J. Robert Beck, MD

J. Robert Beck received his AB summa cum laude from Dartmouth in 1974 and his MD from Johns Hopkins 1978, where he began developing his interests in health services research and biomedical informatics.  He trained in pathology and laboratory medicine at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in Clinical Decision Making at the New England Medical Center.  During his fellowship Dr. Beck worked with health decision science pioneers Stephen Pauker and Jerome Kassirer, and developed Markov and life expectancy models for medical decision making that have strongly influenced the field. Bob’s two main Markov modeling papers (1983 and 1993) have been cited over 2200 times.

Bob returned to Dartmouth Medical School in 1982 as Assistant Professor of Pathology.  Over the next eight years he served as medical director of the blood bank, staff hematopathologist, acting director of clinical pathology, and founding director of a program in medical information science.  He was promoted to Associate Professor of Pathology and Community & Family Medicine during this period.  In 1989 Dr. Beck was recruited to Oregon Health Sciences University as Professor of Pathology, Medicine, and Preventive Medicine & Public Health, where he established and directed the Biomedical Information Communication Center under a contract from the National Library of Medicine (NLM).  He also served as OHSU’s Chief Information Officer.

In 1992 Bob moved to Baylor College of Medicine as Vice President for Information Technology and Professor of Pathology and of Community & Family Medicine.  While there he led Baylor’s NLM-funded Integrated Academic Information Management Systems initiative, developed collaborative training programs with Rice University and the University of Houston, and served on the board of the Houston Academy of Medicine – Texas Medical Center Library.  He assisted the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in converting its School of Allied Health to one of Health Information Sciences.  In 1999 Dr. Beck was asked to take an interim role as Executive Director of the Library, while retaining a vice presidency for Information Research and Planning at Baylor.

Dr. Beck was recruited to Fox Chase Cancer Center in 2001 as Vice President and Chief Information Officer.  He has served in several roles at Fox Chase, becoming Deputy Director of the Division of Population Sciences in 2006, Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer in 2007, Chief Medical Officer in 2009, and Deputy Director of the Center in 2013.  Bob holds the inaugural H.O. West & J.R. Wike Chair in Cancer Research at Fox Chase. He has held grants from NLM and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) while in Philadelphia.  Beginning in 2008 his interest in health disparities and academic equity led Dr. Beck to establish a NCI funded partnership with Lincoln University for cancer research and training. He has been a champion for STEM education, diversity and inclusion.

Now semi-retired, Bob is a key advisor to the President and CEO on matters related to value creation, patient safety, investment in quality, risk management, regulatory and accreditation matters, clinical outcomes, employee and faculty engagement, medical staff and faculty governance, and public reporting.

Dr. Beck has published over 200 papers, has held grants throughout his career, and has served in many editorial capacities. Bob has served on non-profit, private and public corporate boards. He remains an Executive Board member of the Society for Medical Decision Making (for which he served as President).