Minsky to begin post Jan. 22 as first Chief Quality Officer

Bruce Minsky, one of the world’s leading authorities in gastrointestinal cancers, has been appointed Chief Quality Officer for the University Medical Center, a new position that will be Minsky’s primary focus. He also will serve as Associate Dean for Clinical Quality in the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine, and as Professor in Radiation & Cellular Oncology, effective Monday, Jan. 22.

Minsky comes to the University from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he is chairman of Institutional Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement, associate chairman of the Institutional Review Board, and vice chairman of radiation oncology. He also is a professor of radiation oncology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

“We are enormously pleased by the pending arrival of Bruce Minsky, who is both a leader in his clinical field of gastrointestinal cancer and one of the pioneers in the developing field of quality assessment,” said James Madara, Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine, Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Center at the University. “He will bring us a wealth of experience in performance and quality improvement, which will enhance all of our clinical programs immediately. He also will add to our existing strengths in the study and treatment of GI cancers.”

As Chief Quality Officer, Minsky will pull together all of the Medical Center’s existing quality-improvement projects and introduce new programs to form an overarching Quality Center. He will work with physicians, Medical Center administrators, and the Medical Center Board of Trustees’ patient care and operations committee to improve patient care, patient safety and clinical outcomes. Minsky also will be charged to improve the use of patient care resources in order to increase patient satisfaction while decreasing lengths of stay and malpractice premiums.

He earned his B.S., with distinction, in biology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1977 and his M.D. from the University of Massachusetts in 1982. He completed a medical residency at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston and in radiation therapy at the Harvard Joint Center for Radiation Therapy. After completing his training at Harvard in 1986, he joined the faculty at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and became the vice chairman of radiation oncology in 2000. He was appointed as an assistant professor at Cornell University in 1988 and a full professor by 1999.

A prolific researcher, author and lecturer, Minsky has published more than 200 journal articles, 45 book chapters and almost 70 abstracts, mostly involving the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.

He currently serves on the editorial boards of eight specialty journals and on committees or boards for many national organizations, including the National Cancer Institute, the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the American College of Surgeons.

Minsky was attracted to Chicago’s strengths in gastrointestinal cancer research as well as its traditions of multidisciplinary collaborative research and the opportunity to work toward finding innovative ways to extend ideas about quality improvement beyond the walls of the Medical Center.

“I am excited to join the University of Chicago Medical Center,” said Minsky. “It has a rich history of outstanding academic achievement, and I look forward to leading the Center for Quality and Outcomes, which will build on this unique strength. The unified governance structure under Dean Madara’s leadership facilitates my development of a comprehensive quality program for the Medical Center. I will also continue my clinical work in gastrointestinal malignancies and am honored to be a member of such an esteemed clinical faculty,” he said.