Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO Charles D. Baker will leave his job and seek the Republican nomination for governor of Massachusetts in the 2010 election. Baker said he would run in the mold of former Gov. William Weld, who was a fiscal conservative but held more liberal stances on social issues. He deflected several questions about Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, but said he would focus on jobs and the economy and retaining young workers.
Paula Friedman, SSM Health Care corporate vice president-strategy and systems improvement, will assume the post of senior vice president-strategic development. She succeeds Bill Thompson, who was recently named president/CEO of SSM Health Care. Both appointments are effective Aug. 1. Friedman, 46, has 26 years of healthcare experience, including 17 of them with SSMHC.
Tenet Healthcare Corp. has named G. Scott Manis as CEO of Tenet's Doctors Hospital at White Rock Lake, a 193-bed acute care hospital in Dallas, effective July 20. Manis has more than two decades of healthcare experience, including four years with another Tenet hospital.
James J. Dignam has been named the new Group Statistician for the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and will lead the efforts of RTOG's Statistics and Data Management Center. Dignam is an associate professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago and an investigator in the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center. RTOG is a National Cancer Institute-funded national clinical trials group and is administered by the American College of Radiology.
American Health Information Management Association CEO Linda Kloss will step down on March 31, 2010 after 15 years of leadership. The AHIMA Board of Directors has initiated a national search for her successor. Kloss, who has been AHIMA's CEO since 1995, said she intends to continue her career-long commitment to improving health information and will explore ways she might contribute in these critical times during the coming months. AHIMA President Vera Rulon says the board of directors is committed to focusing on meeting AHIMA's strategic goals while planning for a smooth transition of executive leadership.
With skepticism about the president's healthcare reform effort mounting on Capitol Hill, the White House has launched a new phase of its strategy designed to dramatically increase public pressure on Congress. Senior White House aides promise "an aggressive public and private schedule" for Obama as he presses his case for reform, including a prime-time news conference this week, a trip to Cleveland, and heavy use of Internet video to broadcast his message beyond the reach of the traditional media.