Richard Nauert, Ph.D, M.H.A., PT, is a clinical associate professor and researcher who teaches the course Operational Models of Healthcare Systems and co-teaches the course, Fundamentals of Health Information Technology in the HIHIT Program. He also teaches a course in Health Policy and Health Systems for undergraduate public health majors in the UT Austin, College of Natural Sciences, as well as a hybrid online doctoral class on population health. His research interests and publications have focused on telehealth and disease management, telemedicine, electronic health records, health information technology in post-acute settings, population health, health administration and health education.

Dr. Nauert has served in clinical, administrative and academic healthcare settings for 40 years. He began his career as a hospital-based clinical physical therapist, then after four years, transitioned into the post-acute care environment where he advanced into management and administration. He was the regional manager for a private, then publicly traded, multi-disciplinary Medicare-Certified Rehabilitation Agency for over 15 years. In this role, he was responsible for planning and managing all clinical and administrative operations in five out-patient clinics and for over 100 contract relationships in a 12-county area of Central Texas. His duties included fiscally responsible financial management and continual efficient and compliant operational performance in each practice setting. His responsibilities included patient communication, personnel management, insurance coding and billing, medical records management, appointment scheduling and overall office operations.

For the past 18 years, Dr. Nauert has been in academia while also being an operational consultant to several major health systems, health plans and home health agencies. He has graduate degrees in Health Promotion and Management (UNT), Healthcare Administration (Trinity) and a doctoral degree from The University of Texas at Austin. His doctoral research focused on information science, including health care informatics, health administration, health education and health policy. His dissertation explored online telehealth disease management among a vulnerable population to reduce cost and improve outcomes.