Sean J. Mulvihill

Biography

Dr. Sean Mulvihill is the Associate Vice President for Payer Strategy at the University of Utah. In this role, he is the University lead in strategic health insurance payer partnerships with the goal of transforming health care payment and delivery. In addition to this administrative role, he is a tenured professor and holds the Ross R. Anderson Presidential Endowed Chair in Surgery. He maintains an active clinical practice and an NIH-funded research laboratory. Prior to assuming his current leadership role, Dr. Mulvihill served as CEO of the University of Utah Medical Group for four years, a key leadership position in our health care system. Prior to that, he served as Chair of the Department of Surgery for 12 years and, concurrently, Senior Director for Clinical Affairs in the Huntsman Cancer Institute for 10 years. He was recruited to the University of Utah from the University of California, San Francisco where he served as Chief of their Division of General Surgery. Dr. Mulvihill's clinical expertise relates to diseases of the liver, pancreas, and bile ducts. He works to improve patient outcomes and to develop novel treatment strategies for diseases like pancreatic cancer and neuroendocrine tumors. As head of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Group at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, he was responsible for the successful development of a clinical research database containing detailed information on patients with pancreatic tumors, linked to a robust biospecimen bank of patient samples. This material is used to develop and validate biomarkers useful in early diagnosis, prediction of response to therapy, and in studies of the cell biology of pancreatic cancer. His research is funded by the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Mulvihill is an editor of a major surgical textbook, Surgery: Basic Science and Clinical Evidence, and has authored nearly 200 scientific papers, editorials, and book chapters. He is past-president of the American Hepatopancreatobiliary Association and has served as an officer or board member of numerous other professional societies and community service organizations. Dr. Mulvihill is particularly interested in navigating the challenges of health care reform by embracing the triple aim of improving each individual's experience of care, improving the health of the population we serve, and reducing the cost of care in University of Utah Health Care.

Research Interest

Pancreatic cancer Clinical Trials in Pancreatic Disease Quality of Health Care Education, Professional, Retraining Gastrointestinal Physiology