Creighton names inaugural CyncHealth Endowed Chair for Population Health
Scott Shipman, MD, MPH, who currently serves as director of clinical innovations for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in Washington, D.C., has been named the inaugural holder of the CyncHealth Endowed Chair for Population Health at Creighton University, effective Sept. 1.
In his role as the CyncHealth Endowed Chair, Shipman will collaborate with leaders from Creighton’s health sciences programs in Omaha and Phoenix, CHI Health, and CyncHealth’s Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative in developing a vision for population health research, clinical redesign and service that promotes improved health outcomes with a focus on the communities served by Creighton’s clinical partners.
“I am extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Shipman to Creighton University,” said Creighton Provost Mardell Wilson, EdD, RDN. “Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic has further illustrated the importance of population health in our country and world. Through data collection and analysis, we have an opportunity, working with our partners in Omaha and Phoenix, to make significant advancements in this critical area.”
Shipman, trained as a health services researcher, has led interdisciplinary teams to support evidence-based practice and policy. Through his research, he has provided leadership and advocacy in promoting health policy and clinical models that extend health care workforce capacity and effectiveness. In the last decade, he has led efforts at the AAMC to support clinical transformation and integration, focused in ambulatory care settings at large academic health systems.
After earning his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1995, Shipman completed his training in pediatrics at Dartmouth. He then completed a fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Johns Hopkins, and received a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He joined the AAMC in 2012 as director of primary care initiatives and workforce analysis and was promoted to his current position in 2017. Previously, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Community and Family Medicine, and the Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy and Clinical Practice, at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel School of Medicine.
CyncHealth, a public-private partnership, is the designated health information exchange (HIE) for Nebraska and western Iowa, connecting more than 5 million lives and 1,135 facilities, including hospitals, specialty hospitals, rural health clinics, specialty clinics, long-term post-acute care facilities and other entities that have valuable data for monitoring the health of populations. The Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative, powered by CyncHealth, is focused on building a health data competent workforce through academic and community partnerships and data projects.
“This position represents a unique partnership between Creighton and CyncHealth,” Wilson said. “As the new endowed chair, Dr. Shipman will serve on the board of the Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative and have access to CyncHealth’s data utilities to mutually benefit the population health research endeavors across our organizations.”
Internally, Shipman will collaborate with the chair of Creighton’s Department of Clinical Research and Public Health and the Center for Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research (CIPER). He will also work with population health leadership at Creighton’s clinical partner, CHI Health, and with the vice president of community and academic programs at the Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative.
In addition to serving as the CyncHealth Endowed Chair, Shipman will maintain an appointment as professor in the Department of Clinical Research and Public Health in the School of Medicine. He will report directly to the provost.
“I look forward to Dr. Shipman’s leadership in providing a vision for a population and community health collaborative across our Omaha and Phoenix campuses,” Wilson said. “I am excited to work with him to explore ways to build sustainable, population-based innovations that understand, measure and promote equity in the health and well-being of individuals and communities.”
