Cleveland Clinic dean to head overseas hospital

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Clinic has chosen the dean of its medical school to head a new hospital in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

The clinic is expected to name Dr. Andrew Fishleder as the chief executive officer of the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi in a formal announcement today at a health exhibition in nearby Dubai.

Since 2002, the 56-year-old pathologist has served as the first executive dean of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, whose inaugural class will graduate in May.

Fishleder, a University of Michigan graduate, has worked with the clinic since he did his residency there in 1978. He is a member of the clinic’s board of governors and oversees its educational programs, according to its Web site.

“Not a lot of moving around,” he said. “So I figure once I move, might as well make it big.”

He said he couldn’t pass up the rare chance to help transplant the clinic’s model of care to a different part of the world.

“These things do not come around that often,” he said.

Fishleder said he thinks the strong reputation of the clinic and its physician-led care model will help him in his first task of putting together a well-qualified staff of doctors and nurses who are willing to move to the Persian Gulf country.

“It attracts some great people who want to work in that environment, and hopefully that will be part of the attraction in recruiting top talent to Abu Dhabi as well,” he said.

Abu Dhabi is the largest of the city-states that make up the United Arab Emirates. The oil-rich country has government-paid health care and long-standing ties to the clinic.

The new 360-bed hospital and adjacent clinic are under construction on Sowwah Island. The complex is expected to open in 2012 as the clinic’s first overseas outpost, part of a plan to extend the clinic’s brand.

It will offer some of the same services as the Cleveland center, including heart and vascular care, but not others, such as pediatric care and transplants.

The government-owned Mubadala Development Co. will pay for construction, equipment and staff salaries, allowing the clinic to transfer its health care culture without capital risk.