s leadership team to ensure a smooth transition. The university has launched a search for his successor, to be chaired by Kevin Morano, PhD, senior vice president for academic and faculty affairs, and Holger Eltzschig, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine.
“Working with the talented, dedicated, and innovative people at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston has been the pinnacle of my entire professional career,” Bobrow said. “I couldn’t be prouder of our emergency medicine team and our entire UTHealth Houston institution. Together, we save lives every single day. The UTHealth Houston culture of excellence constantly pushes the boundaries of medicine forward, all while training the next generation of the very best health care professionals. It is remarkable and a privilege to be part of.”
Since joining McGovern Medical School from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in 2019, Bobrow has furthered the Department of Emergency Medicine’s culture of collaboration and its commitment to excellence in education, research, and clinical care. The enhancement of emergency medicine through the integration of evidence-based practices and public health policies has been central to his vision.
Bobrow led an initiative to optimize patient outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest through the Texas-Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival. The goal: for every community in Texas to have the same high quality of cardiac resuscitation response and the highest survival rates.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Bobrow and the entire emergency medicine team played a pivotal role in leading frontline health care providers through the unique challenges of safely caring for the sickest patients. At the same time, the department continued its educational mission and advanced research—including a long-term study that contributed the understanding of the virus.
Bobrow also helped to bring a state-of-the-art mobile simulation training unit to enhance high-level adult and pediatric emergency medicine care to UTHealth Houston and pioneered the Space Medicine Program, which includes a first-of-its-kind fellowship focused on acute medical care in space.
“Please join us in thanking Dr. Bobrow for his leadership and dedication to training the next generation of emergency medicine physicians, advancing research, and promoting the highest quality of emergency care,” said John F. Hancock, MA, MB, BChir, PhD, ScD, executive dean and Wayne Hightower Distinguished Professor in the Medical Sciences at McGovern Medical School.