Dr. Combes is Chief Communications and Public Policy Officer and previously was an ACGME Visiting Scholar, studying GME and institutional integration, physician well-being, and the health care governance of the clinical learning environment.

Prior to joining the ACGME, Dr. Combes served as a Senior Advisor with the Southport Group, a firm specializing in health care leadership, governance, trustee and physician lifelong development, and strategic planning. In that role he worked with the American Board of Medical Specialties on health care policy issues and enhancing the value of board certification as a strategic resource for hospitals and health systems.

Dr. Combes is a member of the Board of Salem Health, an integrated health care delivery system in Oregon, as well as a Director of Quality Insights, a multi-state quality improvement organization. He writes and speaks frequently on governance, physician issues, and quality, and lectures nationally and internationally on health care leadership.

Dr. Combes is the retired chief medical officer and senior vice president of the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the former president of the Center for Healthcare Governance, an AHA affiliate organization.