Ilana Cass, MD, vice chair of Obstetrics & Gynecology (OB-GYN) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and professor of OB-GYN at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been appointed Chair of OB-GYN at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H).
“I’m honored and delighted to accept this appointment at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the Geisel School,” said Cass. “Besides being an experienced clinician and educator, I have acquired, over the years, the leadership skills that I believe will serve me well as the Chair of a busy clinical and academic department dedicated to improving the community that D-H serves.”
As a leader at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Cass has served on the Board of Directors of the medical center and was an elected representative to their Medical Executive Committee, serving in the roles of secretary, treasurer and vice chief of staff. As a widely respected gynecologic oncologist, Dr. Cass has served on several committees of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, currently serving as the co-chair of the Physician Wellness Task Force, and is a valued member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, currently serving on the Committee on Ethics.
“With her reputation as a change agent and as a strong clinical leader, we are confident that Dr. Cass has the skills, background and leadership experience to lead our OB-GYN department and system-wide service line forward into the future,” said Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO and President Joanne M. Conroy, MD, in announcing Cass’ appointment.
In her role as vice chair, she led the implementation of a mandatory Gynecology call schedule for the emergency room, guided the formalization of a financial incentive plan for their faculty, revised the medical staff’s privileging and proctoring policies to reflect evidence-based guidelines, and restructured the gynecology peer-review process to align with best practices.
Dr. Cass is also a noted researcher, focusing her work on molecular biology of hereditary gynecologic malignancies and examining cancers that result from hereditary genetic mutations, such as the BRCA and DNA mismatch repair genes. Dr. Cass graduated from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, went through residency at the Yale School of Medicine and served as a fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
“I am delighted to have Dr. Cass join the Dartmouth community,” says Duane Compton, PhD, Dean of Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. “She is a highly accomplished educator and physician-researcher, who has made significant contributions to our understanding of hereditary gynecologic cancers.”
In her role as Chair of OB-GYN, Dr. Cass will be leading the ongoing development of OB-GYN services across the D-HH system and, in collaboration with the D-H regional practices and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health hospitals, will work to establish a system-wide OB-GYN care delivery strategy. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is nationally ranked in Gynecology by U.S. News and World Report.
Dr. Cass will begin at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Geisel in late July.
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Founded in 1797, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth strives to improve the lives of the communities it serves through excellence in learning, discovery, and healing. The Geisel School of Medicine is renowned for its leadership in medical education, healthcare policy and delivery science, biomedical research, global health, and in creating innovations that improve lives worldwide. As one of America’s leading medical schools, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine is committed to training new generations of diverse leaders who will help solve our most vexing challenges in healthcare.
DARTMOUTH-HITCHCOCK (D-H), New Hampshire’s only academic health system, serves a population of 1.9 million across New England. D-H provides access to more than 1,500 primary care doctors and specialists in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. DHMC was named in 2018 as the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by US News & World Report,nationally ranked in gynecology, and recognized for high performance in 14 clinical specialties. Dartmouth-Hitchcock also includes the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, one of only 49 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation; the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the state’s only children’s hospital; affiliated member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, and New London, NH, and Windsor, VT, and Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and 24 Dartmouth-Hitchcock clinics that provide ambulatory services across New Hampshire and Vermont. The D-H system trains nearly 400 residents and fellows annually, and performs world-class research, in partnership with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouthand the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT.
