Emory medical chief announces resignation

Emory University's chief of health care-related academic and medical programs announced Friday that he will resign in September.

Dr. Fred Sanfilippo, who joined the Emory leadership in 2007, said he will pursue research on creating affordable, high-quality health care tailored to the individual patient.

He will retain his faculty positions in the Emory School of Medicine and the Rollins School of Public Health.

Sanfilippo holds the titles of Emory University executive vice president for health affairs, CEO of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and chairman of the board of Emory Healthcare.

At Emory, he will help coordinate and expand studies on cost, quality and access to care, with the goal of supporting new forms of personalized health care. Sanfilippo said the passage earlier this year of a national health care overhaul, which provided billions of dollars for supporting new health care models, makes this an opportune time to study innovation in the field.

Under his guidance, the Emory Winship Cancer Institute became the first facility in Georgia to be designated a national cancer center by the National Cancer Institute.

He will be replaced by Dr. S. Wright Caughman, a 20-year veteran at Emory. He is vice president for clinical and academic integration at Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center and executive associate dean for clinical affairs in the School of Medicine. He is also director of the Emory Clinic, the group practice of the School of Medicine faculty.

Emory University President James Wagner said Caughman will fill the post for at least one year and as many as three.