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Dr. Herion was previously a staff clinician in the Clinical Center, and he earned both his undergraduate degree in chemistry and his medical degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Clinical Informatics.

Herion, originally from Chapel Hill, came to NIH in 1992 as a fellow with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. His research on the relationship between alcohol abuse and hepatitis C gave the young scientist an opportunity to develop expertise in a long-standing interest in clinical informatics, particularly as applied to clinical research.

“It was a challenge to pull together data from three different sources–the hospital information system, lab data, and behavioral data–collected in various spreadsheets compiled over the years in individual users’ desktops,” Herion recalls. He knew there was an easier way to gather such information and set about to find it. 

Following his rotation with NIAAA, Herion completed a fellowship in the Liver Disease Section of the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He left NIH in 2001 to join MedData, a data management and software company, where he further pursued his interest in medical informatics as an informatics consultant. After two years away, the pull of employing technology in a clinical research environment lured him back to NIH, this time as a staff clinician with NIAAA. 

With his experiences in both informatics and clinical research, Herion is well-suited for his new role. In replacing Dr. Steve Luxenberg, who left NIH after five years for a new position with Piedmont Healthcare of Atlanta, Herion hopes to advance the functionality of the Clinical Research Information System (CRIS), an initiative to better organize trial data. By tailoring its development to the needs of investigators, Herion will ensure that the system is suited to best serve patients. 

“Time spent with a computer system detracts from time to think about data and do research,” said Herion. “I think it is possible to modify and adapt CRIS better to the research environment, but this will take a lot of work and time, not to mention patience.”