New neurosurgery chair take overs at UNM School of Medicine

An accomplished brain surgeon has joined the University of New Mexico School of Medicine to oversee a residency program that has had several leadership and status changes in recent years, including losing and regaining its accreditation.

Dr. Griffith Harsh is the new chair of neurosurgery at the medical school, effective Jan. 1. He was previously the chairman of the council that revoked the accreditation of the residency program he now oversees.

He was most recently a professor of surgery and deputy director of the National Center for Interventional Biophotonic Technologies in Davis, Calif., and he is a former Julian R. Youmans chair in Neurological Surgery.

Harsh earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, a master of arts from Oxford University and a master of business administration from Boston University. His work history includes stints at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. In 2022, he earned the Career Service Award of the Society of Neurological Surgeons, according to a memo from Dr. Patricia Finn, the dean of the school of medicine, that announced Harsh’s position.

He is married to Meg Whitman, a recent U.S. ambassador to Kenya and former CEO of eBay and Hewlett Packard. They have two grown children and three grandchildren and a family home in Telluride, Colo.

The UNM School of Medicine’s neurosurgery residency program lost its accreditation in 2019 after residents in the program banded together and wrote a letter to the school’s accrediting agency complaining about their working conditions, according to prior Journal reports.

The complaints ranged from having to work more than 80 hours a week to the types of cases they were treating during their training.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education during a site visit gave the program 15 “citations” and found the program lacked structure and the residents were being mistreated. Harsh’s previous leadership positions include chairman of the ACGME Residency Review Committee for Neurosurgery.

As a result of losing its accreditation, eight residents in the program had to be transferred to other training hospitals. UNM continued to pay their salaries as they completed the one to six years left in their training.

The medical school made several changes after losing the accreditation. The chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, Dr. Howard Jonas, agreed to retire at the end of the year. The university hired a wellness director for sessions with faculty and residents, and required more frequent meetings between program directors and residents. Medical school officials said at the time the school worked to change the culture so residents would feel more comfortable raising concerns.

The residency program closed in 2020 and UNM hired Dr. Meic Schmidt as the next chair. The residency program regained provisional accreditation in June 2022.

“With hard work and meaningful dedication, the new program was built and perfected. The residency program drastically changed the entire structure, curriculum, schedule, rotation sites and everything possible about the residency program and received accreditation,” states the UNM School of Medicine’s website.

Schmidt stepped down as dean of neurosurgery in April 2023 and left UNM in May 2024, said Chris Ramirez, a spokesman for the UNM Health Sciences Center.

Ramirez said the ACGME Residency Review Committee meets later this month, and the school expects to hear an update on the residency program’s accreditation status.

Dr. John Russell had been the interim chair since April 2023.

“I also wish to express my gratitude and thanks to Dr. John Russell and his exceptional leadership and guidance during his interim chair role,” Finn wrote in the memo. “He has supported the Department of Neurosurgery through many changes with grace, compassion and patience.”