Dr. Ronald DePinho, president of MD Anderson Cancer Center, is stepping down from heading the financially troubled hospital effective this May.
DePinho announced his resignation Wednesday in a letter to the chancellor of the University of Texas. He has held his post since 2011, and the chancellor asked him to stay on until the end of the Texas legislative session.
During DePinho's tenure, the hospital faced layoffs and financial woes, including a $267 million loss in fiscal 2016 despite raking in approximately $4 billion in annual revenue.
The hospital was also troubled by agreements it had with outside firms. Late last year, MD Anderson and IBM put their partnership on hold, stalling plans to use IBM Watson for precision-medicine cancer treatment. The project failed to meet its goals, and a University of Texas audit showed it cost MD Anderson more than $62 million. The audit also said that contracts MD Anderson had with IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers broke internal rules, including those that call for competitive bidding.
In his resignation letter, DePinho wrote that MD Anderson “needs a new president who will inspire greater unity and a sharp operational focus on navigating the tectonic changes in healthcare delivery and economics.”
He outlined the institution's achievements—including bringing in new faculty members, winning awards and boosting the reputation of its graduate school program—but went on to say that "there was a cost for that change, and I have added to that cost."
“I could have done a better job administratively, a better job listening, a better job communicating,” he wrote.
