Umberto Tachinardi, MD, has been named chief informatics officer for the Indiana University Grand Challenge Precision Health Initiative. Led by Indiana University School of Medicine, IU is investing $120 million in its effort to transform biomedical research, health care innovations and the delivery of health interventions in Indiana.
Tachinardi also will serve as professor of biostatistics and assistant dean for clinical research informatics for IU School of Medicine and as director of clinical research informatics for the Indiana Clinical and Translation Sciences Institute (CTSI) and the Regenstrief Institute.
“Dr. Tachinardi will be a tremendous asset,” said Anantha Shekhar, MD, PhD, executive associate dean for research at IU School of Medicine and founding director of the Indiana CTSI. “He possesses a unique combination of technical expertise, administrative experience and leadership skills that will enable us to better utilize information and technology to provide insights into the vexing problems of individual and population health.”
He will have oversight and responsibility for the clinical and translational informatics elements for the IU Precision Health Initiative and IU School of Medicine.
“Dr. Tachinardi’s experience at the intersection of informatics infrastructure, services and research make him a strong addition to the robust informatics expertise here at Regenstrief Institute,” said Peter Embi, MD, president and chief executive officer of Regenstrief Institute. “His leadership will help us build on significant progress made to date for the IU Precision Health Initiative, as well as further strengthening our partnership between the Indiana CTSI and Regenstrief to leverage data and technologies to accelerate translational research and improve health.”
Tachinardi has worked in the rapidly growing field of informatics for more than 30 years. Most recently, he served as the associate dean for biomedical informatics at the School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison and as the chief research information officer at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin. He was responsible for building and operating UW Health’s translational research resources such as data warehouses and new functions in the electronic health record systems, he additionally participated in the creation of UWHealth’s enterprise analytics group.
He idealized and directed the Clinical and Health Informatics Institute of the University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translation Research, where he served as the executive scientific director. His leadership roles at University of Wisconsin—Madison included being the Associate-Director of Informatics at the Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he had oversight of the area of clinical and research informatics.
“I have an enormous passion for informatics, and I look forward to the development of robust, in-depth solutions that will help define forward-thinking approaches for data organization and administration to power innovation in biomedical research and translation to the clinical setting for the Indiana University Precision Health Initiative, the IU School of Medicine and partners,” said Tachinardi. “As a proponent of the Learning Health Systems model, in which research informs clinical care and clinical care informs research, I value this exciting opportunity to shape the field and the next wave of health professionals, by empowering them with effective and efficient informatics tools and teaching them to properly understand the fast-changing paradigms of healthcare and employ the newest technologies”
Tachinardi’s experience also includes five years as the assistant dean of academic and research informatics and the associate director for clinical research of the Initiative for Biomedical Informatics at the University of Chicago. He served as the chief information officer for the Secretary of Health of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil in addition to holding leadership positions at the Heart Institute of Sao Paulo University Medical School.
Tachinardi will join IU, Regenstrief and Indiana CTSI on April 1.
###
IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability.