The chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center has been appointed to a board charged with researching ways to improve the country’s health care quality.

Dr. Grayson Norquist is one of 18 members of the board for the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

UMC officials say Norquist will focus his research on the use of telemedicine to reduce disparities in mental health treatment for those living in the Delta and to improve the quality of care they receive at local community health centers.