VanRooyen Appointed Mass General Brigham Chief of Enterprise Emergency Medicine

Michael VanRooyen

Michael J. VanRooyen, MD, MPH, has been appointed Mass General Brigham chief of enterprise emergency medicine and will oversee the service starting Jan. 3. VanRooyen will remain the chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Brigham (a role he has held since 2016) and will succeed David Brown, MD, as the chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

VanRooyen is the J. Stephen Bohan Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Lavine Family Professor of Humanitarian Studies at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is an esteemed leader in emergency medicine and a world-renowned expert in humanitarian crisis and response. Since 2005 he has served as founding director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), a university-wide academic and research center focused on humanitarian crisis and leadership. Prior to joining the Brigham, he was a professor and vice-chairman at the Johns Hopkins Department of Emergency Medicine and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Refugee and Disaster Studies.

In his new role, VanRooyen will work with emergency medicine leaders across the system to implement best practices through clinical integration designed to meet the needs of patients and the system. Having a uniform, systemwide emergency medicine service will advance patient experience, quality and safety, health equity, management of complex issues (e.g., boarding, inter-facility transfer, and behavioral health) and IT optimization.

Milliken Named Executive Director of the Ethics Service

Aimee Milliken

Aimee Milliken, PhD, RN, HEC-C, has accepted the position of executive director of the Ethics Service after serving in the role on an interim basis since last fall.

Milliken joined the Brigham as a clinical ethics fellow four years ago and has made contributions to this service in support of the Brigham’s clinicians, patients and families as they navigate complex and challenging situations.

Milliken has published and presented nationally and internationally on nursing ethics, clinical ethics and moral distress, and she has received funding to study trends in ethics consultation requests. A former critical care nurse, Milliken joined the Brigham in 2017 for a fellowship and then served as a clinical ethicist, nurse scientist and director of Research in the Center for Nursing Excellence.

As executive director, Milliken will continue collaborating with Nick Sadovnikoff, MD, associate director of the Ethics Consultation Service, to provide ethics services, education and resources to Brigham clinicians, patients and their loved ones.

Lane Joins Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders

Jacqueline Lane

Jacqueline Lane, PhD, joined the faculty as an associate geneticist in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, on Nov.15.

Lane received her PhD from Tufts University in Massachusetts in 2011. She has been an instructor in Anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital since September 2018.  At the Brigham, Lane will establish a cutting-edge program in genomics for chronic illness that will serve as a national model. She plans to grow her collaborative and interdisciplinary research program, combining genetics with functional approaches to address important issues in human health related to sleep and circadian biology. She will also assist members of the division in incorporating various genetic methodologies, including exome and genome sequencing, gene and variant function, into applicable research projects.

Cho Appointed Section Chief of Endocrine Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology

Nancy Cho

Nancy L. Cho, MD, will serve as section chief of Endocrine Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology.

Cho received her AB from Harvard University and MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed residency training in general surgery and fellowship training in endocrine surgery at the Brigham. She is an associate surgeon in the division and an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. Cho also serves as associate clerkship director for the Surgery Clerkship at the Brigham.

Her clinical interests include endocrine diseases of the thyroid/parathyroid glands and melanoma. Her current research focuses on investigating gender disparities in academic surgery, including award recognition, operative experience, conference speakers and society leadership. Cho has also published extensively on clinical outcomes in endocrine surgery to optimize delivery of patient care and improve surgical practices. She currently serves on committees for the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons and the Association for Academic Surgery.

O’Brien Coon Joins the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Devin O’Brien Coon

Devin O’Brien Coon, MD, MSE, has been named a new faculty member in the Department of Surgery.

Coon joins the Brigham from Johns Hopkins University, where he was associate professor of plastic surgery and biomedical engineering. He attended college and medical school at the University of Pittsburgh and holds a master’s in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He completed integrated plastic surgery training at the Johns Hopkins/UMD Shock Trauma Center program and is board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Before joining the Brigham, Coon also served as the founding chief medical director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health, where he developed a multidisciplinary service line across eight departments that became one of the largest academic programs in the U.S. He is recognized as a leader in genitourinary salvage procedures and is frequently referred secondary revision cases. He initiated and directed the Johns Hopkins Complex Gender & Microsurgery Fellowship. He will serve as inaugural clinical and surgical director of the new Brigham Center for Transgender Health.

Coon directs a basic science lab focusing on cutaneous repair, fibrosis and regeneration, as well as sex hormone-mediated control of wound healing and scarring. He is also interested in biomedical innovation and has invented and successfully translated two FDA-approved medical devices (a bioresorbable implant and a 3D ultrasound system) to clinical use.

His primary clinical areas are facial gender surgery, facial aesthetic surgery, genital gender-affirming surgery and genital/pelvic reconstruction for revision or oncologic patients.

Clancy Named Distinguished Scholar in Surgical Oncology

Thomas Clancy

Thomas E. Clancy, MD, has been named Distinguished Scholar in Surgical Oncology, thanks to a gift from Carmella R. Kletjian.

Clancy is a senior surgeon and Distinguished Scholar in Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery at the Brigham, where he is also the director of the Program in Robotic/Minimally Invasive Pancreatic and Liver Surgery. He is a senior staff member and surgical lead at the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and co-director of the Pancreas and Biliary Tumor Center at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. Clancy received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed general surgical residency at the Brigham, followed by a surgical oncology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Clancy specializes in surgery for complex gastrointestinal malignancies, with a focus on pancreatic tumors, primary and metastatic liver tumors, biliary malignancies and neuroendocrine tumors. He has a particular focus on minimally invasive and robotic surgical techniques for gastrointestinal tumors.

An author of more than 75 scientific publications, reviews and book chapters, Clancy works in a collaborative model with numerous basic and translational scientific researchers on projects related to the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal malignancies and pancreatic disease, as well as clinical outcomes in pancreatic surgery.

New and Notable

• Robert S.D. Higgins, MD, begins his role as president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Dec. 1. Read more.
• Regan Bergmark, MD, has been promoted to assistant professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Harvard Medical School.
• Alexander Cole, MD, has been promoted to assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.
• Daiva Braunfelds, MBA, MPH, executive director, Population Health Management and Physician Engagement, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization, has left the Brigham. Her last day was Nov. 19. Bernie Jones, EdM, vice president, Value-Based Care, Public Policy and Administrative Operations, will oversee Daiva’s responsibilities and portfolio areas in the interim.
• Leo F. Buckley Jr., executive director of Business Operations for Patient Care Services and Nursing, left the Brigham after 25 years of service to the organization and the Department of Nursing. His last day was Friday, Nov. 12.

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