James K. Liao, MD, FACP, FACC

Chair, Department of Medicine
The Robert S. and Irene Flinn Endowed Chair in Medicine
Professor, Medicine
Member, Sarver Heart Center
Member of the Graduate Faculty

Dr. Liao joined our faculty as professor and chair of the Department of Medicine in January 2023. The department is the college’s largest with 12 divisions, 250 faculty members and more than 200 residents and fellows who it trains annually in addition to medical student teaching.

Dr. Liao was previously chief of the Section of Cardiology, the Harold Hines Jr. Professor of Medicine, and the director of cardiovascular research and Physician Scientist Development Program at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. He also helped launch and served as medical director of UChicago’s Heart and Vascular Center. Before that, he was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of Vascular Medicine Research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Liao is active in many national and international societies and committees. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and American College of Physicians. He has served on editorial boards and as an ad hoc reviewer for esteemed journals, including: Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, The New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Nature and the Journal of Clinical Investigation, among others.

Since 2013, he also has been featured among the nation’s peer-selected Top Doctors as compiled annually by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.

Degree(s)

  • MD: University of California, San Francisco, 1985
  • BS: Physical Chemistry, Magna cum laude, University of California, Los Angeles, 1981
Residency
Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Internal Medicine, 1988
Fellowship
Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Cardiovascular Disease, 1991
Board Certifications
American Board of Internal Medicine: Internal Medicine
American Board of Internal Medicine: Cardiovascular Disease
Clinical Specialties
General Cardiology
Non-Invasive Cardiology
Preventive Cardiology
Vascular Medicine