February 17, 2003
Volume 7, Number 7 • Indianapolis, Indiana

Former practice plan executive tapped to lead IUMG-SC

Paul Cook, MD, MHA, has been appointed chief executive officer of IU Medical Group - Specialty Care. He also will serve as IUSM executive associate dean of clinical affairs and a professor of otolaryngology. He will begin his duties May 1.

Dr. Cook, an otolaryngologist and allergist, has led the practice plan at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, serving as chairman of that group from November 1999 until November 2002. For the past few months he has been a special consultant to the current chairman of University Physicians.

Dr. Cook joined the University of Missouri School of Medicine faculty in 1991. He served in the Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology and also holds an adjunct appointment in Health Management and Informatics. During his tenure, he has served as head of the Section of Allergy and Sinus Disease, director of the Nasal Dysfunction Laboratory, director of otolaryngology and audiology clinics and medical director of the Short Stay Unit at University Hospital.

He retired in 1999 as a major with the U.S. Army Medical Corps, having served in the Reserves for 17 years.

A native of California, Dr. Cook completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Oklahoma. He completed a general surgery residency at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center and was chief resident at the University of Missouri Hospital and the Harry S Truman Memorial VA Hospital where he completed training in otolaryngology, head and neck and facial plastic and reconstructive surgery and clinical otolaryngic allergy.

Dr. Cook has ties to Indiana having completed an allergy and clinical immunology fellowship at Welborn Clinic in Evansville in the mid 1980s.

He also holds an executive masters degree in health administration from the University of Missouri - Columbia.

Dr. Cook will take over the role of CEO from Paul Nelson, MD, who has served as the interim executive officer of IUMG-SC since July 1. He fulfilled the administrative and leadership duties while the IUMG board conducted a national search for a replacement to William Martin, MD, who resigned to accept the position of medical school dean at the University of Cincinnati.

Dr. Nelson, division director of neurosurgery, joined the IU faculty in 1992.