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Rosann Giordano-Thompson, (215) 349-5964, rosann.thompson@uphs.upenn.edu

March 2, 2004

Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH, Appointed Associate Vice Dean and Associate Vice President for Strategic Integration for PENN Medicine

(Philadelphia, PA) -- Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH, has been appointed Associate Vice Dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Associate Vice President for Integrated Program Development for the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The appointments were announced jointly by Dr. Arthur Rubenstein, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the School of Medicine, and Health System CEO Ralph Muller.

In his new position, Dr. Strom will be responsible for the integration of the research, clinical and educational activities of the medical school and health system. “Dr. Strom’s primary charge in these positions is to ensure that we take full advantage of our system-wide resources in mission planning and operation,” stated Dr. Rubenstein. “In conducting this effort he will approach the review of existing activities and the generation of new opportunities from an end-user perspective that cuts across each of the major constituencies: faculty, school and health system administration and staff, and clinical and research trainees.”

Dr. Strom’s first specific project in this new position is to develop an integrated vision for medical/biomedical informatics at PENN Medicine (Penn’s School of Medicine and the Health System). “Dr. Strom will be reaching out to all components of this area for participation, from patient registry and care to health services and genomics research and education,” explained Mr. Muller.

“I am excited to be taking on this new challenge,” explained Dr. Strom. “Penn’s School of Medicine is well recognized as one of the very best medical schools in the country, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is recognized as one of the nation’s best hospitals.

"PENN Medicine is now one of the few truly integrated academic health care systems. This creates tremendous opportunities for further cross-fertilization, resulting in enormous benefit for both the clinical and academic parts of our operation. The results will be better for our patients, for our students, and for the patients of the future, who will benefit from our research.”

Dr. Strom is the George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Chair and Professor of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pharmacology, Director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Chair of the Graduate Group in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Medicine. He will retain these existing responsibilities, while fulfilling the demands of his new positions.

On the Penn faculty since 1980, Dr. Strom’s research interests span many areas of epidemiology; including the field of pharmacoepidemiology, an area in which he has authored over 350 manuscripts. He was a Yale University undergraduate and earned his MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He interned and was a resident in Internal Medicine and a National Institute of Health fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Strom’s academic talents and leadership skills are also well recognized outside of Penn. He was a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians, the Board of Directors of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and the Board of Directors for the American College of Epidemiology. He serves on the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He chaired the Institute Committee to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of the Anthrax Vaccine, and is currently Chair of the Institute Committee on Smallpox Vaccine Program Implementation. Dr. Strom is one of only a handful of clinical epidemiologists ever elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and American Association of Physicians.

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PENN Medicine is a $2.2 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (created in 1993 as the nation’s first integrated academic health system).

Penn’s School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #4 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

Penn Health System consists of four hospitals (including its flagship Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, consistently rated one of the nation’s “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report), a faculty practice plan, a primary-care provider network, three multispecialty satellite facilities, and home health care and hospice.

Release available online at http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/march04/strom.htm