Dennis Lund to join Stanford Children’s Health as chief medical office

Dennis Lund brings 30 years of experience as a leader at children’s hospitals in Boston, Phoenix and Wisconsin.

Pediatric surgeon Dennis Lund, MD, will join Stanford Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford on March 16 as the organization’s new chief medical officer.

He will also serve as associate dean for maternal and child health at the School of Medicine.

“I am delighted that Denny will be joining us,” said Christopher Dawes, president and CEO of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and Stanford Children’s Health. “He brings a wealth of physician leadership experience and knowledge of physician practice management. He’s the right person to help position our organization for success in this rapidly changing health delivery environment.”

Lund has spent three decades as a leader in pediatric medicine, most recently as executive vice president of Phoenix Children’s Medical Group and surgeon-in-chief at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

“Denny’s outstanding leadership ability makes him a perfect fit to help drive innovation, quality, long-term growth and academic excellence,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine.

In his new role, Lund will partner with Kim Roberts, the chief administrative officer and physician practices CEO of Packard Children’s Health Alliance.

Lund replaces Kenneth Cox, MD, a professor of pediatrics at the medical school who is retiring from his role as chief medical officer. Cox will continue to serve the hospital as chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition and medical director of the pediatric liver transplant program.

“We want to thank Dr. Cox for his many years of dedicated service and his leadership skills,” said Dawes, noting Cox has been the hospital’s CMO since 1998. “He is an outstanding educator and clinician, and has been responsible for successfully guiding many of our patient care achievements.”

Lund graduated from Harvard Medical School and began his career as a pediatric trauma and transplant surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he developed the level-1 trauma program, built a large pediatric surgical practice and started an intestinal transplant program.

He served as a professor of surgery and surgeon-in-chief at the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital, where he was appointed chair of the university’s Division of General Surgery in 2001 and was the driving force behind the creation of the American Family Children’s Hospital, which opened in 2007 and is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin.

“I’m very excited to be coming to Stanford,” Lund said. “There are a lot of challenges ahead for academic medical centers because of what’s happening in health care in the United States. Being at Stanford will really allow me to have a role in shaping the solution.”

Lund will play a key part in strategy development and physician leadership at both Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and in the Stanford Children’s Health network of community-based physicians. He will also ensure that the organization’s goals are aligned with the clinical and academic mission of the School of Medicine.

“Stanford already has a very good idea of what it needs to do in the future of health care,” Lund said. “I look forward to building upon that to help the university and children’s hospital blend the academic environment with an efficient and cost-effective health-care delivery system.”