Blair Rowitz, MD, and Jarrod Almaroad, MD, join the Carle Illinois College of Medicine with permanent appointments on the senior leadership team. Rowitz will serve as the first permanent associate dean for clinical affairs. Almaroad will serve as the first permanent director of clinical science.
Dr. Rowitz, who has served the new engineering-based college of medicine as interim associate dean for clinical affairs since November 2016, will serve a strategic role in clinical partnerships–facilitating the integration of the college’s innovation, research and scholarship activities into its clinical partners’ patient care missions. This role is critical to realizing the college’s strategic goal of transforming regional healthcare systems into global leaders for healthcare delivery and innovation.
Dr. Almaroad will serve as the principal administrative officer for clinical science, guiding it into status as an academic department within the college. In the role, he will manage the clinical component of the engineering-based M.D. degree curriculum including students’ clinical experiences and physician educator involvement.
“Dr. Rowitz and Dr. Almaroad have the right expertise to oversee these crucial areas for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine,” said Matthew Gibb, MD, chief medical officer for the Carle health system. “Dr. Rowitz is a skilled clinician, a valued administrator and trusted mentor to many,” he continued. “As a physician leader and a provider directly involved with many disciplines of care, Dr. Almaroad has unique perspective. We are pleased to have Drs. Rowitz and Almaroad serve in these roles to help ensure that our students receive the advanced clinical education necessary.”
Dr. Rowitz, an award-winning educator and clinician, holds faculty appointments in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Department of Nutritional Sciences and the University of Illinois College of Medicine’s regional campus in Champaign-Urbana. His clinical affiliations include Medical Director of Surgical Services, Carle Foundation Hospital and Physician Group; Core Teaching Faculty, Carle General Surgery Residency Program; Fellow, American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
Lending to the Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s research strengths, Dr. Rowitz’s focus areas include Metabolic responses following bariatric surgery, longitudinal clinical outcomes following bariatric surgery, and developing absorbable intestinal stents for treatment of small bowel perforations/fistulae.
Dr. Rowitz and Dr. Almaroad have the right expertise to oversee these crucial areas for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Dr. Almaroad has served as an anesthesiologist with Carle for the past nine years and has a clinical affiliation of Associate Medical Director of Perioperative Services.
“We are fortunate to welcome Dr. Almaroad and to have Dr. Rowitz continue playing an important role in building the world’s first engineering-based college of medicine,” said King Li, dean for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. “Their leadership is critical to training the first generation of physician-innovators who will re-engineer the delivery of health care.”
Dr. Rowitz received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MD from Rush Medical College. His residency was with Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Dr. Almaroad received an MD from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford. His residency was at Indiana University in Indianapolis.
The Carle Illinois College of Medicine is the first college of medicine in the nation specifically designed at the intersection of engineering and medicine. A partnership between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carle Health System, the college will integrate the university’s unparalleled assets in engineering, technology and supercomputing with Carle’s nationally recognized, comprehensive health care system.