William Lester, MD

William (Bill) Lester has been a member of the MGH Lab of Computer Science (LCS) Faculty since 2003. Prior to completing his medical training in medicine at MGH, Bill graduated from Ohio State with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He earned his master’s degree in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and his MD from the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.

Bill currently balances his time between his informatics work and his clinical work. Dr. Lester provides clinical care in Primary Care in Urgent Care settings, as well as supervises informatics trainees and conducts clinical informatics research and service activities, all to enhance the quality of patient care.

Dr. Lester’s research projects have focused on novel approaches to improving patient care using both non-visit based tools and population-based quality-improvement interventions. Recently Bill has focused on consumer health informatics: He is studying the effects of an interactive “game” on patient medication knowledge and has been working on creating an automated patient feedback tool to help identify patterns in the practice of medicine that relate to patient satisfaction scores. Dr. Lester’s clinical experience informs his perspective of what can be improved in clinical information systems; his informatics research helps him discover ways to improve these very systems and affect change.

When not working, Bill is a photographer with boundless wanderlust, having traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and beyond, always with his trusty camera by his side. Bill is also an avid college sports fan -- Go Buckeyes and Hook ‘em Horns!