University of Chicago Medicine names Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, VP for Physician Network Development and Clinical Integration

September 2, 2014

The University of Chicago Medicine has named Bryan Becker, MD, as its new Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Vice President for Physician Network Development and Clinical Integration, effective Sept. 1.

Becker's principal responsibilities will focus on building and expanding a clinically integrated network of community-based physician practices and supporting the development and spread of population health management tools, which are used to improve patient care and outcomes.

He will jointly report to Jeffrey Glassroth, MD, dean for clinical affairs and head of the faculty practice plan, and Sharon O'Keefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center.

"Dr. Becker is an experienced academic leader who, among many other accomplishments, has created physician networks and has demonstrated success in developing quality and safety initiatives," said Glassroth.

Becker was previously chief medical officer and CEO of the University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics, as well as associate vice president for health affairs at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System.

Prior to his tenure at UIC, Becker was a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin, vice-chair of the Department of Medicine and head of the Division of Nephrology at the Madison school.

After graduating medical school from the University of Kansas, Becker pursued post-graduate training in internal medicine at Duke University and nephrology at Vanderbilt University. He also has a Masters in Medical Management from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

"The tremendous accomplishments of the University of Chicago Medicine physician faculty, the strengths of the overarching leadership team led by Dr. Kenneth Polonsky, and the willingness of the institution to acknowledge the importance of the clinical enterprise in a tremendously strong academic health center environment, are the reasons I'm excited to be joining UChicago Medicine," said Becker, age 52.

The health care sector is undergoing a transformation due to changing reimbursements and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The efficient delivery of community-centered health care will be crucial for health systems to support population health management, Becker said.

"It is so important to analyze what makes health care organizations successful in the midst of these changes and to replicate some of those successful traits," he added. "This is a tremendously exciting time in health care."

As Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs and Vice President of Physician Network Development and Clinical Integration, Becker will assist in recruiting physicians and groups of health care providers to expand UChicago Medicine's off-campus practices. In addition, he will be charged with boosting UChicago Medicine's affiliated physician network to increase referrals of patients to its various medical specialties.

He is also responsible to ensure all off-campus and affiliated operations meet the institution's high standards of quality, safety, and use of clinical guidelines to achieve the highest standard of care.

In his new role, Becker will collaborate with departmental and other institutional leaders to monitor local markets and analyze population health needs to identify and develop strategic initiatives.

As part of University of Chicago Medicine's push to expand its primary care patient base, Becker will work on strategies to build University of Chicago Health Plan enrollment and develop capacity to meet the anticipated demand.

Becker has received a number of honors and awards, including:

• The Roche Outstanding Clinical Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplantation
• The Garabed Eknoyan Award from the National Kidney Foundation for supporting and facilitating evidence-based kidney health care through the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative program
• Listed in the Top Physicians and Best Doctors in America.

He served in leadership roles for the National Kidney Foundation, including President from 2006 to 2014, and is on the board of directors of Forward Health Group, a Madison, Wis.-based clinical informatics company focusing on population health management and measurement.

Becker's wife, Yolanda Becker, MD, is a professor of surgery at UChicago Medicine and the director of the Kidney and Pancreas Program and an expert in transplantation, dialysis access surgery and living-donor procedures.

They have a son and daughter in middle school. He is an avid soccer fan, and continues to try to find the time to hone his fiction writing skills.