Brian Patterson, MD, MPH

Clinical information Publications

LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

Senior Director, Health AI, UW Health
Director of Health Artificial Intelligence (AI), UW School of Medicine and Public Health
Informatics Division Chief, BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine

AFFILIATE APPOINTMENTS

Department of Biostatistics & Medical Informatics, UW UW School of Medicine and Public Health
Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, UW College of Engineering
Master of Public Health Program, UW School of Medicine and Public Health
Section of Applied Clinical Informatics, Department of Medicine, UW School of Medicine and Public Health

EDUCATION & BIOGRAPHY

BS: Pennsylvania State University, Bioengineering
MD/MPH: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Residency: Northwestern Memorial Hospital – Chief Resident

Brian Patterson, MD, MPH, is a tenured associate professor and chief of the Division of Emergency Informatics in the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine. He also serves as Senior Director, Health AI at UW Health and the inaugural Director of Health AI for the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. In these complementary roles, Dr. Patterson helps bridge academic discovery and health system implementation, leading strategy and responsible use of artificial intelligence, informatics, and predictive analytics to advance patient care, operations, research, and education.

Dr. Patterson is a nationally recognized leader in clinical informatics with deep experience applying predictive analytics, machine learning, and other emerging technologies in health care. His work focuses on developing practical tools that support clinical decision-making, improve patient outcomes, and reduce burden on clinicians.

Dr. Patterson also directs the Emergency Care Systems Lab, where his research focuses on clinical informatics and geriatric emergency medicine. His team uses routinely collected clinical data to develop practical tools that improve the quality and safety of emergency care for older adults. Current work includes automated risk scoring to identify older adults at high risk of falling after an emergency department visit and connecting them with interventions to help prevent future falls.

His research is highly collaborative and brings together investigators from emergency medicine and across UW–Madison, including the Wisconsin School of Business, College of Engineering, and Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics.

SELECT AWARDS & HONORS

• Fellow, American Medical Informatics Association, 2025
• Physician Excellence Award for Clinical Practice, UW Health, 2025
• Board certification, Clinical Informatics, 2019
• Tideswell Emerging Leader in Aging, 2019
• Academy of Geriatric Emergency Medicine Author Spotlight, 2019
• Fellow, American College of Emergency Physicians, 2016
• Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship, BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine, 2015 & 2019
• Alpha Omega Alpha, Northwestern University, 2009

FUNDING

Currently funded:
• AHRQ R18 (2021-2026): Principal Investigator — Effectiveness of an Automated Falls-Risk Screening and Referral Tool in the Emergency Department
• NIA U19 (2023-2028): Co-Investigator — ED-LEAD: Emergency Departments Leading the Transformation of Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care
• NIA/NIH P30: Co-Investigator — Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center: Care Research Core

Previously funded:

• UW–Madison American Family Insurance Data Science Institute (2022): Co-Principal Investigator — Quasi-Experimental Designs for Learning Systems
• AHRQ R18 (2018-2022): Collaborator — Engineering Safe Care Journeys for Vulnerable Populations
• AHRQ K08 (2016-2021): Principal Investigator — Preventing Future Falls Among Older Adults Presenting to the Emergency Department
• AHRQ R01 (2014-2018): Co-Investigator
• Wisconsin Partnership Program: Co-Principal Investigator — WIsconsin Real-time Emergency Department Surveillance and Responsive Training (WIRED-RT)