Homer Tien

Homer Chin-nan Tien is a Canadian trauma surgeon and the president and CEO of Ornge, an air ambulance non-profit based on Ontario. He also holds the rank of colonel in the Canadian Forces Health Services, associate professorship at the University of Toronto, and was the former director of Trauma Services at Sunnybrook's Tory Regional Trauma Centre.

Biography Tien earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Queen's University in 1989. In 1992, he graduated with a Doctor of Medicine from McMaster University.

He later underwent four years of further residency training in general surgery via the Canadian Forces and the University of Toronto from 1998 to 2002.

As a Canadian Forces surgeon, he also deployed to the NATO-led multinational stabilization force in Bosnia in 2003, to Kabul with ISAF in 2004, and multiple times to the Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit in Kandahar.

In July 2012, Tien was presented with the Canadian Forces Major Sir Frederick Banting Term Chair in Military Trauma Research.

In 2019, Tien was appointed a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research.

He was made an Member of the Order of Canada in 2025.

Research Tien's research focuses mostly on combat trauma care and war surgery, prehospital trauma care, and improving trauma care to populations working and living in remote areas.

Selected publications Pannell D, Brisebois R, Talbot M, Trottier V, Clement J, Garraway N, McAlister V, Tien HC. Causes of death in Canadian Forces members deployed to Afghanistan and implications on tactical combat casualty care provision. J Trauma. 2011 Nov;71(5 Suppl 1):S401–7. Tien HC, Jung V, Pinto R, Mainprize T, Scales DC, Rizoli SB. Reducing time-to-treatment decreases mortality of trauma patients with acute subdural hematoma. Ann Surg. 2011 Jun;253(6):1178–83. Tien HC, Farrell R, Macdonald J. Preparing Canadian military surgeons for Afghanistan. CMAJ. 2006;175(11):1365–66. Tien HC, Jung V, Rizoli SB, Acharya SV, Macdonald JC. An evaluation of tactical combat casualty care interventions in a combat environment. J Am Coli Surg. 2008;207(2):174–78. Tien HC, Acharya SV, Redelmeier DA. Preventing deaths in the Canadian military. Am J Prev Med. 2010;38(3):331–9.