Embi to Leave Regenstrief for Vanderbilt
Peter Embí, M.D., M.S., president and CEO of the Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute has been named the new chair of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), effective Jan. 1, 2022. Embí will also serve as Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation.
Embí succeeds DBMI chair Kevin Johnson, M.D., M.S., who is departing Nashville-based VUMC on Nov. 1 for leadership roles with the University of Pennsylvania and Perlman School of Medicine.
Embí, who is Associate Dean for Informatics & Health Services Research at IU School of Medicine, Vice President for Learning Health Systems at IU Health, and Associate Director at the Indiana Clinical and Translational Science Institute, was chosen after an extensive national search.
The Regenstrief Institute’s research spans the disciplines of biomedical informatics, health services research, implementation science and aging research. As its leader, Embí has grown the Institute’s faculty, overseen a 50 percent increase in funded research and greatly expanded partnerships and initiatives with related IU programs and organizations in Indiana.
As chair of the DBMI at VUMC, Embí will report to Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO for VUMC, and Dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. DBMI is the nation’s largest department and among the most widely recognized in academic biomedical informatics. It includes graduate training programs and a portfolio of research and development projects related to clinical, computational and translational informatics, bioinformatics, pharmacogenomics, systems biology and personalized medicine.
The DBMI is home to multiple centers, including the Center for Precision Medicine, Center for Improving the Public’s Health through Informatics, the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center, Health Information Privacy Laboratory, Vanderbilt Health Data Science Center and the Center for Knowledge Management.
In addition, in the newly created role of Senior VP for Research and Innovation, Embí will work closely with department chairs and other senior leaders to develop knowledge and data sciences management resources in support of the VUMC academic missions.
“It is an honor to be selected as the next chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and as the inaugural SVP for Research and Innovation at VUMC. The impacts that DBMI faculty and staff have had on health and health care over the years simply cannot be overstated, and its reputation as the preeminent department in our field is richly deserved.” Embí said in a statement. “I am excited to lead this extraordinary group as we work to reach even greater heights, and I look forward to collaborating with so many amazing colleagues across Vanderbilt and the region to create, implement and disseminate innovations that will transform health care for a healthier and more equitable future for all.”
Embí currently holds grants from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Library of Medicine, National Institute for Drug Abuse and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, as well as numerous nonprofit foundations and public health agencies.
Prior to IU, he served in leadership roles at The Ohio State University, where he was interim chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Associate Dean for Research Informatics for the College of Medicine and served as the nation’s first Chief Research Information Officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
He has also served in numerous national leadership roles, including as the immediate past president and chair of the Board of Directors of the American Medical Informatics Association.
