Academic Medicine Gets Down to Business; GE Consulting Executive Tapped to Build Entrepreneurial Model at University of South Florida Health Sciences Center

Business Wire, May 16, 2005

TAMPA, Fla. -- The University of South Florida has appointed Mohamad (Mo) Kasti as Chief Operating Officer of its Health Sciences Center, which includes the colleges of medicine, nursing, public health and physical therapy.

A leader in business systems for health care, Kasti was manager in General Electric's Healthcare Consulting Performance Solutions -- a major consulting business focused on helping health care executives improve their operations, leadership and customer service.

"We have launched a change process to build creative models for our interactions with the community, with patients and with students," said Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, USF's vice president for Health Sciences and dean of the College of Medicine. "That's why we went outside the traditional academic environment and attracted Mo from GE, a company well known for its management innovations.

"Mo's expertise in cultural transformation, quality and process improvement will expand what we can accomplish."

Kasti has extensive experience in culture change using GE's best practices models for leadership systems and performance improvement.

"My goal is to enable excellence in our mission by creating excellence in operations and leadership," Kasti said. "Dr. Klasko is creating an entrepreneurial model, and we have to change the way we do business to support that model in our missions of education, research and patient care."

Before joining GE, Mo Kasti worked with Steris and Amsco Corporation, and Summa Health System in Akron, Ohio. He has a master's in biomedical/clinical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and has earned numerous awards as a coach, trainer and speaker on leadership development.

The University of South Florida Health Sciences Center is comprised of the colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health and united by one mission "to advance collaborative learning and discovery leading to improved health in our community." USF has major affiliations with the area's teaching and research hospitals, providing an important diversity of educational experiences. In partnership with its affiliated hospitals, the Health Sciences Center's research funding jumped 21 percent last year to $145.4 million.

Note: Photo of Mohamad Kasti (300 dpi jpeg format) available upon request.