UB names McCormack chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Robert F. McCormack, MD, professor of emergency medicine at the University at Buffalo and chief of service, emergency medicine for the Kaleida Health System, has been appointed chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. He served as interim chair of the department since January.  

The announcement, which was made by Michael E. Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, brings to 16 the number of new chairs and chair-level appointees named by Cain since he became dean in 2006. These hires, Cain says, are a critical piece of his strategic vision for the medical school's future, especially as the new medical school building, which will open in 2017, takes shape on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

“Dr. McCormack possess the administrative, investigative, clinical, leadership and visionary skills needed to move the department forward, expand the department’s research programs, enhance the excellence of the department’s graduate medical education, and best develop and align a comprehensive clinical program at Great Lakes Health  and our community,” said Cain.

A native of Long Island, McCormack received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry from McGill University in Montreal and his MD from the State University of New York Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Jacobi Medical Center and was chief resident. He completed his Master of Business Administration with honors in 2014 at UB’s Executive MBA Program. He has attended the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine’s Chair Development Program and Harvard Medical School’s Leadership for Physician Executives. He is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.

Following his residency, McCormack was an instructor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Boston University’s School of Medicine. In 1996, he joined the UB medical school as an assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine. He served as vice chair of emergency medicine from 2009 to 2014.

McCormack’s medical research interests include subarachnoid hemorrhage, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism diagnosis and treatment, cardiovascular emergencies including cardiac exercise stress testing by emergency physicians, emergency department management and resident education.

He has published peer-reviewed articles in his areas of interest and has lectured nationally and internationally. He participates in several national committees and associations including the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, American College of Emergency Physicians and American Academy of Emergency Medicine, and he serves as an oral examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine. McCormack is a member of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Clinical Care Forum and a board member of Horizons Health. He chairs the Kaleida Health Emergency Medicine Advisory Committee.

The recipient of numerous awards, including induction into the Beta Gamma Sigma National Business Honor Society in 2014, McCormack was a keynote speaker for the Alpha Epsilon Delta PreHealth Honor Society Induction Ceremony in 2014. He received the Kaleida Health Spirit Award in 2011.

He lives in Buffalo.