Dr. Cole is the currently the Chief Global Information Officer for Cornell University where he is responsible for institutional strategic direction and leadership of the university’s technology functions across campuses, applications, operations, and architecture as well as furthering the University’s digital technology capabilities. Until 2023, he was the Chief Information Officer at Weill Cornell, where he was responsible for the core information services that support the research, clinical, education, and administrative functions of the medical college. Previously, as Chief Medical Information Officer he led the implementation of a new electronic medical record system. He remains actively involved in the development of computer systems that support clinical research and terminology services.

Dr. Cole has been actively involved in medical informatics research especially relating to EHR optimization, terminology services, and the ethical use of clinical data for research and innovation. He is currently expanding that work in the are of artificial intelligence. He led several key innovations in the EHR such as the use of terminologies to improve usability, decision support, and analytics. He was very involved in the national VIVO consortium. VIVO is a semantic web based system to help researchers find one another though a national network and is the system which powers this profile.

For two decades he practices at Weill Cornell Internal Medicine Associates (WCIMA) where he provided primary care for adults, with clinical expertise in primary care for psychiatric patients, and gay and lesbian health issues. He supervises students in the Weill Cornell Community Clinic. 

Dr. Curtis L. Cole is a graduate of Bowdoin College and received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College (currently known as Weill Cornell Medical College) in 1994. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency program at The New York Hospital [currently known as NewYork- Presbyterian Hospital (Weill Cornell Campus)] in 1997. After residency Dr. Cole continued at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital - Weill Cornell as a Clinical Investigator in Medical Informatics. He also completed a course in Leadership Development of Physicians in Academic Health Centers in 1999 at Harvard University. In 2002, Dr. Cole participated in the Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern University, Executive Development Program.