Now a department, urology recruits its inaugural leader

In January, Dean Robert J. Alpern, M.D., and Marna P. Borgstrom, M.P.H., president and CEO of the Yale-New Haven Health System, announced the appointment of Peter G. Schulam, M.D., Ph.D., as chair of the Department of Urology at the School of Medicine and chief of the urology department at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Urology, which had been organized as a section within the Department of Surgery since the section’s founding by Clyde L. Deming, M.D., in 1921, has recently been elevated to departmental status by the Yale Corporation.

Schulam, a native New Havener, comes to the School of Medicine from the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he was vice chair of urology, chief of the division of endourology and minimally invasive surgery, and director of both the kidney stone treatment center and the surgical living kidney donor program. Schulam was also professor of urology at UCLA, and founder and co-director of UCLA’s Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology.

Schulam has long-standing clinical interests in adrenal disorders; bladder, prostate, and kidney cancer; donor nephrectomy; and kidney stones and kidney reconstruction; and he is nationally known for his expertise in minimally invasive surgery and laparoscopic techniques.

With an award from the Medical Scientist Training Program, Schulam received his medical degree as well as his doctorate in immunology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

He then served as general surgical intern and completed surgical and urology residencies at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md.

Schulam succeeds Robert M. Weiss, M.D., the Donald Guthrie Professor of Surgery, who has served as chief of the Section of Urology, director of the urology residency program, and director of the pediatric urology program for 25 years. Weiss will continue his laboratory research and his active urology practice at Yale.

“The transition of Urology to a department recognizes its increased importance in clinical medicine and the commitment of Yale and Yale-New Haven Hospital to expand our efforts in urologic care, research, and education,” says Alpern. “I can think of no one better than Pete Schulam to lead us in these efforts as the department’s inaugural chair.”