Esra French, MD, MBA
Associate Vice Chair for Ambulatory Medicine
A Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine and the Clinical Chief of Endocrinology, Dr. Esra French completed her Internal Medicine Residency and Endocrinology fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh and, in addition, completed an Executive MBA in Healthcare at the Katz School of Business (2020).
As the Division of Endocrinology Clinical Chief, Dr. French has collaborated with multiple stakeholders across the system to improve access, clinical efficiency, patient, and cost outcomes for people with endocrine disorders. Despite the national shortage of endocrinologists, she has recruited multiple endocrinologists, trained Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) and certified diabetes care and education specialists (CDCES) to combat the diabetes and endocrinology epidemic, and she has formed multidisciplinary teams for chronic disease management. This multidisciplinary team approach enabled UPP Endocrinology to double patient volume during her tenure. Working with the senior APPs in the Division, she also helped create the first Endocrinology APP Fellowship Program in the country and expanded the Endocrine APP team from 4 to 18 providers. In collaboration with the UPMC Telemedicine Team, she has developed new models of care utilizing digital health care delivery tools like eConsults and eVisits contributing to the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism continuing to have one of the highest eConsult volumes across the Department of Medicine. In recognition of her accomplishments, she received the UPMC Award for Commitment and Excellence in Service (ACES) in 2020 and was appointed the Medical Director of Diabetes Population Health by UPMC Health Plan that same year. Her work with the UPMC Health Plan and UPMC High Value Healthcare Center researchers led to the publication of “A Payer-Provider Partnership for Endocrine Targeted Automatic eConsults: Implementation and Early Impact on Diabetes and Cost Outcomes” in Population Health Management Journal. This work was also presented at the American Diabetes Association scientific sessions.
In this new role, Dr. French will focus on Department efforts to meet an expanding specialty and general clinical demand for outpatient care across the UPMC system.
Eric Dueweke, MD, MBA
Associate Vice Chair for Inpatient Medicine and Care Standardization
Dr. Eric Dueweke has been a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Cardiology Division since 2014. He completed his medical school and internal medicine training at the University of Michigan before attending UPMC to complete his cardiovascular medicine fellowship in 2014. Following fellowship, he initially led the cardiology group at UPMC Northwest, where he served as the medical director of cardiovascular services. He subsequently returned to Pittsburgh to join the cardiology group at UPMC East, where he is focused on his clinical practice. He completed an MBA at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018.
Dr. Dueweke currently serves as the Director of Care Innovation for HVI, as well as the medical director of the Quality Review Committee and Diagnostic Governance/Care Pathways through Operational Excellence. He redesigned the heart failure care pathways and developed the nurse-driven diuretic algorithm. He has collaborated with the UPMC Health Plan to create a heart failure post-discharge pathway, which included pharmacy review for accuracy and optimization of pharmacotherapy with an associated reduction in mortality and readmissions, resulting in an operational savings. As part of the Accelerating Excellence initiative, he developed a rapid-referral program involving neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, and pulmonology across the system. This program provides an alternative to inpatient consultations and has already contributed to a reduction in hospital bed days. Dr. Dueweke has experience working with the UPMC Health Plan, Operational Excellence, the Wolff Center, UPMC Enterprises, and other key operational partners in the organization. Additionally, he currently serves on the Beckwith Institute board.
Dr. Dueweke is passionate about developing innovative, operational solutions to the challenges facing UPMC in the hospital environment. The Bridges initiative at UPMC has demonstrated a potential for better cross-campus and cross-division solutions and highlighted the extent of some existing silos. He is motivated to align our talented faculty with the new tools being developed to address key challenges, such as care coordination, population health, and new models of care.
In this new role, Dr. Dueweke will focus on guiding the DOM through the continued expansion of inpatient services across multiple UPMC locations while maintaining our quality-of-care delivery.