François Modave, Ph.D., Selected to be Associate Chair of Research

François Modave

We are thrilled to announce that François Modave, Ph.D., has been chosen by department leadership to serve as our associate chair of research starting July 1. Dr. Modave envisions a future where our department can lead in building clinical informatics to support our research mission. He believes that tight integration between clinical care, research across the translational spectrum and quality improvement is essential to achieving a true learning health system.

In an effort to improve the quality of our data, he is already working with leadership on joining the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group (MPOG) and with Thorsten Haas, M.D., on the Patient Blood Management Program. “I believe this will provide unique avenues to establish multidisciplinary collaborations and to facilitate clinically meaningful research opportunities for faculty, residents and fellows,” he said.

Dr. Modave has collaborated with physicians in internal medicine, endocrinology, surgery, pediatrics and anesthesiology as well as with several data initiatives at UF, including the OneFlorida Clinical Research Network and the Integrated Data Repository. He hopes each clinical division in the department will have a liaison with the research division to increase research opportunities and collaboration. “I look forward to continuing AI education at the College of Medicine, but also learning about perioperative care and the data elements that are relevant so that all of us as a team can leverage informatics and AI to do better research, leading to improved care,” he said.

Dr. Modave will work closely with the basic science research faculty, the various labs and research groups related to our department, and the data analytics team. He will facilitate identification of funding opportunities both internal and external and the submission of proposals in collaboration with the research operations office. Further, Dr. Modave will promote multidisciplinary collaborations within and outside the department and aid basic science research faculty in identifying resources to aid their research.

Doctor Tighe with Dean Koch

Dr. Modave joined the UF Department of Anesthesiology in August as a professor in artificial intelligence (AI). Shortly before joining us, he teamed up with Drs. Patrick Tighe and Chris Giordano to develop an AI course for clinicians that began in May 2022. He believes the impact of AI to improve evidence-based medicine will only be seen provided we have quality data, so collaboration with clinicians is critical as they can provide context to the data being collected and analyzed.

Dr. Modave’s extensive work history spans over two decades, during which time he has held several positions at esteemed universities in the United States, including Loyola University Chicago, the University of Florida, and the University of Texas Health Science Center. With his expertise in health outcomes and biomedical informatics, he has made noteworthy contributions to eHealth and artificial intelligence. He is the site-PI for a recently awarded R34 funded by NIAAA and  was one of three mPIs for a recently completed Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-funded R01 focused on telehealth and disease control. His work has been funded by the NCI, NCATS, NSF, DoD and industry (Boeing, NASA).

Many thanks to Kayser Enneking, M.D., who has been gracious enough to step in and lead our research program as interim associate chair of research for the past academic year.

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