William Tierney, M.D.

William Tierney, M.D., is internationally recognized for his research in biomedical informatics, health services, global health and clinical database epidemiology. A general internist, Tierney spent most of his career in the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, where he was a chancellor’s professor, associate dean for comparative effectiveness research, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, and president/CEO of the Regenstrief Institute Inc.

In 2016, he became the founding chair of Dell Medical School’s Department of Population Health, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine. In 2021, he returned to Indiana University, where he serves as associate dean for population health and health outcomes for the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health while maintaining a part-time position in Dell Med’s Department of Internal Medicine. He serves as a medical director for The University of Texas System’s preferred provider insurance plan, where he’s the final arbiter for appeals for health insurance coverage.

During the 36 years he spent at Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute prior to coming to Dell Med, Tierney helped lead the implementation and study of electronic medical records and health information technologies in Indiana and Africa. He was also chair of the Department of Medicine at 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. He also served as the founding director of research and informatics for the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare, a 30-plus-year collaboration of more than 15 North American universities as well as universities in Kenya, Ghana, Nepal and Mexico (led by the Dell Med’s Division of Global Health).

Tierney has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians and is a master of the American College of Physicians and a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, the Royal College of Physicians of London and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics. He has received the highest career award from the leading national organizations in three disciplines: general internal medicine (the Society of General Internal Medicine’s Glaser Award), biomedical informatics (the American College of Medical Informatics’ Collen Award) and translational research (the Society for Clinical and Translational Science’s National Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science).