PHHP names chair of health services research, management and policy
Dr. Arch Mainous
Arch G. “Chip” Mainous III, Ph.D., has been named chair of the College of Public Health and Health Professions’ department of health services research, management and policy.
Mainous also holds the position of Florida Blue Endowed Chair, which was created by Florida Blue, Florida’s Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.
Mainous comes to UF from the Medical University of South Carolina where he was the associate dean for assessment evaluation and a professor and director of research in the department of family medicine. He succeeds R. Paul Duncan, Ph.D., who continues at UF as the Graduate School’s associate dean for academic affairs and as a faculty member in health services research, management and policy.
In his research Mainous has focused on a goal of improving health care delivery by determining the appropriate treatment for a particular patient.
“I think to be able to identify the right treatments for the right patients you really need to link information and knowledge that comes from basic scientists to clinicians, to health services, and then on to policy,” he said. “That is what made the position of chair of health services research, management and policy particularly appealing, because of the opportunity to connect with people at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute and other centers and colleges across campus.”
Mainous currently leads a five-year comparative effectiveness trial funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality examining strategies to control the spread of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. He also directs a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded study on the impact of elevated iron on a variety of outcomes, including susceptibility to disease such as hemochromatosis, and patient reported quality of life.
He is the author of more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and editorials that have appeared in journals such as The Lancet, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine (formerly Archives of Internal Medicine) and the American Journal of Public Health. In 2009 Mainous and his colleagues were among the first to report that antibiotics are available for purchase without a prescription on more than 100 websites and in corner stores in some Hispanic neighborhoods. This easy access to antibiotics without a doctor’s supervision could lead to overuse and drug-resistant bacterial infections.
Researchers in the UF department of health services research, management and policy are conducting studies on areas such as health care access, Medicaid reform, health information technology and health care expenditures. The department offers a Master of Health Administration degree and a doctoral degree is health services research. Faculty members also instruct students in the public health management and policy concentration of the college’s Master of Public Health program.
“One of the things that attracted me to this position is the vast amount of resources at UF,” Mainous said. “And a lot of very motivated, very smart people.”