Wright Caughman, MD
Vice President for Clinical and Academic Integration
Director, The Emory Clinic
S. Wright Caughman, MD, is vice president for clinical and academic integration in Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center, a role in which he is responsible for coordinating, implementing and managing the center's strategic plan for transforming health and healing.
Dr. Caughman directs four core strategies: implementing master plans for new clinic and hospital facilities; developing and promoting key multidisciplinary centers of excellence; promoting a high-performance, patient-focused service culture; and insuring maximal integration of the translational research, educational, and training missions within the fabric of the Health Science Center's clinical programs.
Dr. Caughman provides strategic leadership in consolidating expertise and accelerating collaboration among the multiple components of the Health Sciences Center, including all Emory Healthcare sites and all affiliate sites, such as the VA Medical Center, Grady Memorial Hospital and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He explores new opportunities and initiatives to achieve maximum integration in education, research and patient-centered care, including the development of integrated outpatient and inpatient healthcare, clinical research and clinical educational facilities across the Emory campuses.
Dr. Caughman also directs implementation of the strategic plans for the comprehesive centers in the Health Sciences Center, which initially include the Comprehensive Center for Neuroscience, the Heart and Vascular Center, the Emory Transplant Center, the Winship Cancer Institute and the Emory Center for Respiratory Health.
Teamed with three other WHSC Vice Presidents, Dr. Caughman shares responsibility for the implementation of the strategic plans for the comprehensive centers in the Health Sciences Center, which initially include the Comprehensive Center for Neuroscience, the Heart and Vascular Center, the Emory Transplant Center, the Winship Cancer Institute and emerging centers in Critical Care, Palliative Care and Healthy Aging.
He is also director of The Emory Clinic and executive associate dean for clinical affairs in Emory University School of Medicine. He is former chair of the dermatology department in Emory's School of Medicine. He joined the dermatology faculty at Emory in 1990 after serving as medical officer and principal investigator in the dermatology branch of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. In addition to teaching and working as a staff physician at The Emory Clinic, Grady Memorial Hospital and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, he was director of research in Emory's Department of Dermatology for four years before becoming department chair.
He has been a member of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, of the Winship Cancer Institute faculty, and has served as director of the Emory Skin Diseases Research Center. Dr. Caughman lead a successful research program in cutaneous biology for many years and was one of two co-chairs of the School of Medicine research strategic plans in 1997 and 2003. He was named chair of the Department of Dermatology in 1997.
After receiving his undergraduate degree at Davidson College and his MD from the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Caughman completed his residency (and served as chief resident) in dermatology at Harvard Medical School. He was a high school English teacher for several years before pursuing his medical degree.
