West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS) officials announced today that Michael DeVita M.D., has been appointed to the newly created position of Executive Vice President, Medical Affairs.    He will assume the post in April.

Dr. DeVita presently serves as the Associate Medical Director for Quality and Medical Management for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) system. Prior to that he was Vice President of the Medical Staff for Surgical-Based Services at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital as well as Medical Director for UPMC’s Transitional Care Unit.  He is also a Professor of both Critical and Internal Medicine in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine.

“With the hiring of Dr. DeVita we have taken yet another step in reaching our goal of establishing a truly physician-driven organization and being uniquely positioned in our marketplace to address the challenges and opportunities facing our industry, said Christopher T. Olivia, M.D., WPAHS president and chief executive officer.

“As both a clinician and healthcare executive Dr. DeVita brings significant experience and accomplishments to the position.”

In his new duties Dr. DeVita will be responsible for West Penn Allegheny Health System’s nationally lauded initiatives in quality, medical education and research.

“Given his unyielding commitment to excellence and his far-reaching stellar reputation, we are certain that Dr. DeVita will lead these areas to even greater heights,” Dr. Olivia said.

Dr. DeVita earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Georgetown University. He completed his internship in Internal Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City and his residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital. He also performed a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Dr. DeVita is board-certified in Internal and Critical Medicine. He is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians and has received Presidential Citations from both the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the American College of Critical Care Medicine.

A highly regarded medical ethicist and expert in end-of-life decisions, Dr. DeVita has over 100 publications dealing with critical care, patient safety and ethics in such journals as the Archives of Internal Medicine, The Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Quality and Safety in Healthcare, and Critical Care Medicine. He has been an Associate Editor of the journal Simulation in Healthcare, and is a Column Editor for the Joint Commission’s Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. He is lead author of the first textbook on rapid response systems, entitled Medical Emergency Teams.

Dr. DeVita is also active in the community, most notably as a member of the Clinical Affairs Advisory Committee for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the International Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee.

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