LITTLE ROCK — Fred Prior, Ph.D, has been named the inaugural chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine, effective Oct. 1.
The newly established department develops computational tools to assess and manage medical and public health information for patient care and research programs. It was elevated from a free-standing division to a full department this year to give a greater focus on advanced medical information technologies.
Prior comes to UAMS from the Electronic Radiology Laboratory in the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he has served as director since 2003. He is also director of the Center for High Performance Computing, which he created and supported with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as associate director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and a research professor of radiology.
“The importance of a strong, vibrant, cutting-edge biomedical informatics enterprise to our institutional success cannot be overstated,” said Pope L. Moseley, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine and UAMS executive vice chancellor. “Establishment of the department and Dr. Prior’s appointment will ensure continued momentum in the informatics advances made at UAMS in recent years and help us to truly leverage data and maximize its potential for improving health and health care.”
Read the full press-release here: https://uamshealth.com/news/2015/08/25/fred-prior-ph-d-named-inaugural-chair-of-the-uams-department-of-biomedical-informatics/