William Hersh, MD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology in the School of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon, USA. Dr. Hersh is a leader and innovator in biomedical informatics both in education and research.
In education, Dr. Hersh serves as Director of OHSU’s Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program, which is one of the oldest and largest in the world, and offers Master’s and PhD degrees as well as a Graduate Certificate in Biomedical Informatics. He is PI of OHSU’s NIH National Library of Medicine T15 Training Grant, which is the largest and second-longest training grant at OHSU. Dr. Hersh also spearheaded OHSU’s efforts in distance learning in biomedical informatics. He has taught in person and online widely around the world. Dr. Hersh has led a number of innovations in biomedical informatics education. He conceptualized and implemented the first offering of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 10x10 (“ten by ten”) program, which provides the equivalent of an introductory graduate-level course and has been completed by over 3000 health care professionals and others. He is Editor of the introductory textbook, Health Informatics: Practical Guide, 8th Edition (Lulu.com, 2022).
Dr. Hersh has won numerous awards for his educational innovations. These include the OHSU Faculty Senate Distinguished Faculty Award for outstanding teaching in 2007, the 2008 AMIA Donald A.B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics, and the 2015 Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Physician Leadership Award. He was also listed among the Top 25 Clinical Informaticists by Modern Healthcare Magazine when it was awarded in 2010, 2011, and 2012.
