Inclusion a priority for MD Anderson chief
Shared governance with medical staff one goal for Pisters
Dr. Peter Pisters said Wednesday he will try to strike a balance between humility and confidence as the next president of MD Anderson Cancer Center, the elite Houston research hospital hoping to rebound from recent financial struggles and tumult.
In his first visit to the campus since he was selected presidentelect last month, Pisters said he plans to spend his first few months on the job “asking, listening and learning” and emphasized he doesn’t “know everything about MD Anderson” despite spending 20 years there before leaving three years ago.
“You want to find that sweet spot in a way that inspires confidence and helps people understand the extraordinary opportunity we have ahead of us,” Pisters, 57, currently president of United Health Network in Toronto, told the Chronicle. “I want people attending today’s meetings to walk away thinking we have the right leader.”
At a town hall meeting later Wednesday afternoon, Pisters told employees that he may modify and apply lessons learned in Canada, where the government told UHN to “find a way to deal
with flat funding.” He suggested MD Anderson, which last month finished its most recent fiscal year in the red, may need to develop “a collaborative approach to determine how to reduce its cost structure.”
Pisters called the current health-care environment uncertain and ambiguous. He noted that 1 in 5 U.S. hospitals is in the red.
Pisters will become the fifth president in the 76year history of MD Anderson Dec. 1. A native Canadian, he came to MD Anderson in 1994 as a surgeon and rose to the rank of vice president of the institution’s regional care system. He left in 2014 for UHN, a system of four major hospitals funded by the government under a singlepayer model. His job there has won much praise.
Pisters, who had not been back to MD Anderson before Wednesday’s visit, said he had told his UHN board during the search that the presidency of the Houston cancer center was the only job for which he would leave.
He will succeed Dr. Ron DePinho, who served for 5 1/2 years before resigning under pressure in March, soon after mounting financial losses led to the layoffs of 778 employees and a scathing UT System audit uncovered roughly $40 million in spending irregularities. Faculty chafed under DePinho’s perceived top-down management style.
“Cultural issues are not fixed overnight,” Pisters said, adding that he is committed to the concept of shared governance and inclusion. He said he favors “pushing decision making down to the front lines where people understand the issues and have an informed understanding of the best solutions.”
Pisters also told employees he is “completely anchored in a moral compass,” and that his approach will always be “values-based, servant leadership.” He said those are the principles he wants to bring out in leaders he recruits.
In his Chronicle interview, Pisters expressed a commitment to DePinho’s Moon Shots program, calling it “extraordinary” and saying the only question is “how to refine and enhance it.” The five-year-old program seeks to dramatically improve treatment in a number of difficult cancers.
Pisters said he’s hopeful MD Anderson can build on financial improvement it’s sustained in the last eight months, when it nearly overcame $170 million in losses incurred in the fiscal year’s first four months. But he acknowledged the nation must grapple with important questions of “how health-care should be financed and whether it’s a right or privilege.”
Still, Pisters’ mood was overwhelmingly upbeat.
“I am thrilled to be here,” Pisters said at the town hall meeting. “I can’t put into words what it means to be here with you. I am thrilled to be your next president.”
Pisters said he would be back again in early November for a board meeting.