Barnes to Join North Shore Medical Center

Janet Barnes, JD, RN

Janet Barnes, JD, RN, executive director of Clinical Compliance and Risk Management, will be leaving BWH on Dec. 17 to assume a new role as vice president for Quality & Patient Safety at North Shore Medical Center.

Barnes joined BWH in 2000 as the only risk manager for BWH and has consistently exhibited a strong and abiding commitment to provide counsel and support on all things risk-related, ensuring successful compliance with the changing regulatory and accreditation requirements that govern BWH’s mission of education, research, patient care and community service. She successfully led the hospital through the first unannounced Joint Commission survey; co-initiated the establishment of a peer support program, which has since grown into the nationally recognized Center for Professionalism and Peer Support; and has played a key role in enhancing transparency around medical errors and adverse events.

“Janet’s contributions on a day-to-day basis have been truly invaluable,” said Chief Medical Officer Stan Ashley, MD. “Her very presence in a meeting is reassuring, as her colleagues can count on her sound guidance and deep knowledge of regulatory and patient safety requirements.”

Malone Assumes Role at BWFH as Section Chief of Urology

Michael J. Malone, MD

Michael J. Malone, MD, was recently appointed to section chief of Urology at BWFH, effective Nov. 1, 2014.

Malone will be working closely with Adam Kibel, MD, chief, BWH Division of Urology, and senior Brigham and Women’s Health Care leadership to expand and improve the existing Brigham and Women’s urology program at BWFH, specifically the expansion of general urology access and services, as well as subspecialty urology programs. Malone was chosen for his depth and breadth of expertise and experience and for his many outstanding personal, as well as professional, attributes.

Having previously worked with Dedham Medical Associates, Malone gained experience as chief of surgery before transferring to BWFH as staff urologist in the Department of Surgery, where he remained for more than a decade. He has held positions as an assistant clinical professor in urology at Tufts University School of Medicine, as well as a clinical instructor in surgery at Harvard Medical School, a position he has held for more than 20 years.

Malone earned his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University and later went on to University of Massachusetts Medical School where he was a surgical intern, surgical resident and chief resident.  He completed his training as urology resident and chief urology resident at Lahey Clinic Medical Center, where he later spent 14 years serving as a distinguished member of their urology team.

Ron Walls, MD

Walls Named BWHC Executive Vice President and COO

Ron M. Walls, MD, chair of the BWHC Department of Emergency Medicine, has been named BWHC executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective Jan. 1, 2015. He will succeed Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN, who is retiring at the end of December.

“Ron is deeply dedicated to this institution and possesses an extraordinary understanding of our operations and culture,” said BWHC President Betsy Nabel, MD. “I have the utmost confidence that he will step in and build upon what we have accomplished in the last few years with a keen focus on preserving our precious mission.”

Walls, who joined BWH as the first chair of Emergency Medicine in 1993, also serves as chair of the board of the Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization and Neskey Family Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Under his leadership, Emergency Medicine has expanded from four board-certified emergency medicine specialists in 1993 to more than 50 today, as Emergency Department volume grew during that time from 38,000 visits per year to more than 80,000. Walls also worked to establish a highly sought after residency in Emergency Medicine, improve patient safety and quality, and establish the STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation.

Last year, Walls played an important role during the hospital’s response to the Boston Marathon bombings.

“Our institution, and the entire city, found great comfort and reassurance in Ron’s unshakeable calm and wisdom during one of the most difficult chapters in our history,” said Nabel.

A native Canadian, Walls attended medical school at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Denver General Hospital. He then served as assistant professor of Emergency Medicine, associate director of the Trauma Service and director of the Hyperbaric Medicine Program at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. From Washington, he went to Vancouver as head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Vancouver General Hospital and associate professor and head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of British Columbia, prior to coming to BWH.

Walls is a noted leader and educator in emergency medicine, and is widely recognized for his transformative work in improving techniques and outcomes of emergency airway management across North America and around the world. He has received major awards from all three emergency medicine national societies and is the past-president of the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine. He has more than 130 scientific publications, and is editor-in-chief of the leading emergency medicine textbook, “Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice,” as well as UptoDate and Journal Watch.

Walls is also a renowned mentor with an intense focus on developing the careers of those around him, and he counts eight current academic chairs of emergency medicine among his former residents, faculty members and mentees.

Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH, vice chair of the BWHC Department of Emergency Medicine and professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, will serve as the interim chair of Emergency Medicine as a national search is conducted for Walls’ successor.