A former University of Maryland Medical Center surgeon and administrator will return to lead the Baltimore institution, replacing Dr. Mohan Suntha, who took over leadership last year of the entire university hospital system as it struggled to overcome a major scandal.
Dr. Bert W. O’Malley Jr. is an otorhinolaryngologist, a specialist in treating ear, nose, throat, and head and neck conditions. He served as a surgeon in the medical center and a professor in the University of Maryland School of Medicine from 1999 to 2003. He also served as associate director of Maryland’s Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center among other positions.
Suntha and board leaders cited O’Malley’s administrative and medical accomplishments that include extensive innovations in robotic surgery.
He will take over in November as president and CEO of the downtown medical center, the 800-bed flagship in the 13-hospital university system. The medical center also includes the 200-bed UMMC Midtown Campus in Baltimore. In addition to the administrative positions, he will have clinical roles at the medical center and in the cancer center.
O’Malley came most immediately from the University of Pennsylvania Health System, where he was vice president. He also directed a physician network and served as professor and department chair in UPenn’s School of Medicine. He began his faculty career at Johns Hopkins University in 1995.
The University of Maryland system did not disclose his salary, but Suntha earned $1.4 million in the role, according to disclosure forms. Suntha moved on from the post after several leaders and all system board members were forced from the positions in the wake of reports that the university system had extensive insider deals.
Alison Brown, who had served as the medical center’s interim president, will return to her role as president of the Midtown Campus.