Peter Embí, MD, MS, Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Medicine, and holder of the Directorship in Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt Health, has been named Director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest biomedical library and the nation’s leading funder of research in biomedical informatics and health data science. He will join the NLM, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on Sept. 10, as its fifth director since the library was established by an act of Congress in 1956.
The NLM traces its origins to 1836, when it began as a small collection of medical books and journals in the office of the U.S. Army Surgeon General. The 1956 act established it as the National Library of Medicine under the U.S. Public Health Service, and it officially became part of the NIH in 1968. Its resources are now among the most visited websites of the federal government: PubMed, the literature search engine relied on by clinicians and researchers worldwide; ClinicalTrials.gov, the global registry of clinical studies; MedlinePlus, a trusted source of consumer health information; and other resources of the NLM’s National Center for Biotechnology Information, including genomic databases such as GenBank. The NLM is also the central coordinating body for clinical terminology standards within the Department of Health and Human Services, working with other agencies and nongovernmental partners to enable health data interoperability nationwide.
Embí is a physician-scientist and internationally recognized leader in biomedical informatics, the field focused on connecting health data, biomedical evidence and computation to improve health and accelerate discovery. His work has helped advance real-world evidence generation, effective health artificial intelligence, and data-driven learning health systems. He is credited as a founder of the field of clinical research informatics, and he originated the concept of algorithmovigilance, the systematic evaluation and monitoring of artificial intelligence in health care. He has authored more than 180 peer-reviewed publications and led some of the nation’s premier biomedical informatics institutes and departments.
“For nearly two centuries, the National Library of Medicine has been where the world’s biomedical knowledge is gathered, curated and transformed to accelerate discovery and enable data-powered health,” Embí said. “In the era of artificial intelligence, that role has never mattered more. Informatics innovations including AI are only as trustworthy and effective as the knowledge they learn from, the data they act on, and the vigilance with which we evaluate and monitor their use in the real world. It is the privilege of my career to be asked to serve as the next Director of the NLM.”
As director, Embí will lead the NLM in developing and applying innovative approaches to acquire, organize, curate and deliver biomedical information across the United States and the world — work that enables biomedical research, supports health care and public health, and reaches communities nationwide through the more than 8,100 members of the Network of the National Library of Medicine. He will also oversee the NLM’s research portfolio, which funds advanced biomedical informatics and data science research and serves as the nation’s primary supporter of pre- and postdoctoral research training in the field.
“Dr. Embí is a leader with deep expertise in biomedical informatics and a commitment to advancing data-driven discovery, making him exceptionally well suited to lead the National Library of Medicine. We are confident he will continue to advance the NLM’s mission to accelerate scientific discovery and improve human health on a global scale,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer, Executive Vice President for Research, and holder of the Brock Family Directorship in Career Development at Vanderbilt Health.
Embí joined Vanderbilt in 2021 and has served as Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI); as Vanderbilt Health’s Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation; as Co-Chair of Vanderbilt Health’s AI Technologies committee, which is responsible for overseeing adoption and use of AI tools across the Medical Center; and, most recently, as founding Director of the ADVANCE AI Center.
As DBMI chair, he led the department through a period of rapid growth, adding 33 new primary or secondary faculty and achieving a 69% increase in extramural research expenditures, while launching the ADVANCE AI Center and expanding the department’s computational and data infrastructure. As Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation, he oversaw the successful cloud migration of BioVU, Vanderbilt’s collection of de-identified genetic data, and the expanded use of its data and resources by Vanderbilt Health researchers.
“Peter’s legacy at Vanderbilt is the extraordinary faculty and research strength of Biomedical Informatics as well as the culture of innovation he fostered. The NLM is gaining a leader who understands, better than almost anyone, how to turn data into discovery and improved clinical care,” said Josh Peterson, MD, MPH, Professor and Chair of Biomedical Informatics, Director of the Center for Precision Medicine and Vice President for Personalized Medicine.
Embí is an elected fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics. He is the current president of ACMI and a past president and chair of the Board of Directors of the American Medical Informatics Association. In 2024, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
“Everything I take into this new role was shaped by the great work we have done together at Vanderbilt and by colleagues whose support has meant more than they know,” Embí said. “I am eager to get to work alongside the NLM’s exceptional staff at this pivotal moment for American health care and biomedical science.”
