William Tierney, MD
<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">From 1980-2015, Dr. Tierney worked at Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute both domestically and internationally in medical informatics, clinical epidemiology, and health services research, especially implementing electronic medical record (EMR) systems to enhance health care and providing decision support to providers at critical points in their interactions between adult and pediatric patients. His overall aim was to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care in safety net health systems in the U.S. (mainly Indiana) and East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda). He also conducted retrospective and prospective studies to improve the processes and outcomes of care and enhance precision medicine, both domestically and internationally. </span></span></p><p style="margin-top:8px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">In 2010, Tierney became the President and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. which had been my research home since 1980. Established in 1969, the Regenstrief Institute was the first academic research organization focused on improving health system. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute contains more than 60 investigators, 50 affiliated investigators, and 200 staff with >$50 million/year in extramural funding. During his 35-year tenure at Regenstrief, he participated in multidisciplinary studies of inner-city adults assessing social stresses and outcomes among older adults and patients with diabetes, arthritis, heart failure, reactive airways diseases, and depression. The platforms for healthcare improvement studies was the Regenstrief Medical Record System and the Indiana Health Information Exchange. Tierney also led the team that created sub-Saharan Africa’s first ambulatory EHR and implemented it in >60 health centers in Kenya and 6 in Tanzania and Uganda and has since become an open-source EHR system implemented in >40 countries and as the national EHR in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mozambique, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, storing and managing data for >6500 health centers and >16 million patients. </span></span></p><p style="margin-top:8px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">In 2016, Tierney left Indiana to become the inaugural Chair of the Department of Population Health in the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. HIs department led the school’s initiatives in primary care, biomedical informatics, health services and community-based participatory research, data analytics, and global health. Importantly, his department is building a medical and social health information exchange for Central Texas.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top:8px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">In February of 2021, Tierney returned to Indiana University to serve as Associate Dean for Population Health & Health Outcomes in the Fairbanks School of Public Health. HIs responsibilities include being a senior advisor and mentor to Indiana University’s Center for Global Health and Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute and the Regenstrief Institute with a focus on their collaborative Global Health Informatics Program and Global-Local Reciprocal Innovation Program. However, Tierney has maintained his relationship with the Dell Medical School and spends 25% of his time providing senior mentoring and guidance to its medical informatics and global health programs. </span></span></p>