Ascension Health promotes Patricia Maryland to president of healthcare operations, and other moves

Ascension Health, St. Louis, promoted Patricia Maryland to president of healthcare operations and COO, effective July 1. Maryland, 59, is the Michigan ministry market leader for Ascension Health and president and CEO of St. John Providence Health System in Detroit. In her new role, Maryland replaces Charles Barnett, who stepped in last year when Robert Henkel became Ascension Health's president and CEO. Barnett is moving into a new post as executive chairman of the board of the Seton Healthcare Family in Austin, Texas, where he previously was CEO.

Bryan Luce was named the first chief science officer of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a Washington-based independent not-for-profit. Luce, whose age was not provided, previously was senior VP for science and policy for United BioSource Corp., Chevy Chase, Md. He was the founder and CEO of Medtap International, a Bethesda, Md.-based firm established in 1983 and acquired by United BioSource in 2004. In 2008, Luce founded the Pragmatic Approaches to Comparative Effectiveness, or PACE, Initiative.