UC names new medical director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit

R. Duncan Hite, MD, has joined the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine as professor and Mark A. and Alice W. Brown Chair in Internal Medicine and medical director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), a position formerly held by David Norton, MD. Hite comes to UC from the Cleveland Clinic where he served as the director of research in the Respiratory Institute, Department of Critical Care, Cleveland Clinic and professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

Hite has a robust laboratory and clinical research program focused on acute lung injury and ICU clinical trials, and is the principal investigator for the Ohio Consortium Clinical Center for the National Health Lung and Blood Institute Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury Network. He also spent 20 years at Wake Forest University School of Medicine where he was section chief for the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

“Dr. Hite’s recruitment will enhance all dimensions of the Critical Care program within UC Medical Center and the College of Medicine,” says Francis McCormack, MD, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and director of the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. “As he has done for the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Hite’s recruitment will make the University of Cincinnati Medical Center MICU a hub for clinical research in the Midwest. He is a role model for our faculty and reinforces the importance of research and education to our overall mission. His appointment opens a new chapter in the distinguished history of critical care medicine and clinical research at this institution.”