University of Utah President Ruth V. Watkins has appointed Michael L. Good, M.D., as the university’s new senior vice president for health sciences, CEO of University of Utah Health, and executive dean of the U’s School of Medicine. Good, who currently serves as the dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine, replaces interim Senior Vice President Lorris Betz, M.D., Ph.D. Good will start at the U early this fall.
“Dr. Good is a widely respected leader and administrator with extensive experience managing the complementary missions of clinical care, education and research that are the essential components of academic medicine,” said Watkins. “Mike shares my vision that a public university should serve as a catalyst for improving the human condition and should strive to improve the community it serves. I look forward to collaborating with him in the years ahead.”
PHOTO CREDIT: University of Florida Health
Michael L. Good
Good, who joined the University of Florida faculty in 1988, has served as dean of the school’s College of Medicine since 2008. Prior to that appointment, he held leadership positions at the school as senior associate dean for clinical affairs and chief of staff for what is now known as UF Health Shands Hospital. His leadership experience also extends to the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center and the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, where he served as chief of staff and system medical director, respectively.
“University of Utah Health has earned a national reputation for its work around transparency and the patient experience, as well as its emphasis on value and quality,” said Good. “It is clear to me that Utah has a distinctively collaborative culture, and the talented faculty, staff and students here are uniquely positioned to continue transforming health care and academic medicine. My predecessors built a strong foundation for future success and I look forward to working with leaders across campus to further the mission of one of the country’s top public universities.”
Good earned both his bachelor’s degree in computer and communication sciences and his medical degree from the University of Michigan. He completed his residency training in anesthesiology as well as a research fellowship at the University of Florida.
Good is known in the anesthesiology community for his innovative, interdisciplinary work with University of Florida physicians and engineers to develop the Human Patient Simulator. The sophisticated teaching technology is now used in health care education programs throughout the world.
Watkins selected Good after an extensive national search aided by an advisory committee led by U administrators and faculty members Charles Saltzman, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedics, and Andrew Weyrich, Ph.D., vice president for research and professor of internal medicine.
The U is one of only a few public academic medical centers in which the tripartite missions of clinical, research and academia all report to a singular leader. The CEO position includes fiduciary and fiscal responsibility for more than 70 percent of the university’s budget.
About the University of Utah
The University of Utah strives to be a model public university in delivering unmatched value in higher education and health care while making social, economic and cultural contributions that improve the quality of life throughout the state, the nation and the world. Located in Salt Lake City, the school is Utah’s flagship university. It provides education to more than 31,000 graduate, undergraduate and professional students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. The university offers 72 major subjects at the undergraduate level and more than 90 major fields of study at the graduate level. With revenues in excess of $4.2 billion (FY17), the university is considered one of Utah’s primary economic engines. The institution generates more than $600 million annually for the state of Utah in nontax revenue and is one of the state’s largest employers. The university is a catalyst for a research corridor through northern Utah that is a hotbed for technology and development activities, colloquially known as Silicon Slopes.
As part of the university, University of Utah Health is the only academic medical center in the state of Utah and provides patient care for the people of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and much of Nevada. It is also the training ground for most of the region’s physicians, nurses, pharmacists, therapists and other health care professionals. With an annual budget of more than $3.6 billion, the health care system is comprised of four hospitals and 12 clinics; University of Utah Medical Group; a highly ranked, $291 million research enterprise encompassing six schools and colleges, including the schools of medicine and dentistry, and colleges of health, nursing and pharmacy and the Eccles Health Sciences Library; University of Utah Health Plans, ARUP Laboratories, one of the national’s largest reference laboratories; and numerous institutes and centers reflecting the health system’s strengths in oncology, cardiovascular, diabetes treatment, genetics, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, neuroscience, psychiatry, precision medicine, population health and global health. Excellence in patient care, education and research is vital to the overall mission of the organization. Staffed by more than 20,000 employees, U of U Health has evolved to be recognized nationally as a highly innovative and transformative health care system.
