Klasko, Stephen K.

From Lehigh Engineering Heritage Initiative

**Stephen K. Klasko**
Stephen Klasko, alumnus
Birth:
Birthplace:
Degree:	BA biology
Graduation:	1974
Notable Achievement:	Dean of the College of Medicines at Univ. South Florida

Dr. Stephen K. Klasko '74 is Senior Vice President of Health Service and Dean of the College of Medicines at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. As of 2008, he is also the CEO of the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute.

Klasko oversees the Heath Science Center’s $700 million budget, including a research program recognized as one of the two fastest growing research universities in the nation, which continues to gain in national stature as its emphasis on interdisciplinary and federal funding increases. As part of that program, he has begun an innovative MD, PhD program with the college of engineering geared toward medical simulation and devices. He also leads the largest practice group in Florida, a 436 professor group ranging from primary care to subspecialty neurosurgery. Klasko is passionate about the need for medical students and residents to learn the business realities of “real world medicine” In Tampa, he also practices obstetrics and gynecology, specializing in minimally invasive surgical procedures.

In August, 2008, the Board of Directors at the Johnnie B. Byrd Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute unanimously appointed Klasko as its CEO. Part of Klasko's duties will be to serve as a liaison as the Institute and USF form a collaboration to fight Alzheimer's disease. He will work to consolidate funding and combine each institution's individual strengths.

Prior to his position at USF, he was dean and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Drexel University College of Medicine. From 2000 to 2003, he was Senior Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs,and dean of graduate medical education for the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University. From 1996 to 2000, he was Chairman, obstetrics and gynecology at Lehigh Valley Hospital & Health network and president of the Lehigh Valley Physician Group. From 1982 through 1991, he was a partner in Valley OB/Gyn Associates of Allentown, delivering over 2,000 babies in the Lehigh Valley area.

He has authored “The Phantom Stethoscope: A Field Manual For Creating an Optimistic Future in Health Care” along with Gregory Shea, PhD, a Wharton economics professor. The book is described as an ingenious use of science fiction combined with industry expertise and has been reviewed by the Journal of the American Medical Association as a “must read for anyone interested in the future of health care.” The book details the adventures of Mila, a woman medical student who is abducted by aliens in 1985 and comes back in 2000 to start her surgical residency. While the technical knowledge that she needs has been reimplanted, she is fifteen years behind in the business, legal, ethical and social aspects of medicine. The aliens teach her the real world medicine lessons she “would have learned in medical school.”

Klasko earned the bachelor of arts in biology from Lehigh University and his M.D. from Hahnemann University. He completed his obstetrics and gynecology residency from Lehigh Valley Hospital. He completed his M.B.A, from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.