Dr. Girton received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics at Grinnell College, his medical degree from the University of Iowa College of Medicine and Medicine and Nephrology training at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dr. Girton has contributed to research in spinal cord injury, lipid biochemistry, and diabetes and received NIH and DoD grant funding to study renal glomerular injury and cardiovascular disease, respectively. He established one of the first Joint Venture Incentive Fund sponsored services, our dialysis program, at VAPIHCS in 2006, and continues as its Medical Director. Through his time at VAPIHCS, he served as Chair of the Research & Development Committee and participated in the creation of an initial iteration of our facility’s human subjects protection program, has been involved in performance improvement and has advocated for Evidence Based Practice, currently serving on the EBP Council. Just this last year, Dr. Girton completed VA’s AMIA 10x10 Informatics Certification Course in anticipation of our move to the new Cerner Electronic Health Record.