Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSC, SFHM

Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, SFHM, is Associate Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He serves as Director of the Center for Clinical Quality and Implementation Research, Director of the Effective Health Communication Core, and Co-Director of the Center for Effective Health Communication. He also founded and served for 8 years as Chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine.

Dr. Kripalani has developed, implemented, and evaluated numerous interventions to improve the quality of patient care, with a focus on health communication, medication management, and transitions of care. His research also seeks to improve the effectiveness and value of health care delivery through implementation and evaluation of evidence-based practice.

Dr. Kripalani has served as a member of numerous national committees and task forces related to health literacy, including being Chair of the NIH grant review panels for health literacy research, and leading a white paper on Organizational Health Literacy sponsored by the Institute of Medicine. He has expertise in social and behavioral determinants of health and currently serves as PI of the Vanderbilt Inpatient Cohort Study (VICS), which is examining the effects of health literacy, social support, and other factors on transitions of care, quality of life, functional status, and cardiovascular outcomes.

Dr. Kripalani is active in the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), where he has held leadership roles in the Continuity of Care Task Force and Handoff Standards Task Force. In 2005, he received the SHM Young Investigator Award of Excellence. In 2009, he was inducted in the inaugural class of Senior Fellows in Hospital Medicine. He was named a Top Hospitalist by the American College of Physicians in 2012.