The Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women and Infants Hospital and Brown University, Joanna Cain, resigned late last month, sparking confusion over the circumstances surrounding her departure.
A University statement by Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences, said that Cain stepped down "to pursue other career opportunities" and that Maureen Phipps would be replacing Cain on an interim basis as the chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the Alpert Medical School.
In an e-mail to The Herald, Cain praised her colleagues at Women and Infants and did not provide a specific reason for her departure. She served just over two years in the position.
"The OB/GYN Faculty at Brown — both community and hospital based — are some of the best in the country, and we are all proud of their collaborative work to create the best student and resident education in the country as well as their research and clinical care," she wrote.
"There is an opportunity for us all together to create new models of quality and safety in medicine and we (the entire faculty) are all proud of the work done by Brown faculty to make this happen — not just at WIH but across the Alpert School of medicine."
Disagreements are prone to exist over hospital practices, said Professor of Family Medicine Jeffrey Borkan, though he did not comment about the specific reason for Cain's departure.
"There is always a tension between what medical schools want and what academic departments want," Borkan said.
Borkan told the Providence Journal on Dec. 31 that Cain's departure "raises questions about academic freedom, about the ability of leaders within the academic and medical community to take independent action or to lead."
Associate Chair of Community Relationships for Women and Infants Pablo Rodriguez said that Cain was well-respected at the hospital and that it would be a challenge to find a worthy successor. "She was a terrific leader and someone that the entire medical staff supported," he said. "It will be difficult to find someone like her, or to find anyone at this point, given the circumstances of her departure."
Cain wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she wants to continue working with members of the Brown community in some capacity as well as pursue other career goals.
"I hope to provide clinical ethics analysis education and training for residents and students at Brown as well as curricula for medical students in resource-poor areas of the world," she said. "In addition, I am consulting in the area of women's health clinical services nationally and internationally."
Prior to her time at Brown, Cain chaired the obstetrics and gynecology department at Oregon Health Sciences University. She was the first woman to chair the Committee for Ethics in Women's Health in the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as the first woman president of the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
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