Lloyd Minor, MD

Lloyd B. Minor, MD, is a scientist, surgeon, and academic leader. He is the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, a position he has held since December 2012.

As dean, Dr. Minor plays an integral role in setting strategy for the clinical enterprise of Stanford Medicine, an academic medical center that includes the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and Stanford Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. He also oversees the quality of Stanford Medicine’s physician practices and growing clinical networks.

With Dr. Minor’s leadership, Stanford Medicine has established a strategic vision to lead the biomedical revolution in Precision Health. The next generation of health care, Precision Health is focused on keeping people healthy and providing care that is tailored to individual variations. It’s predictive, proactive, preemptive, personalized, and patient-centered.

An advocate for innovation, Dr. Minor has provided significant support for fundamental science and for clinical and translational research at Stanford. Through bold initiatives in medical education and increased support for PhD students, Dr. Minor is committed to inspiring and training future leaders.

Among other accomplishments Dr. Minor has led the development and implementation of an innovative model for cancer research and patient care delivery at Stanford Medicine and has launched an initiative in biomedical data science to harness the power of big data and create a learning health care system. Committed to diversity, he has increased student financial aid and expanded faculty leadership opportunities.

Before coming to Stanford, Dr. Minor was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs of The Johns Hopkins University. During his time as provost, Dr. Minor launched many university-wide initiatives such as the Gateway Sciences Initiative to support pedagogical innovation, and the Doctor of Philosophy Board to promote excellence in PhD education. He worked with others around the university and health system to coordinate the Individualized Health Initiative, which aimed to use genetic information to transform health care.

Prior to his appointment as provost in 2009, Dr. Minor served as the Andelot Professor and director (chair) of the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and otolaryngologist-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. During his six-year tenure, he expanded annual research funding by more than half and increased clinical activity by more than 30 percent, while strengthening teaching efforts and student training.

With more than 140 published articles and chapters, Dr. Minor is an expert in balance and inner ear disorders. Through neurophysiological investigations of eye movements and neuronal pathways, his work has identified adaptive mechanisms responsible for compensation to vestibular injury in a model system for studies of motor learning (the vestibulo-ocular reflex). The synergies between this basic research and clinical studies have led to improved methods for the diagnosis and treatment of balance disorders. In recognition of his work in refining a treatment for Ménière’s disease, Dr. Minor received the Prosper Ménière Society’s gold medal in 2010.

In the medical community, Dr. Minor is perhaps best known for his discovery of superior canal dehiscence syndrome, a debilitating disorder characterized by sound- or pressure-induced dizziness. In 1998 Dr. Minor and colleagues published a description of the clinical manifestations of the syndrome and related its cause to an opening (dehiscence) in the bone covering the superior canal. He subsequently developed a surgical procedure that corrects the problem and alleviates symptoms.

In 2012, Dr. Minor was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, formerly the Institute of Medicine.