Appointment of Benjamin Sun, MD, MPP, as New Chair of Emergency Medicine
May 14, 2018
To:Faculty, Students and Staff
From:J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD
Ralph W. Muller
We are pleased to announce that Benjamin Sun, MD, MPP, FACEP, has been appointed chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Sun is an emergency physician and federally funded health services researcher who is nationally recognized for his expertise in the areas of safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness in health care. He joins Penn Medicine from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, where he currently serves as professor with tenure. Prior to his role at OHSU, Dr. Sun served as acting chief of Emergency Medicine at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Dr. Sun will assume his new role on September 1, 2018. He will lead our department of dedicated Emergency Medicine faculty members and staff committed to providing exceptional care to critically ill and injured patients at Penn Medicine’s hospitals, training the next generation of emergency physicians, and advancing Penn’s research to address some of the most serious issues affecting public health. Dr. Sun’s exceptional leadership and proven track record of employing a research-oriented approach to improving care for patients with life-threatening injuries will be an important asset to his new role, and to the future of the department, our hospitals, and the patients we serve.
In addition, Dr. Sun has served as the principal investigator on 15 grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and private foundations with total funding of $11 million. His research has resulted in a substantial body of scholarly work in journals including Circulation, JAMA Internal Medicine, and Annals of Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Sun earned his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Harvard College, his master’s degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency, and he completed a fellowship in Health Services Research through the UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program.
As we prepare to welcome Dr. Sun to Penn Medicine, we would also like to thank Drs. Michael Parmacek and John Glick and the members of the search committee for their time and dedicated service throughout the search process. We are also profoundly grateful to Dr. Edward Dickinson for his outstanding leadership as Interim Chair.