Alfred F. Connors Jr. has returned to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine as the Charles H. Rammelkamp Jr. Professor of Medicine and as the chairman of the Department of Medicine at MetroHealth Medical Center.

He is a distinguished investigator with an international reputation in health services research and an established commitment to medical education.

"When I evaluated MetroHealth's Department of Medicine, I was struck by the quality of the faculty, the strength of the clinical programs and the continued excellence of the teaching program," Connors said. "The hospital administration convinced me that they are committed to supporting and expanding the department's very high quality research programs. I came because I am confident that the faculty at MetroHealth can bring this institution back to national reputation for excellence in teaching, research and clinical care that it enjoyed in the past."

Connors said that he finds that the quality of the CWRU medical students and the rich learning and research environment of the CWRU community remain unchanged since his departure seven years ago.

"I have been encouraged by the reception I've had from colleagues across the CWRU campus and I am heartened by the sincere commitment I am seeing to building collaborations and reinforcing ties among the various parts of the CWRU community," he said.

He finds the new relationship between the University and the Cleveland Clinic an especially positive development.

"I hope that we all move quickly to welcome our new colleagues and look for ways to work together for the benefit of our students, for our mutual benefit, for the benefit of the CWRU community," he said.

His plans include focusing efforts to support and enhance existing research programs while developing two or three new research programs over the next five years.

"We anticipate that over the next few years MetroHealth will become the destination of choice for promising young scientists who seek the best possible chance for a successful start to an academic career," he said.

"These are interesting and challenging times for the leaders of clinical training programs. Financial forces and increasing regulation have stressed and changed the traditional training process while the faculty have been asked to assume additional burdens," he added.

His department will hold a retreat later this winter that will initiate a yearlong review of Metro's training and teaching programs.

"We hope to take a fresh view of what we need to do to provide optimal preparation for tomorrow's internist," he said.

Connors received his medical degree in 1974 at the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo. He then did his internship and residency in internal medicine at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital (today MetroHealth Medical Center), followed by a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Oklahoma.

His first round at CWRU began in 1981, when he joined the faculty as an assistant professor of medicine at MetroHealth. In 1989, he was promoted to associate professor. He was made the director in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at MetroHealth.

The Student Committee on Medical Education at the medical school awarded him the Faculty Teaching Award for the years of 1988, 1989 and 1991. In addition, he received the Kaiser Clinical Teaching Excellence Award from CWRU in 1991. Connors directed the pulmonary section of Homeostasis I for more than a decade and lectured and taught small groups in Homeostasis II.

In 1996, Connors left CWRU to become a professor with tenure in the departments of Health Evaluation Sciences and Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia's School of Medicine. He served as director in the Division of Health Services Research and Outcomes Evaluation at the University of Virginia. While there, he helped to create and lead the Center for Improving Minority Health and was director of the Master of Science program in Health Evaluation Sciences.

An active clinician, he is board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine. He has published many articles in professional journals and is interested in health services research, technology assessment and outcome research.

His recent research has been funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In 1996, he and his colleagues published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that made national headlines when it reported that right heart catheterization, a time-honored test performed daily in hospitals worldwide, may not benefit all patients who undergo it and may even increase the risk of death for some. This study led to the initiation of five multi-center trials in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Connors is married to Mildred (Mimi) Lam, an associate professor of medicine (nephrology) at MetroHealth and a 1973 alumna of the CWRU medical school. They have two children: Lisa, who is a sophomore at Mt. Holyoke College, and Chris, who is a freshman at Shaker Heights High School