Biography
Bill Tierney, MD, is internationally recognized for his research in biomedical informatics, health services research, primary care, and clinical database epidemiology.
During his first 36 years at Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute, his research focused on developing, implementing, and studying electronic medical records (EHRs) and health information technologies at the Regenstrief Institute and one of the nation’s first EHRs. In 2009-10, he assumed the roles of president and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute, associate dean for comparative effectiveness research at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine for Eskenazi Health, the nation’s fourth-largest safety-net health system, where he had practiced for more than 35 years as a primary care physician, emergency physician and hospitalist. From 1992 through 2002, he also served as a staff physician and senior health services research scientist at Indianapolis’ Roudebush VA Medical Center. During that time, he founded the IU/Regenstrief Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research which, in 2015, was renamed in his honor as the William M. Tierney Center for Health Services Research.
He also served as the founding director of informatics and research for the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) in Kenya, a 30+ year collaboration of more than 20 North American universities with Moi University. He led the team that developed sub-Saharan Africa’s first ambulatory EHR which they evolved into OpenMRS, one of the world’s most widely adopted EHR platforms that has been implemented in more than 50 countries. Dr. Tierney led the team that implemented OpenMRS in Tanzania and Uganda where, along with Kenya, it is now the national EHR system.
In 2015, Dr. Tierney left IU for the University of Texas at Austin where he was the founding chair of the new Dell Medical School’s Department of Population Health which plays a leading role in the school’s mission to help make Austin a model healthy city. The Department of Population Health focuses on community engagement, health equity, primary care, occupational health, global health and health information and data analytic sciences.
In 2021, Dr. Tierney returned to Indiana University to serve as Associate Dean for Population Health & Health Outcomes at the Fairbanks School of Public Health (FSPH) in its Department of Global Health. He helps lead Fairbanks’ efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of Hoosiers in Central Indiana and statewide. Having practiced medicine and served in leadership roles in Eskenazi Health, IU Health, and the Roudebush VA Medical Center, he provides a bridge for collaboration between those health systems and FSPH faculty. He also serves as a link to the IU School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute, the IU Center for Global Health Equity, the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, and the Indiana Health Information Exchange, all organizations in which he has served in leadership roles.
Tierney is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a master of the American College of Physicians, and fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, the Royal College of Physicians–London, and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics. He has received the highest career achievement awards in four research disciplines: the John Eisenberg and Robert J. Glaser Awards from the Society of General Internal Medicine; the Morris F. Collen Award from the American College of Medical Informatics; the Alvan Feinstein Award for Clinical Epidemiology from the American College of Physicians, and the National Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science from the Association for Clinical and Translational Science. In 2025, Indiana University named him a Distinguished Professor, its highest award for faculty. He has also received a Bicentennial Medal from IU’s President and is a member of IU’s President’s Circle and Arbutus Society.
