Having completed his school education in Cape Town, South Africa, Tienie was accepted to study medicine at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa in 1976. Three years after completion of his studies, he started practicing as a physician in the rural northern province of South Africa, Limpopo. This area borders Zimbabwe and he was therefore exposed to a patient pool ranging from very rural and impoverished (from both South Africa and Zimbabwe) to more affluent groups. This polarity had a marked impact on his career and after ten years, he decided to follow his passion to make a difference at a higher level given the big need for access to healthcare in Africa.
In order to live his dream, he therefore joined JCI Ltd, a large gold mining company with 80 000 employees in 1997 and obtained his MBA at the North West University in 2000 focussing on economics and management statistics. During his three years at JCI he served as Principal Officer of their health insurance scheme and hospital manager. HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis emerged as a significant risk in this patient risk pool leading to a major corporate response to address the diseases.
This experience led Tienie to found Tri-Health (Pty) Ltd, a risk management company focussing on risk identification, quantification and management in the field of healthcare, which, in 2002 merged with two companies to establish the Heath Monitor Company (Pty) Ltd. In essence, the Health Monitor Company provided healthcare risk management, strategic consulting and actuarial services (including HIV risk assessment) to employers and insurers in South Africa.
However, by 2007, South Africa was in the full evolution of healthcare reform and managed care and a need for an independent, credible and scientifically sound health economic research unit became clear. Therefore, in 2007, Tienie established Health Econometrix and Outcomes Research (Pty) Ltd (heXor) which is to date the only black owned health economic research company in South Africa. As CEO of heXor, Tienie was able to combine his passion for healthcare, economics and strategy into a single role. Through heXor he was able to establish a global network of academic working relationships, including Harvard University, University of British Columbia and most of the South African universities. He has worked extensively in the healthcare reform in South Africa and was the first president of the South African chapter of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. In recognition for his work in the field of pharmacoeconomics, he was appointed as extraordinary Professor at the School of Pharmacy at the North West University.
During his years at heXor he has had the privilege to work in many developing countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mauritius, and China. He has also worked extensively with Harvard Medical School in the developing and presentation of courses in policy development and analyses. Most recently heXor (as part of a consortium) was appointed as the management consultant for the implementation of the Southern African Regional Programme on Access to Medicines and Diagnostics (SARPAM), a DFID funded five year project to improve access to medicines in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Tienie has presented many research topics at conferences across the world. His key interest lies in the economic evaluations of policy implementation related to pharmaceuticals and HIV/AIDS. Cost-benefit analyses of healthcare programs are of particular interest to him. Through his work he believes that access to quality and equitable healthcare will become a reality to many more people in need through the rational allocation of scarce healthcare resources.