Dr. Thomas Agresta has been named chair of the Department of Family Medicine at UConn Health and its UConn School of Medicine after serving successfully in the interim department chair role.
Agresta is board certified in both family medicine and clinical informatics (CI). He has been a member of the School of Medicine faculty since 1995. After successfully completing his UConn/St. Francis Family Medicine residency training program in 1993, he joined the School of Medicine’s full-time faculty two years later.
“We welcome Tom to his new role as chair of Family Medicine at UConn Health, and his vision to expand the Department of Family Medicine and to effectively use and study technology tools to aid primary care physicians in best serving their patients,” says UConn School of Medicine Dean and UConn Health Interim CEO Dr. Bruce T. Liang.
He earned his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) which is now part of Rutgers, and received his undergraduate degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in Biomedical Engineering. Agresta also holds a master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics (MBI) from Oregon Health Sciences University.
His expertise in CI has translated into a number of regional and national opportunities to help shape this emerging field, including serving in leadership roles to provide advice to numerous state agencies regarding creation and optimization of an official state health information Exchange (HIE), as well as helping to establish the discipline of CI by sitting on the CI sub-board of the American Board of Preventive Medicine and creating the certifying exam for the field.
Agresta is interested in innovative ways to foster “high-tech, high-touch” primary care and has been a principal investigator or co-investigator on a number of grants and contracts with federal and state agencies, foundations, non-profits, and companies, focused on the effective use of technology in medicine and education. He collaborates broadly with colleagues from medicine, computer science, pharmacy, nursing, and others across UConn and nationally. He also has authored publications and presentations across these disciplines.
Interestingly, Agresta served as the Informatics Lead for the Connecticut Institute for Primary Care Innovation and worked with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) to create an interactive, futuristic, and hands-on museum-like display called the Office of the Future which was visited by a national audience of thousands of family medicine physicians over several years.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to lead the Family Medicine department in a time of rapid change in medicine, when effective use of technology has the potential to improve the capacity of primary care physicians, while enhancing the care of patients, and also reducing their stress and risks of burnout. I look forward to working with a wide range of leaders at UConn and regionally to increase the family medicine workforce and improve access to high-quality, accessible and ‘high-tech, high-touch’ primary care,” says Agresta.
About UConn Health:
UConn Health is a vibrant, integrated academic medical center that is entering an era of unprecedented growth in all three areas of its mission: academics, research, and clinical care. A commitment to human health and well-being has been of utmost importance to UConn Health since the founding of the University of Connecticut Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine in 1961. Based on a strong foundation of groundbreaking research, first-rate education, and quality clinical care, we have expanded our medical missions over the decades. In just over 50 years, UConn Health has evolved to encompass more research endeavors, to provide more ways to access our superior care, and to innovate both practical medicine and our methods of educating the practitioners of tomorrow.
Because UConn Health is home to the UConn School of Medicine and UConn School of Dental Medicine, patients receive the advantages of the latest innovations and research in health care. UConn physicians and caregivers are leaders in their fields, including emerging areas of personalized medicine, and many have received national and international acclaim.
Since UConn Health’s inception, our faculty have been committed to high-quality research programs as part of the institution’s fabric. The future of medicine starts here.
Through Bioscience Connecticut, the original research building on the UConn Health campus will be renovated to include space for start-up bioscience businesses. In addition, Bioscience Connecticut is bringing about a new collaboration between the state, UConn, UConn Health, Yale University, and the prestigious Jackson Laboratory. The project enables Connecticut to assume a position of global leadership in genomics and personalized medicine by developing new medical treatments tailored to each patient’s unique genetic makeup.
About Thomas P. Agresta, M.D., M.B.I.:
Dr. Agresta is a seasoned family physician, educator, administrator, researcher and innovator with a history of bringing together multidisciplinary teams to focus on developing novel methods for creating, using and evaluating technology in both clinical and teaching settings. He has a bachelors in biomedical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, a medical degree from New Jersey Medical School and a masters in biomedical informatics from Oregon Health Sciences University. He oversees the Electronic Medical Record for the Family Medicine residency clinic and has held state level leadership roles in adoption and implementation for Health Information Exchange and Electronic Health Records including being a founding Director and Vice Chair/Treasurer of the Health Information Technology of CT. He has co-led the development of the newly formed Biomedical Informatics Division (BMID) within the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science for the University of Connecticut. The BMID is a cross campus initiative that involves faculty and staff that range from physicians to computer scientists. He has focused on several areas, including establishing the “Grow Your Own Informatician” program, informatics educational programs and establishment of regional relationships for operational and research Informatics that include the use of both identified and de-identified clinical research data warehouses. He is also the section leader for Informatics in the Connecticut Institute for Primary Care Innovation, a joint venture between the University of Connecticut and St. Francis Hospital. He has research interests in using technology to enhance the care of patients as well as the experience and efficiency of providers.
Source:
News: https://today.uconn.edu/2023/09/dr-thomas-agresta-is-new-chair-of-family-medicine-at-uconn-health/#
Doctor: https://facultydirectory.uchc.edu/profile?profileId=Agresta-Thomas