He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana in 1979 and received his MD degree from Wright State University School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio in 1982. His research interests include implementation of electronic medical records (EMR) and their impact on quality of work life, computer patient interviewing, functional health literacy and practice based research. He is presently one of the physician leaders for the EpicCare EMR implementation at the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation, a multi-specialty medical group of over 900 physicians located at 46 sites.