Hilary Tindle, MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health within the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a physician-scientist and founding director of the new Vanderbilt Center for Informative Research and Treatment of Tobacco Using E-health (VIRTUE). Key aims of the center include using personalized approaches to guide cessation therapy, investigating mechanisms of lapse and relapse in real time, and effectively reducing tobacco-related disease burden in clinical populations.
Dr. Tindle joined the faculty of Vanderbilt after nine years at the University of Pittsburgh. During this time she served as the principal investigator (PI) of two NIH-sponsored randomized clinical trials (RCT) for smoking cessation and as the site PI for a 3rd NIH-sponsored multi-center RCT. Her clinical program, the Tobacco Treatment Service, leverages the electronic health record and the Tennessee Tobacco Quitline to further clinical, educational, and research efforts. These efforts serve as a platform for clinical research and synergize with programs that she founded and continues to foster in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Tindle is a contributing author to the 2014 50th Anniversary Surgeon General’s Report and serves on the NCCN Smoking Cessation Guidelines Panel. Throughout her career, she has studied the role of psychological processes in influencing smoking and other behaviors and has documented the impact of psychological processes on smoking, chronic disease, and death. In 2013, her book “Up: How Positive Outlook Can Transform Our Health and Aging” was featured in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
She has been nominated for a Chancellor’s Chair in Medicine to support her work in smoking cessation and the prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other behaviorally driven diseases.