Dr. Dick Kuo named chair of emergency medicine

Dr. Dick Kuo, professor of emergency medicine, has been named chair of the Henry J.N. Taub Department of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, effective immediately. He has been serving as interim chair since the department was established two years ago.

The department previously was a section within the Department of Medicine. As chair of the department, Kuo will manage the department across the three adult hospitals: Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, the DeBakey Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center and Ben Taub Hospital.

Kuo, a Houston native, earned his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University before receiving his medical degree at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He served as a surgical intern at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas before completing his emergency medicine residency at the University of Maryland, where he stayed on as faculty for 15 years.

Before his tenure at Baylor College of Medicine, Kuo served as medical director for the Department of Emergency Medicine and co-chair for emergency medicine faculty development at the University of Maryland.

Currently, he is a member of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Faculty Development Committee and an oral board examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine. Kuo’s research interests include cardiovascular disorders, such as ACS, heart failure and stroke, clinical effectiveness and testing in the emergency department, and competency in education.