Living With Covid Doesn't Mean Ignoring It

Infectious Disease Scientists Look Beyond The Pandemic

As envisioned by Michael Boeckh, MD, PhD, head of Fred Hutch's Infectious Disease Sciences Program,  the two-day symposium was both a scientific conference and an opportunity "to train the next generation of leaders, researchers and clinicians" in this specialized field.

Seventy-one promising, early career doctors and scientists attended with full travel grants. Senior researchers and physicians who spoke at the gathering served as mentors to the trainees throughout the event.

"We invited both leaders in the field, but also the rising stars to hear about their research and their interpretation of the science," Boeckh said as he opened the Seattle event on May 1.

Although the catastrophe of COVID-19 was seldom out of mind, speakers noted that the field was once again turning to what passed for normal before the pandemic: acute concern about the panoply of other microbial threats to patients.

For cancer patients, and for those recovering from either bone marrow or solid organ transplantation, the list of potentially lethal microbes is a lengthy one, often including influenza and germs that pose little threat to people with healthy immune systems: cytomegalovirus, parainfluenza, human herpesvirus-6 (it causes roseola in infants), and rhinoviruses, which cause the common cold.

The broad sweep of the symposium included talks on fungal infections and the dearth of good drugs to treat them; a discussion about modifying communities of gut bacteria — the microbiome — to combat multidrug resistant organisms; the use of laboratory-grown (monoclonal) antibody drugs to protect patients recovering from transplant; and a report raising concerns that recipients of advanced CAR-T cell therapies to treat certain blood cancers may need extra protection from microbial infections.

Janet Englund, MD, director of pediatric transplant infectious diseases at Seattle Children's Hospital, said one enduring lesson of the pandemic was that extra doses of vaccines seemed to increase protection for many members of this vulnerable population, without increased risks of side effects, according to recent studies.

"More doses are better," she said. "This is really pretty simple: we want more doses. Two doses are not enough in our immunocompromised patients, three doses are not enough in our immunocompromised children for sure, and four doses are really quite good."

Englund echoed the calls to include the immunocompromised population in clinical trials, citing 10 years of failed efforts to test better monoclonal antibodies against respiratory syncytial virus in children. Pediatric transplant surgeons would love to give such drugs to children as a precaution prior to their transplants.

"It's only going to change by us investigators writing and clamoring and begging and being obnoxious to the pharmaceutical companies," she said.

Englund recognized, however, that drugmakers are concerned that adding riskier patients to a trial can make winning Food and Drug Administration approval more difficult, should a participant die in a trial, and that regulators should understand this.

"Our government agencies don't appreciate how much we need to do these trials," Englund added.

Division Of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

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The Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases was established in 1967 by Dr. Martha Yow. Her leadership and emphasis on patient care, teaching and research established the foundation for the nationally recognized division that exists today. In 1982, Dr. Carol J. Baker was the division chief through 2007, at which time Dr. Sheldon L. Kaplan became the division chief. In 2017, Edward O. Mason, Ph.D. Was honored after 45 years as the director of the Infectious Diseases Laboratory at Texas Children's Hospital by having the laboratory renamed the Edward O. Mason Pediatric Infectious Diseases Laboratory.

Over the years, the program has developed into one that trains a large number of pediatric infectious diseases physicians and exemplifies a high standard of excellence in patient care, commitment to teaching, and hypothesis-driven research. Since 1978, more than 90 physicians have been trained in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Many former Baylor Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellows now hold academic positions in more than 30 institutions throughout the United States and several other countries.

Throughout the history of the division, and currently, faculty have served in leadership positions of pediatric and infectious diseases professional societies as well as in advisory positions for the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Board of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.

Infectious Disease Connect Names New CEO

PITTSBURGH, May 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Board of Directors of Infectious Disease Connect has appointed Rima Abdel-Massih, M.D. As President and Chief Executive Officer, effective May 24, 2023. Dr. Abdel-Massih co-founded Infectious Disease Connect in 2019 and previously served as Chief Medical Officer.

"We are thrilled to announce Rima as ID Connect's next leader," said Brenton Burns, Executive Vice President of UPMC Enterprises, the innovation and venture capital arm of UPMC that helped to form ID Connect, and Chair of ID Connect's Board of Directors. "She brings a rare combination of clinical depth, entrepreneurial understanding, and nationally recognized telehealth expertise to the role. We look forward to continuing our work with Rima and are confident in her strategic vision and ability to lead the company to even greater success as the demand for infectious diseases (ID) expertise continues to outpace the supply of qualified ID clinicians."   

Dr. Abdel-Massih succeeds David Zynn, who had served as president and CEO since the company's founding. ID Connect now provides ID teleservices and clinical decision support technology to more than 80 hospitals.

"I am honored to have the opportunity to lead ID Connect and help bring academic level ID care to the 200+ million individuals that do not have access to ID specialists," Dr. Abdel-Massih said. "I also look forward to building on the great work Dave Zynn started and I am especially excited to further leverage our technology assets to improve the efficiency of our unique Tele-ID solutions, including adult and pediatric ID specialized services, virtual antimicrobial stewardship, and infection prevention and control offerings."

Dr. Abdel-Massih is an Associate Professor of Medicine and has been a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC since 2009. She joined the Division of ID at UPMC after completing her transplant ID fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic. Rima is a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America's workgroup on the telehealth specialty and has extensive ID and tele-ID research. Among her many publications Dr. Abdel-Massih recently co-authored the August 2022 OFID article "In-Person Versus Tele-Infectious Disease (Tele-ID) Care: Is One Better?"

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"I am proud to have led ID Connect during this time of exceptional growth and intense industry change," said former CEO Dave Zynn. "Following the pandemic, physician burnout has continued to rise and every day, hospitals need to do more with less. ID Connect has been able to address these realities in creative and innovative ways. Under Rima's leadership and the work of the company's talented employees, ID Connect is perfectly positioned to continue its successful track record."

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ID Connect is a world leader in telemedicine-enabled care of infectious diseases (ID), antimicrobial stewardship, and infection prevention and control. Spun out of leading academic medical center UPMC, the company's research, technology, and data science are paired with world-class ID clinicians to effectively manage ID to help lower overall healthcare costs, make patients healthier, improve outcomes, and keep communities free of ID. For more information, go to IDCtelemed.Com

CONTACT: IDC Marketing and Communications Infectious Disease Connect 312-953-5094 media@idctelemed.Com

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