Before becoming a physician, Chad Epps, MD, was a high school teacher. As the new executive director of the Interprofessional Simulation and Patient Safety Center under construction at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), Epps will combine his areas of expertise to improve education for future healthcare professionals and the quality of care their patients will receive.
Epps, who trained in anesthesiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and completed a fellowship in Human Patient Simulation at Mount Sinai Human Emulation Education and Evaluation Lab for Patient Safety and Professionalism, began his new job at UTHSC June 1. Most recently, he served as the associate director for the Office of Interprofessional Simulation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and as an associate professor with academic appointments in four schools there -- Medicine, Health Professions, Nursing and Engineering. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine in Augusta.
Epps will be the first to lead academic programs in the new $36.7 million building, which is expected to be completed in 2017. The building will allow students from all six colleges at UTHSC to train together in simulation settings to develop their skills in delivering team-based healthcare. Using high-tech mannequins and standardized patients (actors who portray patients with a variety of conditions), UTHSC will offer state-of-the-art training under the safest conditions possible.