A nationally renowned neurosurgeon — who has done trailblazing work to detect and treat the most aggressive type of brain cancer — has been named the new leader to oversee the University of Utah’s extensive health care operations.
The U. announced Tuesday that after a national search it nabbed Dr. Bob S. Carter, currently at Harvard Medical School, to step into the role of both senior vice president for health sciences and CEO of University of Utah Health. That means he will command the largest academic medical program in the state, as well as the associated hospitals and clinics that treat more than two million patients annually.
It’s a big undertaking for the state’s flagship school, but the hiring choice? That was a no-brainer.
“This was a difficult decision, with a strong slate of candidates,” U. President Taylor Randall told the campus community in an email. But, “Dr. Carter brings with him deep knowledge of medical research and education.”
Carter will take the reins from previous Senior Vice President and CEO Michael L. Good, who announced his departure earlier this year after more than six years at the helm — taking over during a time of contention after the previous leader, Vivian Lee, resigned.
During his leadership, Good organized a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to usher in growth during the challenges, doubling University of Utah Health’s budget, collecting more than $100 million more in research funding (reaching $492 million total) and breaking ground on another hospital location in West Valley City. He also stepped in for a short time as interim president for the institution when previous U. President Ruth Watkins stepped down.
After working with Carter “to ensure a smooth transition,” Good will take a sabbatical before returning to the U. as a faculty member at the medical school. As the top medical leader, he had been making $2.4 million annually, including benefits, according to Transparent Utah.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Michael L. Good speaks at the University of Utah Medical School on Tuesday, June 8, 2021.
Randall thanked him for his “wisdom, patience and calm counsel,” adding that Good’s work “leaves us well-positioned to continue this effort.”
Moving forward, Randall said, the expectations are high. He wants to see the U. become ranked as a top 10 public university, a major lift. It is currently No. 69 on the U.S. News and World Report list.
The president said he anticipates Carter will “help us make the case to state lawmakers, donors and others” to accelerate the growth even further with patient care, medical discoveries and education.
Randall acknowledged that also comes with “the headwinds and uncertainty facing higher education institutions in our country.” In Utah, that includes anticipated cuts this upcoming legislative session.
The new health leader will start in February. Under his control will be five schools and colleges within health sciences academia, a health sciences library and a massive research operation. That includes 27,000 faculty and staff there and 6,400 students.
Another 3,700 faculty work on the clinical side, across 17 hospitals and community health centers in the state — including specialized centers for cancer and mental health.
Those health care workers also recently moved to unionize as the Utah Health Workers United Local 7765 chapter. They have been pushing for higher staffing levels to better support patients and pay raises.
And soon, the U. will be competing against a new medical school coming online in Utah at Brigham Young University — where Carter studied as an undergraduate, before they had a health program, graduating in 1986.
Carter said he is ready for it all.
“I have always been interested in challenges where I could make an impact in partnership with a like-minded community to advance human health,” he noted in a statement Tuesday. “And the entire university community projects such an enthusiasm, collaborative spirit and warmth.”
Carter comes from Harvard Medical School, where he has been a professor and researcher of neuroscience for 18 years, and the affiliated Mass General Brigham, a health care system that — similar to the U. — oversees teaching and research.
With that, he has worked as a neurosurgeon-in-chief at the two biggest hospitals associated with Harvard: Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
On the U.’s post on social media platform X announcing the appointment, Carter’s current neurosurgery department responded: “We wish you all the best Dr. Carter!”
His research has focused on gliomas, which are brain tumors, with a particular emphasis on glioblastomas, the highest grade of those tumors that kill more than 10,000 Americans each year, according to the National Brain Tumor Society.
In 2020, Carter was part of a groundbreaking project that found blood samples could be used to detect the genetic mutations that often lead to the growth of adult brain tumors in 60% to 80% of cases. The test could also be used to track the progress of treatment.
“We can take a blood sample before the surgery and assess the presence of the tumor signature in the blood, and then use this signature as a baseline to monitor as the patient later receives treatment, both to gauge response to the treatment and gain early insight into any potential recurrence,” Carter told Harvard’s communications team for an article on the research.
In March of this year, he was also one of the authors on a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine that presented new findings about using genetically engineered receptor immune cells to bind to and kill brain cancer cells, as reported by The Harvard Crimson student newspaper.
“Just days after a single treatment, patients experienced dramatic reductions in their tumors, with one patient achieving near-complete tumor regression,” Massachusetts General Hospital wrote about the results.
Carter was named this year, as well, to the National Academy of Medicine, which is considered one of the highest honors in the medical field.
Prior to being at Harvard, he spent seven years at the University of California, San Diego — which is ranked No. 6 in the nation for public schools — as chair of the faculty for the School of Medicine there. And he served as the clinical director of the UC San Diego Neurological Institute.
Carter received his medical degree and a doctorate in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University in 1992.
