Mitchell Schnall, MD, PhD
PHILADELPHIA—Mitchell Schnall, MD, PhD, has been appointed to a newly created role as Senior Vice President for Data and Technology Solutions for the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS), following two terms as Chair of Radiology in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. In his new role, he will lead teams and projects that will pave a path for Penn Medicine to lead the health care industry into a new, technology- and data-driven era.
Schnall will spearhead the health system’s efforts to understand new tools and approaches and determine how best to implement them across UPHS to improve the provider experience, boost health outcomes for patients, and drive efficiency across the health system.
“Penn Medicine is excited to seize emerging opportunities to use technology in ways that will transform the health care industry,” said UPHS CEO Kevin B. Mahoney. “Dr. Schnall is a talented and visionary leader who will help us draw on our institution’s longstanding culture of innovation and continuous learning in this new space, and provide a road map for health systems across the nation.”
In his new role, Schnall will lead the offices of the Chief Information Officer, Chief Medical Information Officer, and Chief Analytics Officer. Together, they will analyze the clinical and business impact of innovations, and work to build on Penn Medicine’s success with tools for automating patient access, monitoring, and self-serve transactions.
During his two terms as chair of Radiology, Schnall doubled both the size of the department and its research funding portfolio. He developed training programs and funding pathways for clinician-scientists in Radiology, unified academic programs across UPHS’s Philadelphia hospitals, and created a single Penn Medicine Radiology residency that has been named as the top radiology program in the nation. Schnall also developed strong collaboration between the department’s community-based physicians and its academic programs. Additionally, he built a framework for “One Penn Medicine Radiology,” which he will continue to lead as he assumes his new role. He will continue to serve in a leadership role in the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group.
Schnall has a strong national reputation, having been elected as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Medicine.
He will begin his new role on May 1, 2024. At that time, William Stavropoulos, MD, an internationally recognized interventional radiologist and member of the Radiology faculty for 24 years who currently serves as Vice Chair of Clinical Operations, will assume a post as interim chair of the Department of Radiology while a national search for a new chair takes place.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.