Showstack to Serve as Academic IT Coordinator

By Lisa Cisneros

Jonathan Showstack

Professor Jonathan A. Showstack has been appointed Academic Information Technology Coordinator in the UCSF Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor. Showstack is a highly accomplished researcher, teacher and administrator with more than 30 years of experience at UCSF. He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Medicine and the Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS), where he also serves as the associate director. In this new position, Showstack will work with UCSF faculty and administrators and technology partners to create the vision and direction for management of campus information technology (IT) systems and services that support research and teaching. Integral to this role is assisting with the development of information technology strategic plans that will anticipate and accommodate future needs and growth; managing the development and implementation of systems to store and analyze disease-related clinical research data; and participating in the design, development, and testing of links between clinical and research information systems to support information-based medicine. "Showstack's strong academic record along with his remarkable IT knowledge and experience uniquely qualify him for this important post," said UCSF Executive Vice Chancellor Eugene Washington. "He has used a wide variety of mainframe, mini, and micro-computer systems, ranging from running punch cards on the mainframe in the basement of UCSF's University Hospital in the early 1970s, to the introduction and dissemination of desktop computers, to the use of web-based research and information systems. And he has leveraged his wealth of expertise to the benefit of many at UCSF." Showstack is a member of the UCSF Information Technology Governance Committee, serves on the Executive Committee of the UCSF Graduate Program in Biological and Medical Informatics, and, for the past five years, has been a member of the UCSF Academic Senate Planning and Budget Committee. Showstack's research has focused on the measurement of outcomes of medical care, assessment of new medical technologies, and the evaluation of the costs and effectiveness of health care systems. He is an expert in research methods, biostatistics, and the uses of database and statistical software, who has collaborated with other UCSF scientists on a variety of projects, including studies of the costs of kidney and liver transplantation, the characteristics of persons using emergency departments, and hospital transfer patterns within California. Source: Lisa Cisneros Photo by Michael Fahey