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.

From both a research and teaching point of view, 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 300 research papers, more than 60 editorials, and numerous book chapters. In 2024, he co-authored a review of cardiovascular risk prevention in type 1 diabetes for the New England Journal of Medicine. 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 at the UW Diabetes Institute, a clinic he started in 1990.