Irl Hirsch MD, MACP
Specialties
Endocrinology - Diabetes & Metabolism
Bio
Professor and Diabetes Treatment and Teaching Chair
Dr. Hirsch received his medical degree from the University of Missouri School of Medicine in 1984. He completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of Miami, in Miami, Florida and Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach, Florida and a research fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Dr. Hirsch’s career has focused on studying the best strategies for the use of insulin therapy and technologies in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. More recently, he has become interested in glycemic data management from continuous glucose monitoring and its relationship to more traditional diabetes biomarkers for the prediction of microvascular disease. He is currently evaluating new pharmacologic strategies for treating diabetic kidney disease in type 1 diabetes in addition to the skin pathology occurring from insulin pump therapy. In collaboration with experts around the world and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, he is also investigating appropriate glycemic targets for critically ill and bone marrow transplant patients, with and without diabetes. Over the years, he has been a passionate advocate for patients ensuring access and affordability for insulin and glucose monitoring technology. Dr. Hirsch has authored more than 350 research papers, more than 60 editorials, and numerous book chapters. He has been involved in major clinical trials for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in addition to atypical diabetes with funding from NIH, Breakthrough T1D, the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and industry. He has won numerous awards from the American Diabetes Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and the Endocrine Society. He has also been an editor for the diabetes section in UpToDate since 2012. He has participated in numerous international consensus guideline committees, including those for diabetes technology, inpatient hyperglycemia, type 1 diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis, and precision medicine in diabetes. In 2024 Dr. Hirsch retired from his clinical practice but continues to work with fellows in training at the UW Diabetes Institute, a clinic he started in 1990 and moving forward, he will focus his time on his research, including expanded use of GLP-1Ras and leptin for the treatment of type 1 diabetes.
Medical Schools
University of Missouri School of Medicine
Languages in addition to English
none
Practice Locations
UW Medicine
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