Silverman envisions new health, fitness and wellness programs

Daniel Silverman has big plans for Health Services. Appointed the University's chief medical officer in August, he is working to establish new resources while consolidating those that already exist.

Silverman has proposed that the University build a new health and wellness center, having already gained an enthusiastic response from director of the Frist Campus Center Paul Breitman, Provost Amy Guttman and President Tilghman.

Silverman and other University administrators envision the space as centralizing a wide variety of services in a manner similar to Frist. They have discussed housing a new fitness center, nutritional counseling center and spiritual center in the building, along with recreational sports facilities, a satellite U-Store, a yoga center, a stress and time management facility, pharmacy, smoothie bar and a child-care facility.

"The University is trying to help people have healthy bodies in which to put their brilliant minds," Silverman said, explaining that he hopes the center will accomplish this goal through "an integrated and holistic way."

Silverman said the overarching mission for the center would be not only for people with illnesses but for all members of the University community to use the facility on a regular basis.

Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson — to whom Silverman reports — explained that the position of chief medical officer was created in part to persuade Silverman to come to Princeton.

"We also wanted to convey the message that our common health is an issue of great importance to everyone at Princeton, not only in the context of counseling and medical treatment," Dickerson wrote in an e-mail.

Silverman said he views his job as a mandate to work with University administrators on creating a vision of health services for the entire campus, "to take a bigger view of the entire situation."

Such an integrative approach to healthcare has been a trend in Silverman's career.

As co-director of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Effectiveness at BJC Healthcare in St. Louis — the healthcare system partner of Washington University's School of Medicine, Silverman created healthcare programs that spanned the system's hospitals, health plans and medical practices.

Dickerson said the University conducted a nationwide search to fill the position of former executive director of health services Pamela Bowen.

The search committee, which included members of the University's faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate student bodies, conducted several preliminary and public interviews before deciding on Silverman.

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"Dr. Silverman was a very strong candidate who demonstrated an understanding of the medical, psychiatric and developmental needs of our students," Dickerson said. "A physician executive, he has had extensive managerial and clinical experience.

"I have hopes that he will help to heal the 'schisms' within Health Services, and help us establish connections and collaborations across our campus and surrounding local communities."

Silverman said the new facility — which he hopes will be located close to the heart of campus — would set a precedent for other universities.

"This is a bold vision, and it is at once exciting and challenging to think of it," Dickerson wrote about the center. "It has been wonderful to imagine what could be included in such a center . . . but we do not yet have authority to proceed with planning," she said, adding that the University had not yet created a formal proposal.

Silverman has also worked as the director of Evidence-Based Medicine Solutions and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. A cum laude graduate from the University of Michigan, Silverman also served as a clinical adviser to the dean of student affairs office at Harvard Medical School and as a clinical program director and medical educator at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Silverman received his medical degree from the Northwestern University School of Medicine.