by Jenelle Grewell
The Department of Anesthesiology is reconfiguring its leadership structure, partly in response to the recent appointment of department chair Warren Sandberg, MD, PhD, as VUAH co-chief of staff for Perioperative and Critical Care Services. Mark Rice, MD, has been appointed Executive Vice Chair and Amy Robertson, MD, has been appointed Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs.
“With Dr. Sandberg’s new role as co-chief of staff, my goal is to assist him in operationalizing the vision for the department that he had clearly articulated,” Rice said.
Robertson said her goals include achieving the highest quality of clinical service to both patients and surgeons, expanding services to additional ambulatory surgery centers, facilitating the clinical growth of both pediatric and adult anesthesia services in outpatient surgery settings, and expanding the bandwidth of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery pathways that allows for growth of perioperative physicians.
The eight years Rice spent running both a distribution business and high-tech startup gave him opportunities to be mentored by some of the top medical venture capitalists in the county and taught him valuable lessons including how to run efficient meetings paired with succinct presentation. Rice explained this experience will help him in this role as Executive Vice Chair.
Prior to her role as associate vice chair of Clinical Affairs, Robertson’s career focused on medical student and resident education.
“VUMC is growing and developing every day, along with its component departments,” Sandberg said. “Mark and Amy, along with all the other members of this department, are creating the future of anesthesiology, at VUMC and beyond.”
