The American Medical Informatics Association's American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) will present the 2026 Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence to William “Bill” Hersh, M.D., of Oregon Health & Science University. 

In honor of Morris F. Collen, an early trailblazer in medical informatics, the award is presented annualy to an individual whose lifetime commitment and dedication to the field have made a significant impact. The award is determined by ACMI’s Awards Committee.

Hersh is a professor in the Division of Informatics, Clinical Epidemiology, and Translational Data Science (DICE) in the Department of Medicine of the School of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland. A pioneering leader in biomedical informatics, he served as the Inaugural Chair of OHSU's Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology (DMICE) from 2003 to 2022, helping to shape the department into a nationally recognized center for innovation and research. He also developed and led OHSU’s Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program from 1996 to 2023.

“I am one of those who had the privilege of training under Bill, and I am proud to call myself a graduate of his program at OHSU,” said Peter J. Embí, M.D., M.S., director of the National Library of Medicine and ACMI president, in a statement. “Bill's contributions to informatics have been truly extraordinary, and he is most deserving of this highest honor our College can bestow.”

ACMI said that throughout his career, Hersh has made transformative contributions to the field of biomedical informatics. In education, he conceptualized and implemented the first offering of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 10x10 program, which delivers graduate-level introductory training in informatics and has educated over 3,500 professionals. He is also editor of the textbook, Health Informatics: Practical Guide, now in its eighth edition.

Hersh’s research has advanced the science of information retrieval in biomedicine. He has authored over 200 scientific papers and abstracts as well as the book, Information Retrieval: A Biomedical and Health Perspective, now in its fourth edition. 

His current work focuses on applying search techniques to electronic health record data to improve patient cohort discovery and enhance the detection of rare disease signals. He has also played a leading role in numerous biomedical information retrieval challenge evaluations through the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC), helping to establish benchmarks that have advanced the field internationally.

Hersh has received numerous awards across his career, including election to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI) and a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA), the American College of Physicians (FACP), and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (FIAHSI). He is also an elected member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group in Information Retrieval (SIGIR) Academy.

The award will be presented on November 8 during the opening session of AMIA’s Annual Symposium in Dallas.

Hersh also will present a 90-minute education session at the Symposium. This year’s symposium theme, Harnessing Informatics to Accelerate Learning Health Systems, explores how informatics can help create health systems that adapt, improve, and get smarter in real time, all in the pursuit of better patient outcomes.