Vanderbilt University Health System has named Dr. Blackford Middleton as assistant vice chancellor for health affairs and chief informatics officer for health systems.

Middleton, most recently corporate director of clinical informatics research and development at Partners Healthcare in Boston, succeeds Dr. John Doulis.

Middleton earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and his M.D. from SUNY-Buffalo. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Sciences Center.

Middleton received his MPH from the Yale School of Public Health and his M.Sc. in health services research with emphasis in clinical informatics from Stanford University.

His early career included roles as medical director of information management and technology at Stanford University Hospital and as senior vice president for clinical informatics and chief medical officer for MedicaLogic, a provider of commercial electronic medical record software.

In 2001, Middleton joined the Harvard faculty in the division of general internal medicine and primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He also led the Center for Information Technology Leadership.

In 2008, Middleton was appointed to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. He has served as the chair of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and is currently chair-elect of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Middleton is principal investigator of the Clinical Decision Support Consortium. Funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the consortium includes academic medical centers, health systems, health care IT software vendors, publishers and consulting firms seeking to assess, define, demonstrate, and evaluate best practices for knowledge management and clinical decision support across multiple ambulatory care settings and electronic health record technology platforms.