The Center which is funded by a $35 million anonymous gift is meant to combine health care education and research, as well as to aide in academic and practical collaboration between the College, the Dartmouth Medical School, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the Thayer School of Engineering and the Tuck School of Business. The Center will offer health care-related classes to undergraduates as well as introducing a master's degree program through Tuck and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
Mulley currently serves as the chief of the General Medicine Division and director of the Medical Practices Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, and additionally teaches as an associate professor of medicine and health policy at Harvard Medical School. He has been an innovative leader in "the science and application of shared decision making and other forms of collaborations between clinicians and patients," according to a College press release.
When Mulley assumes the position on Nov. 15, he will begin to shape "the strategy and activities of the new Center," according to the press release. Kim and Provost Carol Folt will continue to oversee the Center, along with James Weinstein, the president of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic. Mulley will be charged with collaborating between professors from all of the graduate schools and the College, as well as medical professionals from DHMC.
Despite some criticism that the Center represents what some see as Kim's exclusive focus on health care, Kim said the Center will not detract from the College's focus on the liberal arts.
"Some people have been worried, [asking] Oh, is this going to be all health care, all the time?'" he said.
Upon assuming the position of Director, Mulley will step down from his position as trustee. He will also resign from Dartmouth Medical School's Board of Overseers and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Board of Trustees.
Much of Mulley's previous work has focused on improving patient care, medical education and clinical research, specifically centering on providing patients with adequate information and background knowledge to enable them to make informed choices about the level and type of care they receive, according to a College press release.
Over the course of his 35 years at MGH and Harvard, Mulley developed "innovative approaches to patient care, medical education and clinical research," according to the release. As the founder of the General Medicine Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Mulley helped to create the structure and implementation of the curriculum, which eventually became the Harvard School of Public Health's Clinical Effectiveness Program.
In 1989, he founded the nonprofit Foundation of Informed Medical Decision Making committed to "leading changes to ensure that health care decisions are made with the active participation of fully informed patients," according to the organization's website. The organization aims to improve research, policy and clinical models to make information more available to patients before they make their medical decisions, according to the website.
"Al Mulley is an extraordinary thinker and innovator whose work over three decades has changed our understanding of the role of patients as partners in their own care," Kim said in the press release announcing Mulley's appointment. "As a physician, educator, influential author, and a visionary thought leader, he has the respect of colleagues from around the globe. We are incredibly fortunate that he has chosen to return to Dartmouth to direct this new center and new science."
In his capacity as a trustee a position he has held since 2004 Mulley headed the Presidential Search Committee that selected Kim to replace former College President James Wrigh
Mulley graduated from Dartmouth magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He proceeded to earn his medical degree at Harvard Medical School and his Masters of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard before receiving clinical training at MGH.
Mulley was a member of multiple committees at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He also served on committees at several professional societies and as a visiting professor and health policy consultant to governments and health care institutions in North America, Europe and Asia. Over the last 10 years, he has traveled annually to deliver primary medical care to villagers in five mountain towns in Honduras.
