Joseph Thompson, M.D.

Joseph Thompson, M.D., combines his research and analytic skills with his clinical practice experience to lead initiatives and collaborative efforts that positively influence public health policy.

Dr. Thompson is an Associate Professor in the Colleges of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In addition, he is Director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, the state health policy development center supporting public and private sector efforts to improve health. For the past three years he has served as Arkansas Surgeon General for both Republican Governor Mike Huckabee, and now Democratic Governor Mike Beebe, as Arkansas implements statewide programs to encourage health promotion.

Before returning to Arkansas, he was a RWJF Clinical Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As the Luther Terry Fellow in Preventive Medicine, he advised the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS). He also served as the Assistant Vice President and Director of Research at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and as the First Child and Adolescent Health Scholar of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Dr. Thompson’s integrative work has included review and oversight of Medicaid waiver approvals while at USDHHS, development of chronic disease indicators of health care quality within the HEDIS measurement set at NCQA, evaluation of quality of care in Medicaid managed care plans, design and political leadership in the state legislative processes of tobacco control, health care finance, and childhood obesity control strategies in Arkansas. He has served as the principal investigator for the HRSA State Planning Grant, the RWJF State Coverage Initiative and currently serves on the Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) National Advisory Committee.

Current activities include guiding the Arkansas Child and Adolescent Obesity Initiative through which the state has implemented multiple interventions in the school, health, and community settings to impact childhood obesity. Analyses of body-mass-index information on all public school children reveal a potential halt in the progression of the child and adolescent obesity epidemic in Arkansas. In addition, development
of health care financing strategies includes the successful launch of the Arkansas Safety Net Benefit waiver approved by the CMS in 2006.

Dr. Thompson received his undergraduate degree from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and his masters in public health from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He is board certified in both Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine and practices as a hospital generalist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.