Dr. Hermes Florez
Dr. Hermes Florez is Professor and Chair of Public Health Sciences at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He also serves as Associate Dean for Population Health at the MUSC College of Medicine and Chief Academic Officer (Associate Chief of Staff for Education) at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affair Medical Center (VAMC) in Charleston, SC.
Prior to his transition to South Carolina in 2020, he served at the University of Miami (UM) Miller School of Medicine as Chief of Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine and Director of the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the Miami VAMC. He was part of the South Florida Healthy Aging Regional Collaborative, working jointly with the Florida International University (FIU) team and other stakeholders for the implementation of several evidence-based programs in more than 20,000 older adults.
He also served as National Co-Chair of the GRECC Directors Network with the purpose of coordinating initiatives among these Centers of Excellence to promote healthier aging in the U.S. population.
Upon his arrival to Charleston, he joined the Executive Committee of the MUSC Center on Aging and then served as Director of the Population Health and Data Management Pillar in the new MUSC Center for Healthy Aging. He is a physician-scientist trained in internal medicine, endocrinology & geriatrics, as well as in epidemiology and public health. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Zulia in Venezuela, South America.
Dr. Florez has expertise in the prevention and management of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCD), and has 17 book chapters and 212 peer-reviewed publications in major scientific journals. He led innovation and implementation of NCD evidence-based programs to promote healthy aging in South Florida with support from the Health Foundation of South Florida and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He has been actively involved in the evaluation of patients at high-risk for diabetes and other age-related diseases in studies funded by the Pan American Health Organization, the American Heart Association, and the International Diabetes Federation – Bringing Research in Diabetes to Global Environments and Systems (IDF-BRIDGES). Dr. Florez has also worked in the translation of diabetes prevention as part of the MOVE weight management program, supported by the VA National Center for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention. He was the Miami Principal Investigator (PI) of the VA-funded Million Veteran Program (MVP), the largest genomics initiative in the U.S. and Miami PI of the NIH-funded GRADE, a comparative effectiveness research study in patients with type 2 diabetes.
He is currently the National Chair of the VA Cooperative Studies Scientific Evaluation Committee, which oversees the evaluation and implementation of multicenter clinical trials in a large population of U.S. Veterans.
Dr. Florez was appointed by the Board of Trustees as Endowed Chair and Executive Director of the MUSC Center for Healthy Aging.