Arch G. “Chip” Mainous III, Ph.D., has been named chair of the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions’ department of health services research, management and policy.
Mainous will also hold the position of Florida Blue Endowed Chair, which was created in 2007 by Florida Blue, Florida’s Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, to provide support to the chair of the department of health services research, management and policy.
Mainous comes to UF from the Medical University of South Carolina where he is the associate dean for assessment evaluation and a professor and director of research in the department of family medicine. He begins his UF appointment September 1, 2013. He succeeds R. Paul Duncan, Ph.D., who will continue at UF as the Graduate School’s associate dean for academic affairs and as a faculty member in health services research, management and policy.
In his research Mainous has focused on a goal of improving health care delivery by determining the appropriate treatment for a particular patient.
“I think to be able to identify the right treatments for the right patients you really need to link information and knowledge that comes from basic scientists to clinicians, to health services, and then on to policy,” he said.
The UF department of health services research, management and policy is home to the Florida Center for Medicaid and the Uninsured and the Florida Office on Disability and Health. Faculty members are conducting research on areas such as health care access, Medicaid reform, health information technology and health care expenditures. The department offers a Master of Health Administration degree and a doctoral degree is health services research. Faculty members also instruct students in the public health management and policy concentration of the college’s Master of Public Health program.