Charles M. Helms, MD, PhD, received his AB degree from Cornell University and PhD and MD degrees from the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He was a resident physician in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a research associate and medical officer in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, before joining the faculty of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A.Carver College of Medicine, in 1976.

While rising to the academic rank of professor, Helms has served as director of Clinical Programs in Internal Medicine, associate dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine, and interim director of Internal Medicine's Divisions of Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine. He was elected chief of staff of UI Hospitals and Clinics in 1998, a position he held until 2006, when he did not seek re-election.

Helms has been involved in hospital and patient safety issues, quality improvement, and health policy issues throughout his career. In 1985, he was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship and worked with the Majority Staff of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the United States Senate for a year. He was involved in negotiating and drafting legislation establishing the National Vaccine Program and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. He chaired the Public Policy Committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and was appointed a member of the DHHS' National Vaccine Advisory Committee and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. In the last roles, he chaired ACIP's Working Group on Bioterrorism and was recently reappointed to the NVAC.

Locally, Helms served as the first director of UI's Institute for Quality Healthcare until 1997 and was appointed medical director of the UI Hospitals and Clinics Office of Clinical Outcomes and Resource Management in 1999. At the state level, he chaired the Iowa Medical Society Task Force on Patient Safety and currently serves on the IDPH's Iowa Patient Safety and Health Project Advisory Committee.

Charles M. Helms, MD, PhD