Dr. Tighe named associate dean for AI application & implementation

Patrick Tighe
Photo by Jesse S. Jones

Patrick Tighe, M.D., M.S., has been named associate dean for AI application & implementation in the UF College of Medicine.

In this new role, Tighe will leverage his experience in AI to improve our understanding of clinical operations and patient safety using advanced analytical methods. He will also work with others throughout the college to improve the accessibility and impact of AI methods in support of its missions, including the safe and effective implementation of AI solutions into clinical care.

“This is a really exciting opportunity to continue working with such a great group of collaborators in the AI space here at UF,” Tighe said. “We are excited to explore potential applications of AI to improving patient safety.”

Tighe, who holds the Donn M. Dennis, M.D., Professorship in Anesthetic Innovation, is an associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine. He is also an affiliate associate professor in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department in the Warrington College of Business. He currently serves as co-director, along with Catherine Price, Ph.D., of the UF Perioperative Cognitive Anesthesia Network, or PeCAN.

In partnership with collaborators from across the UF campus, Tighe conducts research that uses deep learning and graph analytics to better understand how patient, anesthetic and surgical factors influence postoperative outcomes related to pain and cognition.

More recently, he has worked with investigators throughout UF Health and across the country on the technical, ethical and systems-level challenges inherent to applying AI tools and methods to the clinical environment. He has been funded by the National Institutes of Health as a principal investigator on AI research programs since 2012.

Doctor Tighe with Dean Koch

As part of the UF AI Initiative, Tighe currently serves as co-chair for the UF Health AI Steering Committee, and he represents the College of Medicine on the UF AI research working group.

Tighe is leading a new AI curriculum in the College of Medicine along with Chris Giordano, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology, and Francois Modave, Ph.D., an associate professor and director of artificial intelligence and decision-making in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics. They gave a firsthand look at the new course, which is designed to familiarize clinicians with the tools and possibilities of AI in medicine, during this year’s College of Medicine Research Day in April.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Tighe on his new leadership role!