Pascal J Goldschmidt

Career

Goldschmidt joined University of Miami in April 2006, and oversaw the purchase of Cedars Medical Center in November 2007, which is now University of Miami Hospital, the flagship hospital of UHealth. Following the layoff of 800 employees in June 2012, this rapid expansion was reported to be a contributing factor to Miller Medical School's financial troubles, but is a trend seen in various health systems across the country. He also established the first internal medicine residency training program in Palm Beach County.

New global health clinical and research initiatives include the Global Institute for Community Health and Development and the International Medicine Institute. It was through the Global Institute for Community Health and Development that Goldschmidt was able to launch and oversee the medical relief effort in Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake. A team of Miller School physicians, nurses and staff was the first to arrive in Port-au-Prince, and within nine days of the earthquake the University of Miami Hospital in Haiti was open and treating patients.

Research and Awards

The research enterprise has also grown significantly since 2006 with the creation of the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics and the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute. Both institutes are headed by world-renowned researchers.

In October 2008, Goldschmidt received the inaugural Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences from the Ohio State University Heart and Vascular Center. The prize is awarded biennially to an international leader in the clinical sciences of cardiovascular medicine, cardiothoracic surgery, or the basic sciences of molecular or cellular cardiology.

Goldschmidt's research applies genomics and cell therapy to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease. His studies involve Reactive oxygen species, Inflammation, Small GTP-Binding Proteins, hypertrophy, hypertension and atherosclerosis.

Goldschmidt was previously chairman of the Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Before taking the chairman’s role, he served as chief of Duke University's Division of Cardiology.

Before joining the Duke faculty in 2000, he was director of cardiology at Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health, where he built the Heart and Lung Research Institute and a heart hospital.

A native of Belgium, Goldschmidt received his medical degree from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and completed residency and fellowship training in Brussels at Hôpital Erasme and in the United States at Johns Hopkins University. Following his training at Hopkins, he served as an associate professor in the university’s Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Department of Pathology, and Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine until 1997.

Reporting outside income and conflict of interest issues

Goldschmidt was instrumental in the development and implementation of the University of Miami public database on conflict of interest for all faculty at the Miller School of Medicine, one of the very few US medical school to provide such public information, and ahead of any requests to do so from the National Institute of Health.. However,the information in this public faculty disclosure database ceased to be updated after December 2011. An article evaluating public disclosure of outside income by medical school deans reported that Goldschmidt did not publicly disclose stock options from companies where he served on the board of directors in 2009 (OPKO and MEDNAX). In a 2010 proxy statement, MEDNAX disclosed that until September 2009, Dr. Medel, MEDNAX’s Chief Executive Officer, served on the Trustee Services Committee for the University of Miami and participated in setting performance goals and annual bonus allocations for University of Miami employees, including Goldschmidt. It is claimed that the 2010 version of the reporting system did not have the option to disclose unexercised stock options, making it impossible to disclose unexercised stock options for the period from 6/1/2010 – 5/31/2011; the option was later added in the 2011 version. Income of $1,713,300.00 and $605,658 from sale of MEDNAX stocks on 5/9/2014 and 3/9/2015 remains undisclosed. The subject of conflict of interest also arose in 2010, when Goldschmidt hired psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff as chair of psychiatry, one year after Nemeroff was ousted as psychiatry chair at Emory University after a probe led by Senator Charles Grassley revealed he had failed to declare at least US$1.2 million in income from drug companies. During 6/1/2010 - 12/31/2011, Goldschmidt's outside income from serving on boards of directors is reported as: $50,001-$100,000 from Health Management Associates, $50,001-$100,000 from MEDNAX, More than $200,000 from OPKO Health and $10,001 - $25,000 from Synecor (Scientific Advisory Board). Goldschmidt's salary was $1,072,117 in 2009-2010, $1,312,960 in 2010-2011 and $1,447,160 in 2011-2012.

Faculty Senate Committee on Medical Issues

On August 2012, the University of Miami Faculty Senate Ad Hoc committee on medical issues presented its report to UM president, Donna Shalala, and to Dean Pascal Goldschmidt. The committee reported that interviewed senior faculty members and high level administrators described a widespread fear of the administration due to retaliations against faculty that criticized the administration. Interviewed faculty also indicated adverse effects of staff reductions on the Miller School faculty’s ability to deliver care and to conduct both basic and clinical research. Faculty also stated that the pressure to produce clinical income is compromising the academic environment by discouraging and devaluing research and, as a consequence, morale was exceedingly low. The committee recommended a formal senate resolution to urge the Miller School and its Faculty Council to work together to address the highly destructive influence of the absence of a collegial environment. On January 2013, the Miami Herald reported that an estimated 700 of the 1200 faculty at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have signed a petition complaining about the school’s leadership. A copy of the petition obtained by The Herald stated that faculty decried the “failed leadership” of Dean Pascal Goldschmidt and Chief Operating Officer Jack Lord, stating that “We want to make clear that the faculty has lost confidence in the ability of these men to lead the school.” In a ballot conducted by the university in 2013, a majority of faculty at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine voted against Dr. Goldschmidt's retention as Dean and were overruled by the university's president, Donna Shalala, who decided to retain Dr. Goldschmidt.