I provide oversight for the 19 clinical departments that provide care for patients in our clinics and hospitals. I also oversee our Cancer Center with our Associate Dean for Cancer Programs… as well as our partnership with organizations like the Shriners and Veterans Affairs. Graduate and continuing medical education are also part of my portfolio. In sum, I make sure our educational and clinical missions are always growing and building upon one another.

What do you enjoy about your work?

I'm a UC Davis School of Medicine graduate, and I've been working here for about 20 years. It's gratifying to see how we have become known for our leadership in areas like rural care, primary care and telehealth. I'm especially excited about our new California Telemedicine Resources Center and the growth in our medical school class to train more rural physicians through the PRIME-Rural program.

Thomas S. Nesbitt, M.D., M.P.H., Executive Associate Dean for Clinical and Administrative Affairs, is a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine who specializes in rural health and the use of advanced telecommunications technologies to improve access to medical education and care.

As executive associate dean, he ensures that the resources of the medical school, health system and university support key research, teaching, patient care and community outreach missions. He also ensures that faculty and staff excel at providing high-quality, state-of-the-art care, with a focus on developing and evaluating innovative technologies to improve health-care delivery, and fostering new partnerships throughout the region to enhance medical care at all levels.

A member of the UC Davis faculty for the past 16 years, Dr. Nesbitt has been a driving force behind the development of a variety of innovative programs that address the unique health care and educational needs of diverse populations of patients and physicians particularly in rural Northern California.

As director of the Center for Health and Technology, Dr. Nesbitt oversees UC Davis’ telemedicine, distance learning, and medical informatics programs. A key focus is enhancing interaction among physicians, educators, information technology and communications specialists, engineers and researchers. The multidisciplinary collaboratives develop and evaluate new telecommunications technologies to improve access to high-quality patient care, information resources, and medical education opportunities. He also played a key role in developing the Community Hospital Network, a consortium of 15 hospitals and health systems in the Northern California region that work together to effectively deliver services to local residents.

Dr. Nesbitt received his medical degree from UC Davis, completed his residency training through the Spokane Family Medicine Residency Program (an affiliate of the University of Washington School of Medicine) and obtained his Masters of Public Health degree at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

A nationally recognized expert in the field of rural health and telecommuni-cations technology, Dr. Nesbitt served two terms on the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and has co-authored over 50 journal articles and book chapters on the topic. He was honored with the Best Research Study Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine in 1992, the California Family Physician of the Year award in 1993, and the Distinguished Public Service Award and Distinguished Alumnus Award from UC Davis in 1996 and 1997, respectively.