Robert J. Laskowski, M.D., MBA, named chair-elect of AAMC Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems
Christiana Care Health System President and CEO Robert J. Laskowski, M.D., MBA, has been chosen to serve as the 2012–2014 chair-elect of the Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (COTH) of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). He was also elected to the AAMC board of directors for 2012–2013.
Dr. Laskowski becomes COTH chair for the 2014–2016 period. He has been an active member of COTH since 2007.
COTH represents the interests of major teaching hospitals in the United States and Canada. Through its 21-member administrative board, the council serves as the principal source of hospital and health system expertise into overall AAMC policy and direction. Membership in COTH is limited to organizations having a documented affiliation agreement with a medical school accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
Dr. Laskowski has been president and chief executive officer of Christiana Care since 2003. He oversees administration and operation of one of the largest not-for-profit academic health systems in the country. Headquartered in Wilmington, Del., Christiana Care is a major teaching hospital with two campuses. Christiana Care is also a branch campus of Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
A board-certified internist specializing in geriatric medicine, Dr. Laskowski is a professor of clinical medicine at Jefferson Medical College. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine and has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He was a fellow in general medicine and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Laskowski is a member of the Health Management Academy Chief Executive Officers Forum and the American Medical Association Section on Medical Schools. He also serves on the board of directors of the United Way of Delaware, the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and Wilmington HOPE Commission, and chairs the board of the Delaware Public Policy Institute. He is a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
As the new chair-elect of the COTH, Dr. Laskowski will assist COTH members to focus on issues such as Medicare direct and indirect medical-education payments, disproportionate share payments, teaching-physician regulations, coverage of investigational devices and other focused areas. He becomes chair for the 2013–2014 period.
COTH is one of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ three member councils. The AAMC represents all 141 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools, nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers, and nearly 90 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 128,000 faculty members, 75,000 medical students and 110,000 resident physicians.