Massaro Named PA Medical Director

Administrators have selected Thomas A. Massaro as new medical director for the physician assistant program at the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences.

Massaro is the Harrison Foundation Professor of Medicine and Law, Emeritus at the University of Virginia. At UVa, Massaro held appointments in the departments of pediatrics and public health sciences in the School of Medicine, the School of Law, and in the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He also held several senior administrative positions including chief of staff of UVa Health System and associate dean of clinical affairs from 1997 to 2002, and associate dean for graduate medical education from 2001 to 2006. He was formerly division chief of pediatric critical care and emergency medical transport services. He has served as an attending physician in the UVa neonatal, pediatric, and surgical intensive care units. Further, since 2005 Massaro has been involved in medical education in the developing world, serving as founding dean of the new school of medicine at the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana (2009–12).

Massaro received his MD from the University of Wisconsin, his business degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and his engineering degrees from MIT, Cornell, and the University of California, Berkeley. He completed residency and fellowship training at the University of Colorado in Denver. He received board certification in pediatrics, neonatology, and critical care medicine.

In addition to clinical teaching, Massaro has taught courses on Law and Medicine, Children’s Healthcare, Healthcare Management, Health Policy, Management of Non-profit Organizations, International Health Policy, and the Legal Implications of Biomedical Technology.

Massaro’s early research contributions were in biomedical engineering but recently his focus has been on international healthcare strategy and reform, including taking an active role in the health insurance reform process in the Czech Republic. He reviewed the medical savings account system in the Republic of Singapore and interprets that approach for the American and other national health systems. He served as a consultant for the New Zealand Ministries of Finance and Health as they introduced business and free market principles into their healthcare system.

His publications in medical informatics addressing the social and cultural constraints on the introduction of computer technology into the medical setting are well known. His book, The Business of Critical Care, describes the management skills necessary to direct high-technology patient care teams in the contemporary environment. He has served on the editorial board of the Association of American Medical Colleges journal, Academic Medicine. In the past, his research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Colorado Heart Association, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Whittaker Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and a number of private firms.