Thomas F. Boat, M.D.

Thomas F. Boat, M.D. is immediate past director of the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation and chairman of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Department of Pediatrics.  He also was physician-in-chief and a member of the board of trustees of Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati.  His current focus is creating a system of care at Cincinnati Children’s that is more responsive to the individual needs of children and families.  He earned an M.D. at the University of Iowa.  A pediatric pulmonologist by training, Dr. Boat worked early in his career to define the pathophysiology of airway dysfunction and more effective therapies for chronic lung diseases of childhood, such as cystic fibrosis.  More recently he has worked at local and national levels to improve research efforts, subspecialty training and clinical care in pediatrics.  He has a special interest in issues posed by children’s mental health for pediatric care and training.  Dr. Boat joined Cincinnati Children’s in 1993, after serving as chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Previously, he was co-director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and currently serves as co-chair of the IOM Forum on the Science of Health Care Quality Improvement and Implementation.