Director, Translational Medicine
Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research
Dr. Vickie Driver
Dr Vickie R. Driver, is board certified in foot surgery by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and is a Fellow at the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, licensed in Rhode Island. Her career as a podiatric physician and surgeon has included a special emphasis on limb preservation and wound healing in her medical practice, as well as, research and education.
Dr. Driver is a Professor of Surgery in the Department of Orthopedics at Brown University (Clinical). She has served for 8 years on the Board of Directors for The Advancement of Wound Care Association (AAWC), and recently completed her tenure as president for this national organization. She has chaired several key committees during her tenure. In addition, she serves on multiple national and international government and private committees and boards that focus on preventing limb loss and improving wound healing in the high-risk population, including NIH and the DOD. She is considered an outspoken ambassador and patient advocate for lower extremity limb preservation and amputation prevention in the high-risk diabetic patient. She has served as an investigator for more than 70 important multi-center randomized clinical trials, as well as developed and supervised multiple research fellowship training programs. She has served and chaired multiple executive committees for large national and international pivotal clinical trials.
Dr. Driver is credited with the development and directorship of multiple major multidisciplinary Limb Preservation- Wound Healing Centers of Excellence, including Military/VA, Hospital and University based programs. She has coauthored over 100 publications and abstracts. Dr. Driver is currently the Senior Medical Director of Wound Healing at Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research in the New Indications Discovery Unit that is dedicated to discovery of new therapies for the treatment of wounds and the prevention of limb loss. Her areas of research include stem cell, small molecules, viral vector, gene therapy, tissue substitutes, as well as, investigations into microbiological and biochemical mechanisms of tissue repair and regeneration.