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Stem Cell Initiative
LEADERSHIP
| Donald Landry Named Chair of Medicine |
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| Donald Landry |
As a nephrologist with a PhD in organic chemistry, Dr. Landry’s work has as much impact in the clinical setting as in the laboratory. After he elucidated the role of vasopressin deficiency in vasodilatory shock, he changed clinical practice with his pioneering use of vasopressin to treat septic shock and shock after cardiopulmonary bypass. Dr. Landry founded a new division, Experimental Therapeutics, in 1998, and instituted a new subspecialty, ICU nephrology, at NYPH/CUMC. Dr. Landry was recently awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal, which recognizes U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the nation.
Dr. Landry has long been committed to medical student and resident education – he has led the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship program at Columbia since 2001 – and as a P&S graduate himself, he has a unique set of experiences to draw upon as he moves forward in his new role.
Dr. Landry recently sat down with P&S student Christine Hsieh’11 to talk about the future of the department.
You spent some time as interim chair of the department. What insight did you gain from that experience, and how will that affect the way you move forward as department chair?
I have been a member of the department for 22 years, chief of experimental therapeutics for 10, and chief of nephrology for 5, so I am not new to the place. But I have gleaned some insights into the wider department during my comparatively brief tenure as interim chair. First and foremost would be the common commitment that we in the department share to excellence in every aspect of our mission in clinical medicine, biomedical research, and medical education. I knew I could not do this job alone and I quickly discovered several hundred enthusiastic allies in the department to carry our mission forward.
What is your vision for the future of the department?
The Department of Medicine aspires to preeminence and national leadership in clinical medicine, biomedical research, and medical education. I would echo Dean Goldman’s formulation for P&S: clearly in the top five, arguably the best. Measuring against this standard, one finds the department with a variety of strengths in selected individuals, programs, and divisions. Clinical programs of great strength such as cardiology and organ transplantation are poised for great strides as we build research programs to complement them.
In the weeks and months ahead I will elaborate on the research areas for recruitment, clinical programs for development, and educational initiatives for implementation. But let me emphasize that each aspect of our mission – patient care, biomedical research, and medical education – is essential. While our national reputation will hinge largely on our research, clinical medicine is our reason for being, and medical education provides the pipeline of interns, residents, fellows and junior faculty who are our future.
What have you learned from past P&S Medicine chairs, and how will that affect how you do your job?
The lessons taught to me by previous chairs include prominently among them the notion that the role of this office is to serve – service to colleagues in order that they might achieve their individual potential and more fully utilize their talents.
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| Donald Landry received a Presidential Citizens Medal from President George W. Bush in December 2008. |
The Department of Medicine is the largest department and interacts pervasively with every other department. The Department has over 630 faculty members, 150 residents, 97 clinical fellows, over $72 million in NIH funding, and an aggregate budget of $227 million. The Department’s human and financial capital have been invested to good effect: national rankings place the vast majority of medicine’s divisions in the top 10 and many in the top 5. The Department has the opportunity, and, by virtue of its size and scope, the obligation to provide leadership as we face the challenges that beset all academic medical centers. CUMC has great strengths, but a history of functioning as a collection of self-sufficient silos rather than as an integrated enterprise. In terms of change, I envision new structures that encourage cooperation among departments.
How does it feel to lead the department of the medical school you graduated from?
It does feel a bit strange to have almost continuous recollections of the institution going all the way back to my medical school interview with Dr. Andrew Frantz and the fourth-year research I did with Dr. Qais Al-Awqati. The office that I now occupy as chair of medicine corresponds to the solarium for the PH 8 East General Medicine Ward, where I saw patients and presented to attendings as a student on the third-year clerkship in medicine with then-residents Robin Goland and Jonathan LaPook.
How has P&S changed since your time as a student?
I was humbled to be a member of such a talented group as the P&S class of ’83 and I would surely be humbled were I among our students today. I have been on the P&S Committee on Admissions for 16 years and the intellectual quality of our students has only risen over time with no decrement in their scope of interests or concern for humanity. Perennially, the students of P&S are gifted, enthusiastic, and committed to P&S and to each other.
