Kalyan Pasupathy named professor and head of the Department of Biomedical and Health information Sciences

Kalyan “Kal” Pasupathy, a pioneer in information and decision sciences who focuses on advancing science and translating knowledge to improve health and care delivery, was named professor and head of the Department of Biomedical and Health information Sciences.

Pasupathy, whose appointment was effective Aug. 16, succeeds former department head Anthony Faiola.

“Dr. Pasupathy brings over 20 years of experience in health informatics and data science research and scholarship across multiple disciplines, including systems engineering, data science, mathematical modeling, health care management and translational practices for improving patient care,” said AHS dean Bo Fernhall. “In addition to being a productive and impactful researcher, he has held administrative positions of high importance.”

Pasupathy was founding scientific director of Information and Decision Engineering at the Mayo Clinic Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, where he led a research team focused on care delivery and outcomes.

He was founding scientific director of the Mayo Clinic Clinical Engineering Learning Laboratories, a partnership with the departments of emergency medicine, radiology, audiology and diagnostic safety to translate research into practice redesign, funded through research, practice, federal and benefactor sources.

Pasupathy’s research and translational focus advances the science and technology at the intersection of people, processes and information. It has led to improvements in informatics, population health and digital health sciences.

He is principal investigator on a $2.5 million grant from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to improve diagnosis safety in emergency and acute care.

Before joining the Mayo Clinic in 2013 as associate professor of health care systems engineering, he was senior informatics research scientist at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee and a faculty member, researcher and consultant in informatics at University of Missouri Health System.

He worked to improve service delivery at the American Red Cross and British Red Cross as interim manager and senior associate of strategic and operational research and analysis.

Honors he has received include the INFORMS Innovative Analytics Award from the INFORMS Society, the Wagner prize, the New Faces of Engineering Award from the Engineers Week Foundation, and the Goodeve Medal, awarded by the Operational Research Society and presented at the Royal Society in London.

Pasupathy has been a consultant to organizations and institutions in Brazil, Indonesia, Peru, Australia and the UK. He is the author of over 90 peer-reviewed published articles and two editions of the book “Health Informatics: A Systems Perspective.”

He holds doctoral and master’s degrees in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a bachelor’s in production engineering from Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, India.

The Department of Biomedical and Health information Sciences includes graduate and undergraduate programs in biomedical visualization, health informatics and health information management.