Dr. Michael Pignone is the inaugural Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and a Professor of Medicine at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.

In his prior appointment, Pignone was Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and Director of the Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement at UNC-Chapel Hill. He received his medical degree in 1993 and completed residency training in primary care internal medicine in 1996 at the University of California- San Francisco. He then completed fellowship training from 1996-98 through the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, including a master’s degree in epidemiology from the UNC School of Public Health.

Pignone’s research is focused on chronic disease screening, prevention, and treatment, and on improving medical decision making. His main areas of interest include heart disease prevention, colorectal cancer screening, and management of common chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart failure. He has developed and tested interventions, including decision aids, to mitigate literacy-related health disparities and to improve the use of appropriate preventive services. He has published over 225 peer-reviewed journal articles.

In 2013, he was appointed as a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. He has served on a number of national guideline and quality improvement panels, including work for the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, and the National Committee on Quality Assurance in Healthcare. In addition, he has served as an Associate Editor for Medical Decision Making, a Medical Editor for the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation, and as an Editorial Board member for JAMA Internal Medicine. Pignone is a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine, Society for Medical Decision Making, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.