January 28, 2005

Bringhurst named to head MGH Research

Rick Bringhurst, MD, senior vice president for MGH Medical Services, has accepted the position of senior vice president for MGH Research, succeeding Ronald Newbower, PhD, who will now concentrate his efforts fully in his continuing role as vice president for Research Management at Partners.

Bringhurst (below) will coordinate hospital support for the MGH research community to sustain its level of excellence, to develop and support new programs, to manage research space and to enhance administrative and operational support for research. Working with Partners Research Management, the Partners Institutional Review Board, Corporate Sponsored Research and Licensing and the Office of the General Counsel, he will be responsible for assuring appropriate conduct of human and animal research, compliance with regulatory and contractual requirements, and maintenance of scientific integrity. In addition, he will provide administrative oversight for the thematic research centers to be located in the new Charles River Plaza research building and will work with the leadership of the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) to provide vision and strategic planning to support and further develop the full range of MGH research activities.

As the complexity of the hospital's research program increased during the last 15 years, Newbower built a team of professionals to respond to the growing needs of the community and to assure integrity in the stewardship of sponsors' funding and in the conduct of research programs. Newbower and his team will continue to support the MGH's research efforts in their Partners roles and will work closely with Bringhurst to assure a seamless transition.

Bringhurst has been a member of the MGH family since 1974, coming to the hospital as a medical resident and then joining the medical staff at the completion of his training in endocrinology. Since 1994, he served as chief of staff in the Department of Medicine, and in 1996 was named associate director of Research and vice chair of ECOR for Research Space Management. He maintains an active research program within the Department of Medicine's Endocrine Unit, focused on parathyroid hormone action in bone. He was appointed senior vice president for Medical Services in 2003 and will continue in that role in addition to this new position.