Well, it’s been a long slog getting this book into print. I’ve been thinking about the idea for the Chairmen for a number of years. To some extent, it focuses on some issues outside of the central mystery, namely the challenges facing academic physicians in a work environment that expects the successful practitioner to be able to take care of patients, teach students and residents and also do research. It’s a rare individual who is capable of doing all three and an even rarer individual who is willing to sacrifice the time and the income required.

A chairmen of an academic department in a medical school has to have a history of publishing meaningful and significant research and also requires a history of being able to maneuver through the system of acquiring grants to fund that research. A successful chairman has to provide leadership and has to be able to gain the respect of the medical staff, both within and without the department, and also has to satisfy the myriad demands of the institution, particularly the demand to make certain that the money going out is more than balanced by the money coming in. It’s a tough job, and many chairmen find that it’s not one that they can do, either because they themselves lack the skill or because the institutional environment precludes success.

In The Chairmen, we have a Chairman of Cardiac Surgery who is retiring, a Chairman of Anesthesiology who is making himself so obnoxious that his department is in open revolt and a Chairman of OB-GYN who is being stalked by a lunatic. As harassment escalates into vandalism and then assault, Kurtz, Barent and Moran are propelled into the center of the mayhem!