University Times

Loren H. Roth has been appointed associate vice chancellor for education, Health Sciences.

In the newly created job, Roth coordinates education programs at Pitt's six Health Sciences schools: medicine, dental medicine, pharmacy, nursing, health and rehabilitation sciences, and the Graduate School of Public Health.

He continues as vice president for managed care at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and as professor and interim chairperson of the medical school's Department of Psychiatry.

Roth is the fourth new Health Sciences academic administrator appointed since July, when Interim Chancellor Mark Nordenberg named orthopaedic surgery chairperson James H. Herndon as associate senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences and vice president for medical services at UPMC.

In October, three associate vice chancellor appointments were made by Thomas Detre, senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences. They included Roth and two others: University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Director Ronald Herberman was named associate vice chancellor for research, and pathology department chairperson George Michalopoulos was named associate vice chancellor for Health Sciences and interim dean of the medical school.

The four appointees have not received salary increases for taking on their new duties, a Health Sciences News Bureau spokesperson said.

In a news release announcing his appointment, Roth said: "I will work with the deans of the schools of the Health Sciences to assure that future graduates are prepared for health care settings that stress interdisciplinary teamwork, outcomes and a lifetime learning process to ensure that patients' best interests are realized in a new cost-effective environment." Interim Chancellor Nordenberg said: "Dr. Roth's distinguished career as an educator, researcher and administrator makes him uniquely qualified to lead our educational endeavors in the Health Sciences." Thomas Detre, senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences, said: "A consistent theme in all of Dr. Roth's varied and considerable contributions to academic medicine has been the primacy of the patients we serve. As a researcher, Dr. Roth has conducted seminal research in the field of law and psychiatry. His skills as an educator have been recognized by his students, and he was a main participant in planning and executing the new curriculum at the School of Medicine. As an administrator, Dr. Roth has worked with Pitt faculty and administrators, community hospitals, physicians and insurers to prepare the UPMC for success in the new health care environment." Roth's research and writing over the past 20 years has focused on informed consent, patient competency and ethics in research. He has won the American Psychiatric Association's Isaac Ray Award for outstanding career contributions to law and psychiatry. Roth is a former chairperson of UPMC's Health Sciences Panel on Medical Ethics.

He twice received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic psychiatric residents. He is co-coordinator of the medical school's curriculum on patient/doctor relationships and directs the "Introduction to Being a Physician" course.

Roth is a graduate of Harvard's medical and public health schools, and the Yale and Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatric residency programs.

— Bruce Steele