Pusic Named Division Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Andrea L. Pusic, MD, MHS, FACS, FRCSC, has been named chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Brigham Health, effective March 1, 2018.

Pusic is an attending plastic surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and a professor of surgery at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York, NY. She is an internationally-renowned innovator and leader in the area of patient-reported outcomes and surgical experience. She is also the director of the MSKCC Patient-Reported Outcomes and Surgical Experience Program and the American College of Surgeons’ representative to the International Patient Reported Outcome Measurements (PROMs) Collaborative.

Dual training in epidemiology and surgery has enabled her to lead a team of experts in psychometrics, quality of life and social science methods to develop, validate and use new quantitative measures to assess patient outcomes. The patient-reported outcomes instrument she developed for breast surgery, the BREAST-Q, has been widely adopted for research and clinical care and serves as the basis for development of other outcome measures in surgery.

Pusic will succeed Elof Eriksson, MD, PhD, who became a professor emeritus in 2016. Eriksson – who was a surgeon, a teacher and a researcher – led the Division of Plastic Surgery for 30 years.

Limaj Named Clinical Executive Director, Care Continuum Management

Idriz Limaj, MBA, BSN, RN, joined BWH as clinical executive director of Care Continuum Management in December.

In this role, Limaj is responsible for executing the strategic vision across all areas of Brigham Health’s Care Continuum Management program. This work includes planning, directing and coordinating strategic initiatives related to program development and the daily clinical and administrative practices carried out by social workers, care coordination nurses and care transition specialists who support patients and families transitioning between care settings.

Limaj reports to Kathryn Britton, MD, MPH, associate chief medical officer, and Shelly Anderson, MPM, senior vice president of Strategy and Operations, in these efforts.

Curro Appointed Director of Pulmonary Services
Joseph Curro, EdD, MBA, RRT, was named director of Pulmonary Services at BWH and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). He serves as the clinical and administrative lead of Respiratory Care at BWH in collaboration with medical leadership, in addition to managing DFCI Respiratory Therapy staff. Before joining the Brigham last fall, Curro was the regional director of Respiratory Operations for New England and upstate New York at PromptCare Companies, which provides home-based respiratory products and infusion services.

Earlier in his career, he served in director-level roles in respiratory care services at numerous institutions, including Tufts Medical Center/Boston Floating Hospital for Children, Kindred Hospital Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, among others. In addition, he is an experienced clinical educator, having developed educational and research programs in pulmonary medicine and respiratory care at Boston Medical Center and Northeastern University. Curro earned a doctorate in education from LaSalle University, a master’s in business administration from Western New England College and a bachelor’s in biology from Merrimack College.

Jennings Joins Program for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience and Ann Romney Center as Executive Director

Charles Jennings, PhD, is the new executive director of the Program for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience and the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases. He joined BWH in December 2017 and is also appointed as a lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Prior to arriving at BWH, Jennings served as director of MIT’s McGovern Institute Neurotechnology Program, which supports collaborative projects across all areas of neuroscience, within and beyond MIT. He established and oversaw the institute’s core facilities and raised funds for a broad range of strategic programs. He previously was the first executive director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the founding chief editor of Nature Neuroscience and executive editor of the Nature monthly research journals. Originally from the UK, Jennings received his PhD in neurobiology from University College London, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and MIT.

Martin D. Samuels, director of the Program for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience and chair of the Department of Neurology, called Jennings’ range of experience and knowledge “a perfect fit for our needs. We are very fortunate.”

Wiviott Appointed Executive Director of Partners HealthCare Clinical Trials Office

Stephen D. Wiviott, MD has been appointed to the position of Executive Director of the Clinical Trials Office at Partners HealthCare. Wiviott is a faculty member in the BWH Cardiovascular Division and a senior investigator with the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) Study Group,

Wiviott served as a medical house officer and chief medical resident at BWH. Following his residency training, he served as a Cardiology Fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital and as a Cardiovascular Research Fellow with the TIMI Study Group prior to joining BWH as faculty.

Working closely with hospital research leadership, Wiviott will play a vital role in strengthening ties with industry sponsors, providing service to support clinical trialists throughout the Partners HealthCare system and leading new outreach efforts to industry.

Mittendorf Joins Department of Surgery

Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, has joined the faculty of the Department of Surgery, and will serve as the Rob and Karen Hale Distinguished Chair in Surgical Oncology. Mittendorf has also been appointed director of surgical research for Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) Breast Program.

Prior to joining BWH and Dana-Farber, Mittendorf was a professor in the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. She joined the faculty at MD Anderson in 2008.

Mittendorf is the principal investigator on a number of clinical protocols and on a multi-center trial evaluating the impact of vaccination in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ, a trial evaluating the impact of preoperative radiation therapy on the immune response in breast tumors, as well as two investigator initiated studies evaluating immune checkpoint blockade administered in the presurgical setting to breast cancer patients. Her laboratory work is focused on identifying novel tumor antigens and investigating aspects of the tumor microenvironment that impact the response to immunotherapy.

Tuteja Leaves Global Health and Research, Joins Pain Management Division

Meenu Tuteja, MD, MBA, MPH, transitioned out of her role as the director of Global Health Programs and Research at the end of January. Tuteja held the role for almost five years, providing administrative direction to BWH Human Resources for Health Program in Rwanda. Tuteja will be starting her new position in February as administrative director of the Pain Management Division in the Department of Anesthesiology.