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Acclaimed AIDS researcher to lead sprawling UI Health Care
Vanessa Miller
Oct. 16, 2017 4:37 pm, Updated: Oct. 16, 2017 7:38 pm
IOWA CITY - An internationally known AIDS researcher from Minnesota will be the University of Iowa's next vice president for medical affairs, leading the UI's $1.4 billion-a-year health care engine.
J. Brooks Jackson, 64, vice president for health sciences and dean of the medical school at the University of Minnesota, will succeed Jean Robillard, 73, as dean of the Carver College of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs on Nov. 30, the UI announced Monday.
In his role atop UI Health Care - made up of the college of medicine, UI Hospitals and Clinics and UI Physicians - Jackson will earn $825,000 a year.
Robillard, whose current salary stands at $780,000, was among the nation's 10 highest-paid public or private university executives in 2015. Robillard's $929,045 compensation that year included a base salary of $741,260 and a bonus of $187,785 tied to hospital performance.
Jackson has served since 2014 as executive for the University of Minnesota academic health center, which coordinates care and learning across six schools and colleges in dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health and veterinary medicine.
Its medical school has more than 7,000 students in 62 degree programs. Its clinics and hospital sites see more than 1 million patients annually. And its 863-bed general medical and surgical facility is ranked nationally, according to U.S. News & World Report, in one adult specialty and five pediatric specialties.
The UI's 761-bed hospital - which annually admits more than 35,000 patients and accommodates nearly 1 million visits to its main campus and more than 200 outpatient clinics and care areas - is ranked nationally in five adult specialties and six pediatric specialties.
The UIHC enterprise earlier this year opened the $360 million, 14-floor UI Stead Family Children's Hospital.
The UI medical college has more than 1,000 faculty members teaching more than 600 medical students, 50 physician assistant program students, 111 physical therapy students, and more than 330 graduate students. The faculty also instructs basic science classes to more than 5,000 undergraduates from other UI colleges.
In a statement, UI President Bruce Harreld - who made the hiring decision, subject to Board of Regents approval - called Jackson 'an experienced and innovative leader.”
'He has a proven track record of building research, education, and clinical programs, and he will bring his great passion and talent here to Iowa,” Harreld said.
Jackson inherits one of the state's biggest economic assets at a time of significant unrest in the health care industry. The UI Health Care system is wading through the change, in part, by deliberating whether to partner with a larger regional system. It is paying a consultant more than $150,000 to model different financial scenarios.
The deliberations come after years of soaring revenue - including 2016, which became UI Health Care's best budget year in history with a revenue total of $1.45 billion, or 3.5 percent above what was projected.
But the hospital in September reported operating income for 2017 was down nearly 50 percent from budget and more than 72 percent from 2016. The hospital also reported a deficit in its first month of the new budget, citing - among other things - changes in payments from the state's privately run Medicaid program, state budget cuts and commercial payers exiting the insurance market.
Jackson was one of two finalists to replace Robillard, who announced more than a year ago his plans to step down from his leadership roles. John M. Carethers, a human genetics professor and chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan, was the other finalist.
Sue Curry, interim executive vice president and provost who served on the 17-member search committee, said Jackson's deep knowledge about challenges facing academic medicine set him apart.
'Dr. Jackson is a collaborative leader and has created an impressive inter-professional approach to learning and solving health issues,” Curry said in a statement. 'He has a collaborative leadership style and is focused on excellence, which reflects our Iowa culture.”
Jackson was principal investigator of the multimillion-dollar National Institutes of Health-funded International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network, which sought to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission and treat pediatric HIV infection and complications.
The trials kept hundreds of thousands of infants from starting life with HIV, and improved treatment for those who do have the virus.
In a statement, he said he's looking forward to helping lead the UI medical college and health care enterprise, 'which have great reputations in leading health advances, providing superb care, and training outstanding future physicians and scientists.”
l Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com