Interview Chapters

Chapter 13: From Provost to Physician in Chief

Thomas A. Buchholz MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Tacey A. Rosolowski PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

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Description

Dr. Buchholz begins this chapter by observing that the role of provost gave him an entirely new perspective on the institution. He talks about role of the provost and why he considered staying in the position long-term, though the Division wanted to see him return as leader. He talks about the selection of Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD for the Provost's role, then being offered to position of Physician in Chief, a better fit for his background, in his view. Dr. Buchholz then talks about stepping into the Physician in Chief role, which he had considered not taking (2014 ï¿½ 2017). He notes that he ""jumped back in to the firestorm"" of controversy surrounding Dr. DePinho and the Executive Committee. He also notes that he ""underappreciated the job,"" noting that the Physician in Chief has responsibility for 80% of a 4 billion dollar budget. Taking the role, however, Dr. Buchholz said he felt empowered to make changes in the clinical environment and he lists what problems needed to be addressed. He concludes that he is very proud of what was accomplished and notes that MD Anderson offered a ""most unique place"" to effect management over a system of clinical care.

Identifier

BuchholzT_02_20180131_C13

Publication Date

1-31-2018

Publisher

The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

City

Houston, Texas

Interview Session

Thomas Buchholz, MD, Oral History Interview, January 31, 2018

Topics Covered

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Building the Institution; Leadership; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents; Professional Path; The Administrator; Building/Transforming the Institution; Institutional Politics; Controversy; Evolution of Career; Professional Practice; On the Nature of Institutions; Understanding the Institution

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Disciplines

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History

Transcript

Thomas Buchholz, MD:

So the provost, for me, was—again, talk about learning a new perspective on the institution. It was a great learning experience. It was stressful. It was fast-moving. I mean, when I walked in that first day with Maureen Cagley, we had decisions piled up to make. Should we transfer this grant to Dartmouth where the faculty member moved? Well, now we have this department chair in here screaming at me that, no, we can’t release that grant. What do I know about this? (laughter) Oh, this person’s being arrested, and here’s the whole backstory, and it’s like, whoa, this person has fabricated science, and how are we going to...? Wow. Well, this person needs lab space, but we don’t have any lab space, and now Ron wants to recruit another Nobel Laureate, and now we’re going to have to kick six people out of their lab space, and whoa, you know? So it was an amazing firehose of information, all of which needed to be done quickly, that had built up. And when Ron first offered me the job, I didn’t know if he meant like a provost. That’s how he said it. He didn’t say, “I want you to do this for a couple months.” He said, “Tom, I want you to be Provost of MD Anderson.” It wasn’t until I went over to Tom Burke’s house that he said, “Oh, Tom, you’re never going to be Provost of MD Anderson. He just wants you to do this. He’s going to appoint a National Academy member, of course.” And appropriately so. If you’re going to have another National Academy member, provost is the position, and my expertise is not in laboratory sciences. And so then when we went around with this search process, there was like, well, who’s going to be the next provost? And all sorts of names were flying. And as we had gone through that month, I think Ron decided initially there’s not going to be an internal candidate for provost. And then after about six months or so, he called me in his office and he said, “Tom, I’m really liking the job you’re doing. Would you be an internal candidate for the provost job?” And I said, “Sure.” So then I interviewed, and there was a search committee, and I think Tom Burke was on the search committee. Leon Leach was on the search committee. Various department chairs were on the search committee. Almost universally everyone came and said, “Oh, we told Ron we want you to be provost. We told Ron we want you to be provost.” And so I ended up being a final candidate. Ethan [Dmitrovsky; oral history interview] and I were the two final candidates. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is kind of strange. And then Ron didn’t decide, and it just went on and on. And he invited me back, and we go out to dinner or something. He’d ask me all these probing questions of “What is the most important thing in science in seven years from now?” And I’d be like, “Oh, Ron, stop.” (laughter) I said, “I’m not even going to answer that question.” But it was fun. And I didn’t really care that much. I saw the huge negative consequences. I saw the fun, too. I was still the Division Head of Radiation Oncology. My division was screaming for me not to be the provost.