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Top medical informatics expert recruited to SC through state's Centers for Economic Excellence Program

November 10, 2008

Contact: Clare Morris, 803-413-6808, clare@claremorrisagency.com

To help South Carolina gain an edge in clinical trials research, a top
expert in research databases and web-based clinical research systems has
been recruited to South Carolina through the state's Centers of Economic
Excellence (CoEE) Program.

Dr. Jihad S. Obeid has been recruited as a CoEE Endowed Chair in Biomedical
Informatics at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Medical
informatics is a field that focuses on managing and processing data,
information and knowledge to improve healthcare practice and delivery.

The CoEE Program was created by the S.C. General Assembly in 2002. It
invests lottery funds to create research centers at the state's three
research universities (Clemson University, University of South Carolina and
MUSC) and to attract world-renowned scientists or "endowed chairs" to the
state. The program mandate is to create high-paying jobs in South Carolina
and improve the standard of living for citizens.

Dr. Obeid will work with information technology professionals throughout
South Carolina to develop software and infrastructure that help researchers
share data and collaborate across hospitals and universities. He is known
nationally for developing innovative software to manage complex datasets in
clinical settings.

By making clinical trial information easier to collect and analyze, medical
informatics systems enable researchers to conduct rigorous studies and more
easily compare the effectiveness of different treatments for a given
disease. This allows treatments to move from the lab to the patient faster
and more efficiently.

"By increasing our leadership in clinical trials research, South Carolina is
more likely to attract pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, which
rely on clinical trials to test their products," says Dr. John Raymond,
MUSC's vice president for academic affairs. "These companies would invest
millions of dollars and create high-paying jobs that would invigorate South
Carolina's economy and raise the standard of living."

As a CoEE endowed chair, Obeid will help lead the Clinical Effectiveness and
Patient Safety Center, one of 43 centers funded through the CoEE Program.
The Center is a public-private partnership among South Carolina's three
research universities and Health Sciences South Carolina, a statewide
biomedical research collaborative that has contributed a significant portion
of the required dollar-for-dollar non-state match.

Dr. Obeid will work with Dr. John J. Schaefer III, another CoEE endowed
chair in the Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety CoEE. The two will
develop better ways to collect, organize, transfer and interpret data
generated through the Simulation Center Network, a group of seven existing
or planned facilities throughout South Carolina. He will also work closely
with Drs. Iain Sanderson and Jay Moskowitz, endowed chair holders at the
CoEE for Healthcare Quality at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Obeid
will work specifically with Dr. Sanderson to create statewide biomedical
informatics programs such as a clinical data warehouse (CDW). CDWs can
hasten the development of clinical trials due to the way they optimize data
for research. As a result, such information warehouses make it easier to
conduct statewide clinical trials, improve the quality and efficiency of
those trials, and integrate information from multiple sites.

"We are working to build informatics in South Carolina to make the jobs of
researchers easier by providing them with access to databases and tools so
that they can accomplish more," Obeid explains.

Dr. Obeid says that he has chosen to move his work to South Carolina because
of exciting new opportunities in the field that have arisen as the result of
a critical mass of informatics expertise being developed in the state. He
notes that South Carolina is ahead of the curve in bioinformatics and that
his work will focus more on clinical informatics-dealing with data about
patient outcomes. Better data management and sharing can help raise the
level of patient care in South Carolina, he says.

"South Carolina has an excellent set of programs in biomedical informatics,
but they need to be consolidated to be even more effective," he says. "I
believe that my work will help to crystallize this effort. South Carolina is
fertile ground for innovation in this field, and I am eager to join the team
of professionals who will help the state become a leader in the field."

In addition to his CoEE endowed chair position, Obeid will be director of
academic informatics for the South Carolina Clinical and Translational
Research Institute and associate professor in the Department of
Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Epidemiology at MUSC.

"We are thrilled to have someone of Dr. Obeid's caliber working in our state
and we are thankful that the S.C. General Assembly has had the vision to
make it a reality through the CoEE Program," says CoEE Review Board Chair
Paula Harper Bethea.

Dr. Obeid arrives to South Carolina from the Weill Cornell Medical College
in New York, where he was associate director for biomedical informatics at
the Clinical and Translational Science Center and associate research
professor of pediatrics. He previously worked at the Brigham and Women's
Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, in Boston. Obeid
completed fellowships in pediatric endocrinology at Cornell University, and
informatics at a combined Harvard University/ Massachusetts Institute of
Technology program. Before that he completed a pediatric residency at Duke
University. He received his M.D. with distinction and a bachelor's degree in
biology from the American University of Beirut.

For a photo of Dr. Obeid, visit
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/3013725101_46f5275cdc.jpg

About the CoEE Program

The S.C. Centers of Economic Excellence Program was established by the South
Carolina General Assembly in 2002, funded through South Carolina Education
Lottery proceeds. The legislation authorizes the state's three public
research institutions, Medical University of South Carolina, Clemson
University and the University of South Carolina, to use state funds to
create Centers of Economic Excellence in research areas that will advance
South Carolina's economy. Each Center of Economic Excellence is awarded from
$2 million to $5 million in state funds, which must be matched on a
dollar-for-dollar basis with non-state funds. The program also supports CoEE
endowed chairs, world-renowned scientists who lead the Centers of Economic
Excellence. By investing in talent and technology, the CoEE Program is
designed to fuel the state's knowledge-based economy, resulting in
high-paying jobs and an improved standard of living in South Carolina. For
more information, visit www.sccoee.org.

About Health Sciences South Carolina

Established in April 2004, Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) is a
statewide public-private collaborative of universities and health systems
possessing the shared vision of using health sciences research to improve
the health and economic wellbeing of South Carolina. HSSC includes Clemson
University, the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of
South Carolina, Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center,
Palmetto Health, and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. For more
information, visit www.healthsciencessc.org.

About MUSC

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, the Medical University of South Carolina is
the oldest medical school in the South. Today, MUSC continues the tradition
of excellence in education, research and patient care. MUSC educates and
trains more than 3,000 students and residents, and has nearly 11,000
employees, including 1,500 faculty members. As the largest non-federal
employer in Charleston, the university and its affiliates have collective
annual budgets in excess of $1.6 billion. MUSC operates a 750-bed medical
center, which includes a nationally recognized Children's Hospital and a
leading Institute of Psychiatry. For more information on academic
information or clinical services, visit
www.musc.edu or
www.muschealth.com.