A trailblazer in the burgeoning fields of population and public health informatics, Brian Dixon, PhD, MPA, has been named director of the Regenstrief Institute’s Clem McDonald Center for Biomedical Informatics effective December 1, 2024. He has served as interim director since June 1, 2022. As director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics, he will hold the Clem McDonald Chair of Biomedical Informatics.
Dr. Dixon has received national recognition for his efforts to make population and public health data accessible to public health officials, policy makers and the public through the development of data dashboards for COVID and more recently for studies on syphilis, sickle cell disease and diabetes. He has also been a major contributor to real-world big data analysis of various populations across the United States, including work on multiple vaccine effectiveness studies performed in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded VISION Network.
Dr. Dixon is the Regenstrief site principal investigator of the CDC-funded Vaccine Safety Datalink Project involving active surveillance and monitoring, as well as epidemiologic studies and evaluations. He is also a site principal investigator of CDC-funded development of a comprehensive, statewide surveillance system for incidence and prevalence of post-COVID-19 conditions (including long COVID) as well as a surveillance system for diabetes in youth and young adults (also known as DiCAYA) in Indiana. He further leads a statewide surveillance project focused on maternal and child health conditions, including neonatal abstinence syndrome, congenital syphilis and stillbirths. These projects are on-going.
For two decades he has worked closely with both the Marion County Public Health Department and the Indiana Department of Health as well as the CDC and other national agencies. His focus includes such areas as use of electronic health records for population and public health purposes, including the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC) — developed by Regenstrief Institute.
“It is a great pleasure to announce Brian Dixon’s appointment as director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics, following a nationwide search. His two years as interim director have clearly demonstrated that he is the person we need on a permanent basis to direct our highly regarded informatics group,” said Rachel Patzer, PhD, MPH, president and chief executive officer of Regenstrief Institute. “Brian’s focus on using data and applied informatics to improve the health of patients and populations is well aligned with our mission to conduct impactful research in health systems and communities. Through his leadership, his scholarship, his mentorship of the current and next generations and his constant commitment to improving health outcomes, I am confident that under his guidance, the Center for Biomedical Informatics will thrive.”
Dr. Dixon chairs the Scientific Program Committee of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2025 Annual Symposium, which will focus on public health informatics. He is a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), a fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI) and an elected member of the American College of Epidemiology.
In addition to directing the Center for Biomedical Informatics at Regenstrief Institute, Dr. Dixon will continue to serve as a professor of health policy and management at the Indiana University Indianapolis Fairbanks School of Public Health and as director of the joint Regenstrief and Fairbanks School’s public health informatics program. He remains an investigator in residence/health research scientist with the Center for Health Information and Communication Department of the Health Services Research and Development Service of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and an adjunct professor of biomedical informatics in the IU Indianapolis Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering.
Dr. Dixon earned a bachelor of arts degree in computer science from DePauw University (Greencastle, Indiana); and a master’s of public affairs degree from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a PhD in health informatics from the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering at Indiana University. He first joined the Regenstrief Institute in 2001 as a computer programmer, becoming a health information program manager in 2005. In 2011 he was appointed as a research scientist in both the Institute’s Clem McDonald Center for Biomedical Informatics and William M. Tierney Center for Health Services Research.
