William O’Neill, M.D., has more than 25 years experience practicing medicine in both an academic and private setting. He’ll be using all of that experience as the new executive dean of clinical affairs at the Miller School of Medicine.

O’Neill, an interventional cardiologist, joined the faculty in September after serving as director of the Division of Cardiovascular Disease at William Beaumont Hospital, a teaching hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. He was previously director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at the University of Michigan Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan Hospital and Medical School. O’Neill, who was born in Alousi, Ecuador, earned his medical degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed a cardiology fellowship at the University of Michigan Hospital. He joined Beaumont Hospital in 1987, and under his direction it has become one of the nation’s top centers for cardiac catheterization.

O’Neill is looking forward to enhancing and increasing the presence of Miami Medicine in South Florida. “If you look at the landscape, there is no other academic center in South Florida with the advantages that the Miller School of Medicine has,” O’Neill says.

The addition of the new University Hospital will help advance that mission. O’Neill says the Miller School will reach into the community to broaden its outreach and increase its patient base. Working with the chairs of the school’s clinical programs, O’Neill aims to improve service to referring physicians and to enhance access to UM physicians. “We’re going to transition to a much larger health system,” he says.

South Florida, and Miami in particular, is expected to continue to grow, increasing its population from 5 to 15 million in the next few years. O’Neill and the new senior management team at the Miller School of Medicine plan to match and meet that growth with Miami Medicine, UM’s unique brand of medical excellence. “The program is going to look very different in ten years than it looks like today. Miami Medicine will definitely change for the good of the community,” he promises.