S. Edwards Dismuke, MD, MSPH

Dean, KU School of Medicine-Wichita
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Internal Medicine

Research Interests
Narrative Biography

BA, 1968, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 
MD, 1971, University of Tennessee, Memphis, College of Medicine, Memphis, Tennessee 
MSPH, 1978, University of North Carolina School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Phone:   293-2600
Fax:        293-2628
E-mail:    edismuke@kumc.edu

Research Interests

• Disease prevention
• Population health
• Medical education and curriculum development

Narrative Biography

The son of a physicist and an applied mathematician, Dr. Dismuke was raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where his parents worked for a national scientific laboratory. Majoring in biology and active in student government, he received an undergraduate degree from Brown University in Providence, RI, in 1968. In medical school at the University of Tennessee-Memphis, Dr. Dismuke was an active student leader serving as student government president and liaison to the school's Board of Trustees. He received his MD degree in 1971 and was named the Alpha Omega Alpha Distinguished Graduate for his class. Prior to his internship, he spent six months as a research fellow in rheumatology. After a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at UT-Memphis, he served as Chief Medical Resident under Gene H. Stollerman, MD.

From 1976-78, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Fellow in General Medicine under John Noble, MD. Dr. Dismuke also received an MSPH in epidemiology from the School of Public Health working under Edward Wagner, MD, MPH. During these years he expanded his knowledge and skills in general medicine, public health and primary care by studying epidemiology, biostatistics and the social and behavioral sciences.

Returning to the University of Tennessee in 1978, he eventually became an Associate Professor in Medicine and Preventive Medicine, under Dr. Stollerman and John W. Runyan, Jr., MD. In addition to teaching and research he practiced general internal medicine and Preventive Medicine almost 50% of the time. His primary interest focused on health promotion disease prevention (HPDP). After a five year NIH career development award in preventive cardiology, he led a $3 million effort funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and a Health of the Public Program (Pew Charitable Trusts) to shift the balance of medical education toward health promotion disease prevention for individuals and populations at UT-Memphis. He was active in NIH sponsored multiple risk factor intervention trials (hyperlipidemia, hypertension and smoking) with Drs. Bill Applegate, Steve Miller and Bob Klesges.

In 1991, Dr. Dismuke became Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Kansas in both Kansas City and Wichita. He helped lead an effort to develop a Statewide MPH degree program that after several years has over 150 students and 125 graduates, and is accredited by the Council on Education in Public Health. In May 2000 the program was ranked the fifth best graduate MPH program in community health in the country by US News and World Report magazine.

Dr. Dismuke assumed leadership for a Kansas City department of 5 faculty with less than $20,000 in grants and contracts per year. Over 10 years he built a two-campus department of more than 30 faculty and more than $3.5 million in yearly grants/contacts. In 2001, his department received the Outstanding Program of the Year Award for undergraduate medical education from the Association of Teacher of Preventive Medicine (ATPM).

As Dean of the Medical School, Dr. Dismuke oversees an annual budget of $45,000,000 and the school employs 500 people. This includes 110-paid faculty and 254 residents (doctors in training). The school is highly dependent on its 733 volunteer faculty. The school is a regional campus for the University of Kansas System and functions in close partnership with three community hospitals (Via Christi, Wesley and the Veterans Administration)

Dr. Dismuke is active in health policy development nationally. As a past President of ATPM (1994-96) and currently a member of the AAMC Council of Academic Societies, he has become active in multiple national issues related to HPDP. He is active in three professional colleges: Preventive Medicine (ACPM), Internal Medicine (ACP) and Physician Executives (ACPE).

In Wichita, Kansas, Dr. Dismuke has lead a Community Health Assessment Process and developed a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) for the community with a grant from the Kansas Health Foundation. He has also helped the community develop an award winning program for providing medical care to the uninsured through physician volunteers (500+) and other donated services (hospital care, pharmacy service, etc). From October 1998 until July 2001, he was the Kansas Health Foundation Distinguished Professor in Public Health. In that role, he was expected to educate primary care providers throughout the State in population-based approaches to health improvement.

Dr. Dismuke has served as PI on 17 federal and private foundation grants totaling $7 million and has been Co-PI or an investigator on 12 grants and contracts valued at $26 million. His record of publications is solid and he serves as Chairman of the Governing Board of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.