A Pioneer in Heart Disease Research at Yale Named Chair of Medicine at MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine; Appointment Hailed as Another Major Step in Re-emergence of the School

Business Wire, April 20, 2000

Business Editors/Education Writers

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 2000

In a development that promises to further strengthen MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine's recovery, Dr. Michael D. Ezekowitz, a world authority on atrial fibrillation whose research has been credited with preventing countless strokes among the elderly, has been named chair of the School's Department of Medicine, announced Dr. Warren Ross, the School's dean.

Ezekowitz, head of Yale School of Medicine's prestigious Clinical Trials Office, brings 18 years of experience on Yale's faculty, and more than 25 years of innovative research in the field of cardiovascular disease. His research led to the use of the drug warfarin to help prevent strokes in sufferers of atrial fibrillation, a heart disease that afflicts 8 percent of the elderly.

Ezekowitz assumes his new position on July 1.

Administrators at MCP Hahnemann's medical school were hailing the appointment as a major step in the institution's re-emergence. The school is a part of MCP Hahnemann University, whose predecessor, Allegheny University of the Health Sciences (AUHS), filed for bankruptcy in late 1998.

Tenet acquired AUHS and its hospital system in bankruptcy court, and invited Drexel to become its academic partner by operating MCP Hahnemann University. MCP Hahnemann has rebounded and achieved renewed prosperity.

Ross, commenting on Ezekowitz's appointment, said that, "We just turned up the volume on MCP Hahnemann's already high profile as a compassionate healing and teaching institution. Dr. Ezekowitz is an extraordinary addition to our faculty."

Dr. Constantine Papadakis, president of Drexel and MCP Hahnemann Universities, also hailed the appointment as another MCP Hahnemann victory, and reaffirmed the institution's commitment to continuing to "attract the highest caliber professionals in the medical world."

Other University administrators were equally enthusiastic.

"Every department in the hospital and at the School of Medicine stands to benefit from Dr. Ezekowitz's skill, knowledge and devotion to medical excellence," said Michael A. Halter, CEO of Hahnemann University Hospital. Dr. George Amron, Hahnemann University Hospital's medical director and an MCP Hahnemann surgery professor added that "you can feel the energy and excitement already."

Ezekowitz, who studied under the eminent heart surgeon Dr. Christian Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa, pioneered the advocacy of warfarin as a treatment for atrial fibrillation. An accomplished clinician, Ezekowitz has overseen the Clinical Trials Office at Yale's medical school since 1997.

In this role he expanded his well-established research activity, evaluating new pharmaceutical agents, medical devices and technologies in large clinical trials.

Ezekowitz said he considered the allied strengths of the school's system--especially the Drexel and Tenet connection--in deciding to accept the MCP Hahnemann position.

"We have the opportunity afforded by the recent organizational changes to rebuild this department in an age that is technology-driven," Ezekowitz said. "Drexel's technological know-how provides a built-in edge. When combined with the vastness of the Tenet HealthSystem, we have a unique chance to build a department incorporating outstanding management juxtaposed to first-rate clinicians, researchers and teachers."

As chair of the MCP Hahnemann medical school's largest department, Ezekowitz said he would leverage the considerable expertise in the department to cultivate medical advances, enhance patient care and build faculty and volunteer physician practices.

Dr. Mark F. Victor, clinical professor of medicine at MCP Hahnemann's medical school, said faculty members at the school were looking forward to Ezekowitz's arrival.

"It's exciting to have Dr. Ezekowitz join the faculty and the medical staff," he said. "When you combine his well-recognized national visibility in clinical research with Hahnemann's longstanding tradition of excellence in cardiovascular medicine, it can be very synergistic and place us in a position of prominence."

Ezekowitz earned his M.D. at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He was a student of Barnard when the legendary surgeon performed the first heart transplant. The event made a lasting impression on him and stimulated his career in academic medicine, he said.

Ezekowitz earned a Ph.D. from the Imperial College in London on a scholarship from the British government. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiology. He received his training in cardiovascular disease at Johns Hopkins University, and recently completed Yale University's management program for physicians.

Ezekowitz's first academic appointment was at the University of Oklahoma, where he developed techniques to identify blood clots in the body using radionuclides and ultrasound, both highly effective and noninvasive imaging methods. He is widely regarded as the first physician in the United States to perform an ultrasound using an outpatient's swallowing tube.