Robert M. Wah, MD
Robert M. Wah, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist and ob-gyn, served as chair of the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees from June 2011 to June 2012. He practices and teaches at the Walter Reed National Military Center in Bethesda, Md. and the National Institutes of Health. As division head and vice chairman of the Navy’s largest ob-gyn training program, Dr. Wah was voted Teacher of the Year by his residents, and his group started the first military IVF program on the West Coast. He has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School, University of California, San Diego, and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Dr. Wah has spoken on television and radio and in print—CNBC, NBC, NPR, Wall Street Journal, USA Today—and testified before Congress on behalf of physicians and their patients.
A nationally recognized expert in health information technology, Dr. Wah is chief medical officer for Computer Sciences Corporation, Public Sector. He works with public agencies using technology to improve health care, saving lives and money. In 2012 he was voted No. 10 in the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine, and was featured on the cover of Washington Technology. Dr. Wah previously served as associate chief information officer for the Military Health System, which deployed technology improving care for 10 million patients in 65 hospitals and 450 clinics worldwide. In 2008, Dr. Wah graduated from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
From 2005 to 2006, Dr. Wah was appointed as the first deputy national coordinator in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), working with the HHS Secretary and the White House to advance the president’s executive order to have electronic medical records for most Americans, connecting them in a nationwide health information network.
A member of the AMA House of Delegates for 17 years, Dr. Wah has served as chair of the AMA Council on Long Range Planning and Development. He was elected chair of the AMA Young Physicians Section. He served on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Executive Board, as well as ACOG’s Health Care Commission, and is active in the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States and the Medical Society of Virginia.
Born and raised in Oregon, Dr. Wah graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Oregon with a bachelor’s in chemistry and received his MD from the Oregon Health Sciences University. He completed his ob-gyn residency at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, and a reproductive endocrinology fellowship at Harvard in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Dr. Wah served more than 23 years on active duty as a captain in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps. He is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in both ob-gyn and reproductive endocrinology.
Dr. Wah and his wife, Debra Ann, live in McLean, Va., and have one daughter.
2012 - 2013
