Miller School of Medicine’s Dr. Efrén Manjarrez Named President of the Society of Hospital Medicine
A long‑time leader in hospital medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dr. Efrén Manjarrez will guide the national society representing nearly 60,000 hospitalists.
When Efrén Manjarrez, M.D., arrived in Miami in 1995 as a newly minted physician, hospital medicine was still a fledgling idea. Three decades later, it has become the fastest‑growing specialty in the history of organized medicine and Dr. Manjarrez now finds himself leading it.
Earlier this spring, Dr. Manjarrez, an associate professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, was sworn in as president of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM). The national organization represents nearly 60,000 physicians who care for hospitalized patients across the United States and internationally. His one‑year presidency places him at the forefront of a specialty he helped build, both at the Miller School and on the national stage.
Building Hospital Medicine at the University of Miami
Dr. Manjarrez came to Miami after earning his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego. He completed a combined internal medicine–pediatrics residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital, arriving at a moment when new care models were beginning to take hold in American hospitals.
After a brief stint at a community hospital, he was asked to return to the UM to help launch what was then an emerging concept: a dedicated hospital medicine program. Backed by then–Department of Medicine Chair Laurence Gardner, M.D., Dr. Manjarrez became the founding director of hospital medicine at UHealth, despite having just finished residency training.
“Here I was, a little bit over a year out of residency, starting the hospital medicine practice model,” Dr. Manjarrez said with a laugh. “I was always the senior person, even though I was early in my career.”
Over the next 25 years, he would hold a series of high‑level clinical and administrative positions, including division chief of hospital medicine, associate chief of patient safety and quality officer for UHealth — University of Miami Health System, patient safety officer for Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate chief medical officer at University of Miami Hospital. During his tenure at Sylvester, the institution earned a national Health Grades patient safety award in 2013, the first Health Grades award for UHealth.
Throughout his career, Dr. Manjarrez remained focused on improving care for hospitalized patients. This population of patients often is the most medically complex and requires constant attention and coordination among specialists.
“If you need the oncologist, I call the oncologist,” Dr. Manjarrez said in describing the mechanics of the field. “If you need a surgeon, I arrange that. If you deteriorate in the hospital, the hospitalist is the first one who comes to the bedside. The hospitalist is basically your primary care physician in the hospital when you’re acutely ill.”
From his first exposure, the work appealed to Dr. Manjarrez.
“I realized that I was getting in on the ground floor of something new and something special,” he said.
A Professional Home in Hospital Medicine
Dr. Manjarrez joined the Society of Hospital Medicine in 2001, when it was still a small gathering attached to the American College of Physicians’ annual meeting. What began as a precourse with roughly 300 attendees has since grown into a flagship specialty conference drawing as many as 4,500 participants each year, along with more than 1,000 posters highlighting innovations in care delivery, quality improvement and patient safety.
Over time, Dr. Manjarrez took on increasing leadership responsibilities within the society, serving on committees and task forces, acting as course director for the society’s annual meeting in 2015, winning the society’s Award for Outstanding Service to Hospital Medicine in 2020 and, ultimately, being elected to the board of directors in 2021.
From there, he followed the organization’s leadership pathway — secretary, treasurer, president‑elect — before officially assuming the presidency earlier this year.
“Lo and behold, as of 10 days ago, I’m president,” Dr. Manjarrez said. “Holy cow!”
Defining a Rapidly Growing Specialty
Hospital medicine emerged in the mid‑1990s in response to growing clinical complexity and the need for physicians whose primary focus was inpatient care. Hospitalists function as the main medical provider during a patient’s hospital stay, coordinating consultations, responding to changes in condition and ensuring continuity of care.
Since the term “hospitalist” was introduced in 1996, the specialty has grown to nearly 60,000 physicians, making it, according to Dr. Manjarrez, the fastest‑expanding field in medicine. The growth reflects both hospital demand and physician interest, particularly among younger doctors drawn to the specialty’s team‑based environment, attractive work schedule and acute‑care focus.
As president of SHM, Dr. Manjarrez has outlined an ambitious agenda shaped by rapid changes in medicine and the realities facing frontline hospitalists.
At the center of his goals is providing guidance to hospitalists on the expanding role of artificial intelligence in health care. From documentation and clinical decision support to patient flow and risk prediction, AI tools are increasingly embedded in inpatient medicine.
“AI is front and center and is starting to really dominate how medicine is practiced,” Dr. Manjarrez said. “AI really helps us in multiple areas. It helps us in documentation, in the medical record, in risk prediction tools and when we’re doing literature searches at the bedside. It’s going really, really fast and I think that hospitalists need guidance on the ethical and appropriate use of AI.”
Advocating for Hospital Medicine
Another major focus is strengthening the pathway into hospital medicine for graduating residents. Dr. Manjrrez wants the society to play a more active role in welcoming and preparing new hospitalists, with a clear onramp to the field.
Advocacy is also central to his presidency. With roughly 80 percent of hospitalists practicing in community and rural settings, recent policy changes, ranging from increased visa costs for international medical graduates to cuts in inpatient professional fees, pose serious threats to the viability of hospitalist practices, health care access and sustainability.
“Those are game changers,” he said, particularly for hospitals serving underserved areas.
Finally, Dr. Manjarrez plans to spend much of his term visiting hospitalists around the country and listening. He aims to engage directly with hospitalists, ensuring the society remains grounded in the challenges of everyday inpatient care.
“It’s quite a lot I want to do in one year,” he said. “But as I’m traveling as an ambassador for SHM, it’s also going to be a great honor to be an ambassador for the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and UHealth.”
Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, Department of Medicine, Dr. Efrén Manjarrez, hospital medicine, Society of Hospital Medicine, technology