May 5, 2022 — Patrick Tighe, M.D., M.S., who holds the Donn M. Dennis, M.D., Professorship in Anesthetic Innovation, has been named associate dean for AI application & implementation at the UF College of Medicine by Dean Colleen Koch, M.D., M.S., M.B.A.

Tighe is an associate professor in the department of anesthesiology and the department of orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine. He is also an affiliate associate professor in the information systems and operations management department in the Warrington College of Business.

In his role as associate dean for AI application & implementation, Tighe will leverage his experience in AI to improve understanding of clinical operations and patient safety using advanced analytical methods. He will also work with others throughout the college to improve the accessibility and impact of AI methods in support of the college’s missions, including the safe and effective implementation of AI solutions into clinical care.

After earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Florida, Tighe received his medical degree from the UF College of Medicine in 2005. He then completed his anesthesiology residency and fellowship in acute pain medicine and regional anesthesia at UF, followed by a master’s degree in clinical and translational research.

Tighe has consulted for the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement on systems-level practice considerations for the safe management of acute and perioperative pain conditions. From 2018 to 2021, he served on the board of directors for the American Academy of Pain Medicine, helping to develop diagnostic, therapeutic and public policy measures to combat the opioid epidemic. He currently serves as co-director, along with Catherine Price, Ph.D., of the UF Perioperative Cognitive Anesthesia Network, or PeCAN.

In partnership with collaborators from across the UF campus, Tighe conducts research that uses deep learning and graph analytics to better understand how patient, anesthetic and surgical factors influence postoperative outcomes related to pain and cognition. More recently, he has worked with investigators throughout UF Health and across the country on the technical, ethical and systems-level challenges inherent to applying AI tools and methods to the clinical environment. He has been funded by the National Institutes of Health as a principal investigator on AI research programs since 2012.

As part of the UF AI Initiative, Tighe currently serves as co-chair for the UF Health AI Steering Committee and represents the College of Medicine on the UF AI research working group.