Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, serves as chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and CEO of UAMS Health, leading Arkansas’ only health sciences university with a mission to educate tomorrow’s health care professionals, perform research that translates to new treatments and deliver exceptional patient care at locations across the state.
He also holds the Harry P. Ward Chancellor’s Distinguished Chair, which was created in 2005 and was the first chancellor’s chair endowed at an Arkansas university.
Patterson, a renowned cardiologist and health care administrator, became chancellor June 1, 2018 — a year that saw UAMS facing a potential $72 million deficit. In the years since, Patterson has overseen significant improvement in the university’s economic outlook, despite the myriad challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He worked closely with Arkansas’ governor and other leaders during the pandemic to provide medical counsel and help ensure that the state had adequate Covid tests and personal protective equipment (PPE). His advice was often sought out by Arkansans during this uncertain time, and he served as a source of information for national and state media outlets.
Accolades for UAMS
During Patterson’s tenure, UAMS has received national recognition, including U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospital ranking and Arkansas’ only Best Regional Hospital for Equitable Access. In 2024, U.S. News ranked the College of Medicine a Tier 1 school in Primary Care, as well as ninth for the most graduates practicing in health professional shortage areas and 11th nationally for graduates practicing in rural areas. It also recognized the colleges of Pharmacy, Nursing, Health Professions and Public Health highly among their peers nationwide, while the College of Nursing’s undergraduate program continues to be the only Arkansas program to make the publication’s top 100. UAMS also received the Association of American Medical Colleges’ top honor for community engagement.
Healthgrades has consistently given high marks to UAMS’ neurosurgery and stroke programs, as well as the orthopaedic surgery, cardiology and critical care programs. In 2024, UAMS Medical Center was only hospital in the Little Rock area to receive an “A” safety grade from The Leapfrog Group. Also in 2024, UAMS achieved designation as a Magnet® hospital, the highest international recognition for excellence in nursing from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
UAMS and its employees frequently populate “Best of” lists by Arkansas publications, including earning coveted “Best Place to Work” nods.
Leadership recognition
Patterson also has received numerous accolades during his time at UAMS, including twice being named an Influencer of the Year by Arkansas Money & Politics. In 2023, he was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of its “Physician leaders to know,” the only Arkansas leader on the list. The UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Auxiliary honored him as their 2021 Distinguished Honoree, while a Stanford study listed him among the top 2% of most influential researchers, based on an analysis of Scopus, the largest database of peer-reviewed research literature. He has consistently been named to the list of 250 Most Influential Leaders in our state by Arkansas Business, which also named him as a finalist at its first ever Arkansas Executive of the Year awards ceremony. He was honored by the Central Arkansas American Heart Association with the Worthen-Cornett Award in recognition of his commitment to heart health.
He serves on the boards of America’s Essential Hospitals and is secretary/treasurer for the American Clinical and Climatological Association. He is often asked to write guest editorials for medical publications including the New England Journal of Medicine where he recently coauthored an article on the challenges of being a state’s lone academic medical center. Prior to joining UAMS, Patterson was the senior vice president and chief operating officer of New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Komansky Children’s Hospital in New York.
Prior to UAMS
He previously held numerous academic and clinical appointments at the University of North Carolina, including as physician-in-chief at the UNC Center for Heart and Vascular Care and executive director of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute. He was recognized at UNC with the Ruth and Phillip Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement.
Over the course of his career, Patterson as principal investigator or co-investigator has received more than $60 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His work has been published in 323 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
He graduated summa cum laude with his Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Vanderbilt University, where he was a Harold Sterling Vanderbilt Scholar. He earned his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and his Master of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler School of Business.
His residency, including a year as chief resident, was conducted at Emory University Affiliated Hospitals. He was a research fellow at the Cardiovascular Biology Laboratory in the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and a clinical fellow in cardiology at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas, where he joined the institution’s faculty in 1998.
His wife, Kristine Patterson, M.D., is an infectious disease specialist in the College of Medicine who is an expert in treating menopausal women with HIV. They have three children — Celia, Anna Alyse and Graham.