Kentucky native Dr. Mark F. Newman, the leader of one of the country’s largest and most renowned academic physician practice plans, will be UK’s new executive vice president for health affairs. He will begin at UK in October.
Newman, an anesthesiologist, currently serves as president of Private Diagnostic Clinic, the physician practice plan for Duke University’s Medical Center, a position he’s held since 2014. Born and raised in Owensboro and a veteran of the Air Force, Newman has been at Duke since 1992 and has held a variety of increasingly senior positions, including professor of medicine and chair of anesthesiology.
Newman grew up in Kentucky as part of a farm family with a strong focus on education. He stayed close to home to attend Western Kentucky University to help his family while his father was ill and began running the family farm after his father passed away. He received the Air Force Health Professions Scholarship to attend medical school at the University of Louisville. He completed a residency in the Air Force and a fellowship in Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology and Transesophageal Echocardiography at Duke University Medical Center before returning to active duty at Wilford Hall Ambulatory Medical Center, a U.S. Air Force facility. He was deployed for Operation “Just Cause” and then for “Desert Shield” and “Desert Storm.”
As the new EVPHA, he will succeed Dr. Michael Karpf, who has led UK HealthCare for nearly 15 years and help to grow it into a $1.5 billion enterprise with nearly 40,000 inpatient discharges and 1.5 million clinic and outpatient hospital visits annually.
“We are grateful for the members of our search committee and the many faculty and staff who took part and provided input during this thorough process to identify a new EVPHA,” said UK President Eli Capilouto in a statement. “Dr. Newman’s background as a clinician-scientist, a chairman, a hospital leader and president of a large multispecialty physician group, as well as his love for the Commonwealth and its people, give him unique insight and experience to lead our academic medical campus.”