Cheng-Kai Kao, MD, is an academic hospitalist board-certified in clinical informatics. In addition to clinical practice and residency education, his areas of interest in informatics include clinical decision support systems, documentation improvement, clinical pathways, mobile health, and healthcare innovation. As Chief Clinical Informatics Innovation Officer, he leads multiple initiatives that leverage information technology to provide decision support for the frontline clinicians to ensure patient safety, optimize clinical workflow to increase work efficiency, enhance usability of the electronic health record system to reduce screen time, and make innovations to improve care quality and patient experience. He is the course instructor of clinical informatics at Pritzker School of Medicine and master program of biomedical informatics at University of Chicago.

Dr. Kao also serves as the medical director in the office of international programs. He oversees the clinical course of international patients from all over the world, optimizes their care quality and patient experience, promotes the knowledge transfer service, and fosters collaboration with overseas academic medical centers and healthcare organizations.

Dr. Kao is also the site principal investigator of several phase III clinical trials on novel oral anticoagulants, one of which led to the FDA approval of the new oral anticoagulant. Dr. Kao is named Top Hospitalist by American College of Physicians Hospitalist magazine in 2017.

CLINICAL LEADERSHIP
Medical Director, Office of International Programs, University of Chicago Medicine (2014-present)
Medical Director of Informatics, University of Chicago Medicine (2014-2017)
Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, University of Chicago Medicine (2017-2022)
Chief Clinical Informatics Innovation Officer (2022-)

EDUCATION ACTIVITIES
Course Director, ‘Leadership and Innovation’ and ‘Decision Support Systems and Health Care,’ Master of Science in Biomedical Informatics (MScBMI), University of Chicago Graham School
Course Director, ‘Building the Business Plan,’ Certificate in the Business of Biotechnology Program, University of Chicago Graham School
Course Director, ‘Overview of Medical Informatics’, Medical Student 4th Year Elective, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine