Locations

Alan J. Hirshberg, MD, MPH, FACEP was appointed to the SES-EQV position of Acting VHA Associate Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Oversight, Risk and Ethics, effective December 19, 2021.

Dr. Hirshberg has over 14 years of dedicated service and clinical experience within VA. He most recently served as the Acting Medical Inspector in the Office of the Medical Inspector (OMI) from January 25, 2021 through October 23, 2021. Prior to that role, he served as the OMI Chief Medical Investigator beginning in 2018. Dr. Hirshberg joined OMI in 2016 as a Senior Medical Investigator and has conducted site visits to VHA facilities since then as well as serving on national VA and Emergency Medicine committees related to clinical practice and quality. He began his VA career at the Lebanon VA Medical Center in 2007 as the chief of the emergency department and was appointed to the position of Associate Chief of Staff for Acute Care and Specialty Services in 2008, managing a busy service of 17 specialties including medical and surgical subspecialties with medical student and resident education. 

Prior to joining the VA, Dr. Hirshberg had extensive clinical and leadership experience in the field of emergency medicine. He has worked in public and private sector hospitals since 1993, ranging in size from critical access to level one academic trauma centers. He has also assisted the U.S. Coast Guard as a volunteer flight physician on medical evacuations (medevacs) in inclement weather. Dr. Hirshberg has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed medical literature related to emergency medicine and informatics. He is certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine and previously served as an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Penn State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA. 

Dr. Hirshberg graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston with a combined MD/MPH degree in 1990. He has been a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) since 1996.  He completed the VA Executive Career Field program in 2012, (AMIA) 10X10 Informatics Program in 2015 and 131st Interagency Institute for Federal Health Care Executives in 2017.