Where once there was the Division of General Medical Disciplines, there are now two (as-yet unnamed) divisions. Between 2009 and 2015, while Mark Cullen, MD (professor, GMD) was chief, the GMD faculty grew to more than 100. Cullen’s move to direct the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences stimulated the Department of Medicine’s leadership to rethink the mission and goals of GMD.

Recognizing that any change can be challenging both to those intimately involved and to their peers, Bob Harrington, MD (chairman, Medicine) provided a glimpse of the thinking behind his creation of the two new divisions: “I came to the realization that, in order to continue to grow in areas of need without the GMD becoming so large as to be administratively unwieldy, it would be necessary to divide it and, in so doing, to provide greater opportunities across the mission areas for both divisions.”

The basic restructuring gathers all those involved in inpatient medicine in one division and those involved in outpatient medicine in the other. The hospital medicine group includes the current academic hospitalists, Bedside Medicine, the Stanford 25, nurse scientists working in Stanford Health Care in research positions, and VA hospitalists. The ambulatory medicine group includes specialty primary care, palliative care, geriatric medicine, and outcomes and health services researchers with appointments in GMD.  

Neera Ahuja, MD (clinical associate professor, GMD) will be interim chief of the hospital medicine group during a search for a permanent chief who will, as Harrington said, “take the division to a position of national prominence in hospital medicine. “My main goals,” he continued, “are to maintain clinical and educational excellence that Neera has built while also expanding the research focus within this group.”

The outpatient division, which will concentrate on primary, preventive, and community medicine, will be led by Sang-ick Chang, MD, MPH (clinical professor, GMD) as chief. Harrington expressed confidence that Chang “can continue to grow clinical and educational programs while also expanding research opportunities across primary care, prevention, and community wellness.” Chang’s first appointment was Steven Asch, MD, MPH (professor, GMD), who was his interim co-chief of the division following Cullen’s departure, to the position of vice-chief of research for the newly-formed division.

Harrington expressed his gratitude to David Stevenson, MD (associate professor, Pediatrics) who led the task force that evaluated the structure of the GMD and sought input from both internal and external thought leaders before making recommendations for the future direction of the division. In addition, Harrington specifically thanked “Steve Asch, Sang Chang, and Neera Ahuja for their hard work during this process.”