In his role as CMO and executive vice president of clinical research and medical informatics of the West Health Institute, Dr. Zia Agha advances West Health’s mission to enable seniors to successfully age, living life on their own terms with access to high-quality health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life and independence.
Dr. Agha leads the development and execution of clinical research activities and brings a comprehensive understanding of the evolving field of clinical informatics such as clinical information systems and population analytics.
Prior to joining West Health, Dr. Agha was director for the Health Services Research and Development (HSRD) division at VA San Diego Healthcare System and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He currently holds an appointment as a part-time faculty member at UCSD.
Dr. Agha also served as director of the San Diego VA Health Services Research and Development (HSRD) division based on his strong research, clinical and interpersonal skills. Under his effective leadership and research management proficiency, the HSRD division experienced exceptional growth in term of extramural research grants, which increased from $6 million in 2007 to $21 million in 2013.
An expert in innovative, patient-centered telehealth services, Dr. Agha was appointed Director for Telemedicine Research and successfully led an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, researchers and engineers who collectively obtained funding for new telehealth projects totaling over $15 million. He has co-authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications, presented his work international conferences and his research has been funded by VA, DOD, NIH, PCORI and AHRQ. Dr. Agha has also served on scientific abstract review panels, editorial boards and served on study sections for NIH, PCORI and the VA.
A practicing physician, Dr. Agha received his MD degree from Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan and a MS degree in Clinical Epidemiology and General Internal Medicine fellowship in Health Services Research from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine.