Public Biography
Dr. Hersh is a Professor in the Division of Informatics, Clinical Epidemiology, and Translation Data Science of the Department of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon, USA. He is a leader and innovator in biomedical informatics both in education and research.
Dr. Hersh developed and served as Inaugural Director of OHSU’s graduate biomedical informatics education programs, including the Master of Science, the Graduate Certificate, and the Doctor of Philosophy. He also spearheaded OHSU’s efforts in distance learning for biomedical informatics, which are available up to the master’s degree level. He also conceptualized and implemented the first offering of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 10x10 (“ten by ten”) program, which has been completed over 3300 health care professionals and others in biomedical informatics.
Dr. Hersh also serves as Associate Director of the OHSU Clinical Informatics Fellowship, which was accredited by ACGME in 2014. In addition, he serves as Co-Director of OHSU's National Library of Medicine-funded Biomedical Informatics Research Training Grant. He is Past Chair of the International Medical Informatics Association Education Working Group and has additional educational collaborations in Singapore and South Africa.
Dr. Hersh obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1980 and his M.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1984. After finishing a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago in 1987, he completed a Fellowship in Medical Informatics at Harvard University in 1990. Dr. Hersh became board-certified in the clinical informatics subspecialty in 2013 with the initial cohort of physicians who took the board exam.
Dr. Hersh developed and served as Inaugural Director of OHSU’s graduate biomedical informatics education programs, including the Master of Science, the Graduate Certificate, and the Doctor of Philosophy. He also spearheaded OHSU’s efforts in distance learning for biomedical informatics, which are available up to the master’s degree level. He also conceptualized and implemented the first offering of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 10x10 (“ten by ten”) program, which has been completed over 3300 health care professionals and others in biomedical informatics.
Dr. Hersh also serves as Associate Director of the OHSU Clinical Informatics Fellowship, which was accredited by ACGME in 2014. In addition, he serves as Co-Director of OHSU's National Library of Medicine-funded Biomedical Informatics Research Training Grant. He is Past Chair of the International Medical Informatics Association Education Working Group and has additional educational collaborations in Singapore and South Africa.
Dr. Hersh obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1980 and his M.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1984. After finishing a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago in 1987, he completed a Fellowship in Medical Informatics at Harvard University in 1990. Dr. Hersh became board-certified in the clinical informatics subspecialty in 2013 with the initial cohort of physicians who took the board exam.
Historic ACMI Biography
William R. Hersh is Associate Professor of Medicine, Medical Informatics, and Public Health at Oregon Health Sciences University, where he also serves as Director of the Master of Science Program in Medical Informatics. Dr. Hersh received his BS degree in Biology and his MD from University of Illinois. After a residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois, he completed a fellowship in Medical Informatics at Harvard University. Dr. Hersh's research has focused upon medical information retrieval. He has studied a variety of approaches to indexing and retrieval of medical text with the SAPHIRE system and the dissemination and evaluation of retrieval systems. Recently, he has expanded his research into vocabulary construction and data extraction from the electronic medical record. He is author of the book Information Retrieval: A Health Care Perspective (SpringeróVerlag, 1996). Dr. Hersh is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) and is co-editor of ACM SIGIR Forum. He is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association Board of Directors.
Affiliations
Fellows of AMIA (FAMIA)
FAMIA stands for “Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association” and it recognizes the contributions and professional accomplishments of AMIA members who apply informatics skills and knowledge to their practice – be that in a clinical setting, a public or population health capacity, or as a clinical researcher.
Year Inducted
2019
The American College of Medical Informatics
Distinguished ACMI Fellow
ACMI is a college of elected Fellows from the U.S. and abroad who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of medical informatics. It is the central body for a community of scholars and practitioners who are committed to advancing the informatics field.
Year Elected
1996
Advancement Committee
Co-Chair
The purpose of the AMIA Advancement (ADV) Committee is to ensure the effective and appropriate involvement of AMIA members in governance and non-governance leadership activities, such as those associated with Councils, Working Groups, and Task Forces.
Learn more about this group