University of Miami names med school dean as health system CEO

Edward Abraham, MD, who has been serving as dean and chief academic officer at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine since July, has now been named executive vice president for health affairs and CEO of the school’s health system, UHealth.

“Dr. Abraham has been diligent in steering our dedicated UHealth team through changes to ensure stability and strategic focus,” University of Miami President Julio Frenk said in a statement. “He has already made progress on a clear path to improved patient access and experience. He has overseen the final steps in transitioning the health system to a single hospital license, and he has restructured the medical school’s research strategy.”

Abraham, a pulmonary medicine and critical care physician, came to Miami after spending six years as dean of Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. Before that, he chaired the department of medicine at University of Alabama at Birmingham and had spent 13 years at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, serving as vice chair of the department of medicine and division head for pulmonary sciences and critical care.

He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University and completed his residency at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jan. 1, 2018 will mark his first day in his new position. He’ll continue serving as dean of the medical school while a search for his successor is underway.

UHealth has been experiencing some financial difficulties related to its 560-bed University of Miami Hospital, which lost $95 million in 2017 according to recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained by the Miami Herald. The system as a whole remained profitable, though earnings slipped from $169 million in 2016 to $83 million in 2017.