Richard P. Shannon, MD, is the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs at theUniversity of Virginia. He is responsible for aligning the key components of the UVA Health System to achieve the goal of becoming a top-decile academic medical center.

Prior to joining the UVA Health System, Dr. Shannon served as the Frank Wister Thomas Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Prior to his appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Shannon served as Chair of the Department of Medicine at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Dr. Shannon received his BA from Princeton University and his MD from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He did his training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, his cardiovascular training at Massachusetts General Hospital and was the Francis Weld Peabody Fellow and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School before becoming the Claude R. Joyner Professor of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. Both Harvard Medical School and Drexel University College of Medicine have honored him with numerous teaching awards. Dr. Shannon’s investigative interests are in the area of myocardial metabolism and heart failure, specifically the role of energetics in the progression of heart failure. Dr. Shannon’s lab was the first to discover the beneficial CV actions of incretins which formed the basis for Ventrigen, LLC, a company designed to develop incretins for the use in treating heart failure.

Dr. Shannon’s pioneering work in patient safety is chronicled in the chapter — First, Do No Harm — in the published book, “The Best Practice – How the New Quality Movement is Transforming Medicine,” by Charles Kenney. His innovative work also has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, on CNN and CNBC news segments and ABC’s “20/20” and was a centerpiece for the PBS report entitled “Remaking American Medicine.” 

Dr. Shannon is an elected member of honorary organizations, including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and serves on several editorial boards, including Circulation Heart Failure. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine, the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. Dr. Shannon is a teaching fellow for the Institute of Healthcare Improvement.