Anderson Spickard, III
Dean, Professor of Internal Medicine & Special Assistant to the President for Health Affairs
Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine
Biography
Dr. Anderson Spickard is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his MD at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Washington. He then completed a general medicine fellowship and obtained a Master of Science in epidemiology at the University of Virginia. Dr. Spickard joined the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt in 1995, and began a career of patient care, education, research and leadership.
Dr. Spickard has practiced internal medicine for 26 years, earning the highest patient ratings year over year. When he arrived at Vanderbilt, he created the Primary Care Clerkship for the School of Medicine, which he directed for 16 years. He led the education programs for the Division of General Internal Medicine and assumed the role of internal medicine clerkship director for the School of Medicine, which he held for 13 years. Dr. Spickard was the first master clinical teacher at Vanderbilt and served in this role throughout his career instructing and mentoring medical students.
Dr. Spickard was appointed to the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt and worked with computer programmers to build the first electronic medical education content delivery system for Vanderbilt. He created and led the Office of Education Design and Informatics. This team of nine individuals worked with faculty and staff from all departments to provide instructional design for course directors and teachers and build and manage the core education technologies that supported the education mission. The tightly integrated IT infrastructure delivered curriculum content and captured performance data in the workflow of learning to inform individual and programmatic success at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine. These tools changed the way that education was delivered at Vanderbilt and influenced other universities to adopt similar approaches. These innovative approaches were recognized by the American Medical Association, enabling Vanderbilt to be part of the founding Consortium on Accelerating Change in Medical Education. Dr. Spickard worked with 10 other universities in this consortium for many years to share insights and lessons learned about innovating medical education curricula.
Dr. Spickard’s expertise in study design and the evaluation of medical education helped to form partnerships between departments that provided Vanderbilt an innovative curriculum and a sustained research agenda in the education of health care professionals. Dr. Spickard’s research interests and publications include all aspects of medical education, with a focus on the design and application of innovative informatics approaches to support medical education. He has been successful in obtaining a lengthy portfolio of externally funded research projects, including a $2 million Accelerating Change in Medical Education Award from the AMA, and a $1.8M million GOL2D (Goals of Life and Learning Delineated) award, titled “Collaboration Across Academic Health Systems to Better Align GME with Learner, Patient and Societal Needs.
Dr. Spickard held many education and campus leadership positions at Vanderbilt, including the leadership team for the creation of their new competency-based curriculum, Curriculum 2.0, the steering committee for LCME (Liaison Committee on Medical Education) reaccreditation and president of the Canby Robinson Society, the main philanthropic society for the Medical Center.
Fall 2021, Dr. Spickard was recruited to Belmont University to help start the Frist College of Medicine as associate dean for spiritual growth and development, and assistant to the president for health. Dr. Spickard is keenly aligned to the College’s mission, vision and values and the context of medicine. Summer 2022, Dr. Spickard was appointed to serve as interim dean of the College and a year later, was named dean.
Dr. Spickard’s contributions in patient care, medical education, research and leadership have earned national and international recognition and allowed him to achieve the progressive ranks to professor. His many notable achievements and experiences have uniquely prepared him to lead the development of a new medical school with an innovative curriculum.