Patrick Runnels serves as the Chief Medical Officer of Population Health, for University Hospitals in Cleveland OH, which has one of the largest accountable care organizations in the country, serving nearly 600,000 individuals. Throughout his career, he has held numerous administrative positions, including director of adult psychiatry, director of ambulatory psychiatry, and medical director for emergency psychiatry at University Hospitals, as well as medical director for The Centers for Families and Children, a large community mental health center in Cleveland. In all those efforts, his career has focused on transforming systems of healthcare to focus on value instead of volume, improve access to care for the most vulnerable, and develop leadership skills amongst psychiatrists.

He attended medical school at the University of Missouri, Columbia, completing psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and the Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University. He also completed his Executive MBA at Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management.

Academically, he is Vice Chair of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He also serves as director of the Public and Community Psychiatry Fellowship. He has served in the past on the Board of Trustees for the American Psychiatric Association, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Ohio Chapter, and the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, as well as chair of the APA Council on Advocacy and Government Relations and The National Council on Behavioral Health Medical Directors Institute.