Patricia A. Thomas, MD, FACP

As a general internist and clinician educator, Dr. Patricia Thomas served in various medical education roles over 25 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM), including Clerkship Director, Associate Program Director, and Associate Dean for Curriculum.  She co-led a major reform of the JHUSOM doctor of medicine curriculum emphasizing individualized patient-centered care and systems thinking. Dr. Thomas was a founding member of the team that developed the Master of Education in Health Professions at Johns Hopkins University.

In 2014, Dr. Thomas was recruited as Vice Dean for Medical Education at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Under her leadership, the school launched three new pathways in the MD curriculum (World Medicine, Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Humanities) and expanded the existing Urban Health Pathway, moved to an interprofessional Health Education Campus, and founded a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies Program.

Dr. Thomas is first editor of the monograph, Curriculum Development in Medical Education: A Six-Step Approach, released in fall of 2022. She continues to teach the Six-Step Method to international faculty, most recently with the inclusion of AI. Her publications have also included topics related to clinician-educator faculty roles, health systems science curricula, and teaching of health equity in health professions curricula. 

Dr. Thomas received her MD degree from Rutgers Medical School, completed her internal medicine residency at Rutgers Affiliated Hospitals and a rheumatology fellowship at George Washington University School of Medicine. She received the Society of General Internal Medicine Career Achievement Award in 2013.