Michael Karpf M.D., EVP Health Affairs, University of Kentucky

Michael Karpf received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.  After an internship in Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he served as a Research Associate in the Laboratory of Immunology at the National Institutes of Health.  He returned to the University of Pennsylvania to complete his medical residency, fellowship in Hematology and Oncology and a Chief Residency in Internal Medicine.  In 1978, he went to the Miami Veteran Administration Hospital to start a Division of General Internal Medicine.

In 1979, he was recruited to the University of Pittsburgh to develop a Division of General Medicine.  In 1985, he assumed the Falk Chair in General Medicine and became Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine.  At the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Karpf was instrumental in restructuring the educational programs for medical students and house staff as well as the clinical programs of the Department of Medicine. At Pitt, he established a large Division of General Internal Medicine which was described in the literature and served as a model for other programs.  In 1994, Dr. Karpf went to the Allegheny Health Systems as Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs at Allegheny General Hospital and Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs at the Allegheny Integrated Health Group.  In 1995, Dr. Karpf was recruited to UCLA as Vice Provost for Hospital Systems.  There he integrated the UCLA Medical Center, the Santa Monica /UCLA Medical Center and the Neuropsychiatric Hospital into one corporate entity.  He was instrumental in developing a primary care  network and he also reorganized the practice management organization for the medical group. In October 2003, he was recruited to the University of Kentucky as the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs to integrate the clinical services.   He is responsible for all clinical operations across the university hospital, medical center (including all schools and colleges), and practice organizations (Kentucky Medical Services Foundation and University Physicians Group Council).  In his first year with UK HealthCare he has led the enterprise through a comprehensive planning review which includes strategic, financial and capital planning processes to lay the foundation for the enterprise as it creates its vision for the future.  This planning process culminated in a 30-year vision for the replacement of both the clinical and academic campuses.  The first phase – a $450 million partial replacement of the hospital, has already been initiated. Construction on the College of Pharmacy building will begin this fall and two additional research buildings and combined educational facilities serving all the health related colleges are being planned.  Clinical activity has increased approximately 30% over the last three years and research funding has also improved 45 percent over the same time period.

Dr. Karpf’s academic interests have been in developing and evaluating innovative educational and clinical programs.  He established the Primary Care Training Residency and the General Medicine Fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh.  At UCLA and at the University of Kentucky he has been instrumental in establishing a Center for Patient Safety and Quality and the Ethics Center.

Dr. Karpf has been involved in many civic and professional organizations.  He was the Chairman of the Statewide Healthcare Coordinating Committee for Pennsylvania in 1993.  He was a member of the Governor’s Task Force evaluating Managed Care in California in 1997-1998 and served on the Board of Directors of the Hospital Association of Southern California for 1997-2000.  Since 2001, Dr. Karpf serves as the chairman of Advisory Panel on Health Care Delivery for the Association of American Medical Colleges as well as the AAHC Taskforce evaluating the nation’s health workforce.