UMass Memorial Health Care names new president and CEO

UMMS grad Eric Dickson, MD, MHCM, FACEP, to succeed John O’Brien

February 6, 2013

The UMass Memorial Health Care Board of Trustees has announced that Eric W. Dickson, MD, MHCM, FACEP, will become the health care system’s new president and chief executive officer, succeeding John O’Brien, who retired after serving in the role for 10 years. Dr. Dickson (right) is currently the president of the UMass Memorial Medical Group; his new role becomes effective on Monday, Feb. 25.

Dickson is a 1995 graduate of the School of Medicine, where he also completed his medical residency. He is professor of emergency medicine and senior associate dean for UMass Memorial Medical Group, as well as a physician in the emergency department at UMass Memorial Medical Center. Dickson also earned a master’s in health care management from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2007.

“In his new position as CEO of our clinical partner, Dr. Dickson will play a pivotal role in guiding the future growth and success of UMass Memorial and UMass Medical School,” said Chancellor Michael F. Collins. “I look forward to partnering with Eric as together we develop our plans to lead our academic health sciences center into the future. We should all take immense pride that one of our graduates will be at the helm of our clinical partner.”

The UMass Memorial Medical Group, which Dickson has led since 2009, is a 1,060-physician, 2,200-employee, multidisciplinary medical group located in Central Massachusetts, whose physicians practice in 12 hospitals and see more than 1.2 million patients per year.

Dickson served in a variety of clinical and senior management roles at the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics from 2003 to 2009, including as interim chief operating officer from 2008 to 2009.

In announcing Dickson’s appointment, UMass Memorial board chair David Bennett said, “The entire UMass Memorial organization, its physicians, nurses, care givers and staff—and, most importantly, the communities we serve—will benefit from Dr. Dickson’s leadership. He is an exceptional individual known for both careful judgment and disciplined action, and we are delighted that he will be serving the health care system in this new and expanded role.”

“I am deeply honored to become the next leader of this great organization,” Dickson said. “As someone who grew up in Massachusetts, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, spent over a decade working in the UMass Memorial organization as a physician, manager and professor, I am well prepared to help navigate through the evolving health care landscape.”