Indiana University School of Medicine Release: Titus Schleyer First to Hold Chair Established to Honor Informatics Giant Clem McDonald

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INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute are establishing an endowed chair to honor Clement McDonald, M.D., a pioneer and innovator in the use of health information technology to improve patient care and outcomes. Titus Schleyer, D.M.D., Ph.D., MBA, will be the first Clem McDonald Professor of Biomedical Informatics.

Dr. McDonald, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Regenstrief Professor Emeritus of Medical Informatics at the IU School of Medicine and former director of the Regenstrief Institute , is currently director of the National Library of Medicine’s Lister Hill Center for Biomedical Communications.



Caption: Titus Schleyer is the first to hold professorship established to honor informatics giant Clem McDonald

Dr. Schleyer comes to the Regenstrief Institute, where he directs the Regenstrief Center for Biomedical Informatics, and to the IU School of Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh. At Pittsburgh, he served as the founding director of the Center for Dental Informatics in the School of Dental Medicine.

As the Clem McDonald Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Dr. Schleyer will be responsible for furthering biomedical and health informatics research and training at the IU School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, including facilitating the development of the careers of junior faculty members and fellows.

A distinguished clinician-researcher and one of the nation's most accomplished experts in the field of electronic health record systems, Dr. McDonald has inspired and trained scores of junior faculty and fellows at Regenstrief and IU. He developed the Regenstrief Medical Record System and for decades directed its use in clinical studies of innovations in medical informatics; many were conducted at Wishard-Eskenazi Health, one of the largest public safety net health care systems in the United States. This work has illuminated the ways in which electronic medical records can improve the quality and efficiency of patient care and its outcomes.

Today the Regenstrief Medical Record System is one of the longest continually operating electronic medical record systems in existence. Building upon this work, Dr. McDonald created the Indiana Network for Patient Care.

Dr. McDonald is also an internationally recognized pioneer in the development of health data standards. He is the developer of Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, Codes, an identification system for tests and results that is a clinical data standard used across the nation and the globe.

A member of the Institute of Medicine, Dr. McDonald is a recipient of the President’s Medal for Excellence from IU, the highest honor an IU president can bestow. Both Dr. McDonald and Dr. Schleyer are members of the American College of Medical Informatics.

“In his decades on campus, Clem McDonald made enormous contributions to the school, to Regenstrief, and ultimately to the health of our community and that of individuals around the globe,” said D. Craig Brater, M.D., dean of the IU School of Medicine.

"Clem has been my personal mentor, friend and colleague for more than 30 years,” said William M. Tierney, M.D., president and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute and associate dean for clinical effectiveness research at the IU School of Medicine. “Like many others in the field of medical informatics, I and my generation are beholden to giant pioneers like Clem who built the field from scratch and inspired us to consider health care as an information-intensive business, and the quality and outcomes of care depend entirely on our ability to make sure the right information is available to the right health care providers at the right time. Titus is among the best and brightest biomedical informaticists in the country and, without a doubt, will lead Regenstrief at the forefront of global medical informatics research and development.”

The IU School of Medicine is the second-largest medical school in the United States. The Regenstrief Institute is a distinguished medical research organization dedicated to improving the quality and effectiveness of health care. The institute is the home of internationally recognized centers of excellence in biomedical and public health informatics, aging, and health services and health systems research. Institute investigators are faculty members of the IU School of Medicine, other schools at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, or Purdue University.

Donations to the Clem McDonald Chair in Biomedical Informatics sustain the level of innovation and collegiality that Dr. McDonald embodies. Tax-deductible gifts and queries on supporting this initiative can be directed to Kathryn Red, Indiana University, at 317-274-3685 or kred@iupui.edu.

Media contact:

Cindy Fox Aisen

Regenstrief Institute

caisen@iupui.edu

317-843-2276

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