Dr. Harold Paz will become chief medical officer of health insurer Aetna, and other moves

Dr. Harold Paz, CEO of Penn State Milton S. Hershey (Pa.) Medical Center, will step down and become chief medical officer of health insurer Aetna, effective July 28. He will replace Dr. Lonny Reisman, who left Aetna in April.

Paz, 59, has led the $1.6 billion academic medical center and served as dean of the Penn State College of Medicine since April 2006. He also helped Penn State Hershey finalize a merger in late June with PinnacleHealth, Harrisburg, Pa. Paz was slated to serve as CEO of the new health system. Dr. A. Craig Hillemeier, a pediatric gastroenterologist and director of Penn State Hershey Medical Group, has been named the medical center's interim CEO.

Michael Harris has been named VP of development at Updox, an information technology firm focused on healthcare providers.

Harris, 40, will oversee the development of products to expand the Updox Direct Network, a platform that helps physician groups, hospitals, electronic health-record vendors and others securely share patient data through direct e-mail.

He previously held other IT roles at Ecommerce and Pillar Technology.

Dr. Amar Desai has been named CEO of USC Care and Ambulatory Care Services, the physician group of Los Angeles-based Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Desai, 38, will begin his duties Aug. 1. He's currently chief medical officer of Paladina Health, a subsidiary of DaVita HealthCare Partners. Desai will be in charge of developing quality standards and streamlining care within the USC health system.

Board-certified in internal medicine and nephrology, Desai previously worked at consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He also has practiced in several other academic hospitals, including UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, and San Francisco General Hospital.

Dr. Steve Tarnoff has been named president and chief medical executive at Group Health Physicians, the multispecialty medical practice of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative. He replaces Dr. Michael Soman, who retired at the end of June.

Tarnoff will oversee the care of nearly 400,000 patients at Group Health Cooperative's 25 facilities throughout Washington state.

He has been with Group Health since 1981, practicing as a family physician for more than 25 years and holding numerous leadership roles. Most recently, he served as executive medical director.

Dr. David Beyer has been named president-elect of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, Fairfax, Va. He begins his one-year term Sept. 16. He will replace the incoming president, Dr. Bruce Minsky, a professor and division leader at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, in September 2015.

Beyer is medical director of Arizona Oncology Services, Scottsdale. He has spent his entire career at Arizona Oncology, joining the practice in 1985. He specializes in prostate cancer, including seed implants and high-dose-rate brachytherapy, as well as intensity-modulated radiation therapy and image-guided radiation therapy.