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Center names physician-in-chief
José Baselga
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center announced that José Baselga, MD, PhD, has been named physician-in-chief of Memorial Hospital.
“Memorial Sloan-Kettering is embarking on a new period of growth and development across our range of clinical programs, and in José Baselga we are fortunate to have recruited a leader with the vision, skill, and experience to work with me during this exciting time,” Craig B. Thompson, Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “Dr. Baselga is a dedicated clinician and a distinguished researcher. I know he will collaborate energetically and enthusiastically with his colleagues throughout this great institution to accelerate cancer discovery and help bring new and more-effective treatments to the clinic, while ensuring the highest and most humane standards in patient care.”
Baselga will succeed Robert E. Wittes, MD, who served as physician-in-chief for a decade.
Baselga will direct the clinical component of Memorial Sloan-Kettering, leading a staff of more than 800 attending physicians. He will be responsible for management of patient care delivery in Memorial Hospital as well as at Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s clinics and regional sites. He also will focus on clinical strategic planning, and he will oversee clinical and translational research.
“One of today’s major challenges in clinical oncology is translating as rapidly as possible findings made in the laboratory into effective therapies for patients,” Baselga said in a press release. “Memorial Sloan-Kettering is uniquely positioned to do this — and at a time when the opportunities in cancer research and treatment have never been greater.”
Baselga previously served as chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate director of the MGH Cancer Center. He is past president of the European Society for Medical Oncology, and he has served on the board of directors of ASCO and the American Association for Cancer Research.