Paul Tang, M.D., M.S., is a practicing internist and Vice President, Chief Health Transformation Officer at IBM Watson Health. At Watson Health, Dr. Tang is responsible for applying IBM’s cognitive computing technologies to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Prior to joining Watson Health, Dr. Tang was Chief Innovation and Technology Officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), directing the David Druker Center for Health Systems Innovation, a disruptive innovation center focused on grand challenges in health.
Dr. Tang has dedicated his professional career to improving the quality of health care in America, innovative uses of health information technology (HIT), empowering patients through HIT, and shaping public policy to enhance health and health care in the US. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) and has served on numerous NAM study committees, including a patient-safety committee he chaired that published two reports: Patient Safety: A New Standard for Care, and Key Capabilities of an Electronic Health Record System.

Dr. Tang was vice chair of the federal Health Information Technology Policy committee for 8 years. He has served as board chair for several health informatics professional associations, including the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). Dr. Tang serves on the Board and Executive committee of AcademyHealth. He is a recipient of the AMIA Don E. Detmer Award for Health Policy Contributions in Informatics.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Medical Informatics, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. He has published numerous papers in medical informatics, especially related to electronic health records, personal health records, health care quality, and public policy, and has delivered over 350 invited presentations (including 39 keynotes) to national and international organizations and associations.
Dr. Tang received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and his M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University and is a Board-certified practicing Internist.