HIV Medicine Association Honors 2017 Clinical Educator and Research Leaders

SAN DIEGO –October 4, 2017 – Two leading physicians in HIV medicine have been selected by the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) as recipients of the 2017 association awards, to be presented at IDWeek 2017 in San Diego.

HIVMA is pleased to honor Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Raphael J. Landovitz, MD, MSc, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

“These leaders are making significant and lasting contributions to HIV medicine,” said Wendy Armstrong, MD, HIVMA chair. “The HIV Medicine Association is proud to recognize Drs. Gandhi and Landovitz.”

Dr. Gandhi will receive the 2017HIVMA Clinical Educator Award, which recognizes those who have demonstrated significant achievement in the area of clinical care and provider education. Dr. Gandhi is an internationally recognized clinician and educator who has woven teaching and mentoring into all aspects of her work.

As medical director of the Ward 86 HIV Clinic at UCSF, a safety-net clinic and hospital, Dr. Gandhi oversees care for more than 2,800 HIV-infected and at-risk patients including urban poor, homeless, women, racial and ethnic minorities and immigrants – people who often are difficult to engage and retain but who greatly need high-quality medical care.

Her teaching is tightly linked to these settings and these populations, combining the scientific aspects of medical knowledge with the real-world practicality she’s gained from working with challenging populations in challenging settings. Truly excited to see students and trainees learn, whether during a “chalk talk” or a bedside discussion, Dr. Gandhi consistently receives outstanding teaching reviews, and many students and residents return for HIV electives or clinical rotations based on their previous work with her. Formerly the division education director, Dr. Gandhi is now associate division chief and assistant director of UCSF’s ID fellowship program, where she has developed a robust formal curriculum and led the longitudinal outpatient clinic training of ID and HIV fellows in the Ward 86 clinic.

Supported by an National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, Dr. Gandhi has developed a mentoring program for early career investigators of diversity and a “Mentoring the Mentors” national workshop series for midcareer and senior HIV investigators, where they learn specialized techniques and tools of effective mentoring. She has led trainings in the United States, Peru, Kenya, India and South Africa supported by funding from the Fogarty International Center.

Gandhi has received many awards for her compassionate clinical work, including the UCSF Meg Newman Teaching Award, the Sarlo Award for Teaching Excellence from UCSF’s AIDS Research Institute, and the Defender of Humanity Award and Clinical Teaching Award from ID fellows.

Dr. Landovitz will receive the 2017 HIVMA Research Award, which recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to HIV medicine in clinical or basic research early in their careers. Dr. Landovitz’ research focuses on HIV behavioral science, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). He has reported novel findings relating to motivators and barriers for these approaches, the efficacy of contingency management to facilitate their use in substance users, and HIV risk trajectories that warrant PrEP, which have greatly advanced the understanding of biomedical prevention strategies for HIV infection.

Landovitz has established PEP and PrEP demonstration projects in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Department of Health and, since 2009 when he obtained a NIH career development award, has published more than 40 primary research studies, reviews and editorials, including commentaries in publications such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Infectious Diseases and The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Landovitz has also been named a Best Doctor in America several times.

For full awards descriptions, recipient biographies and past award winners please visit  HIVMA.org/Awards_Recognition. HIVMA’s annual meeting, IDWeek 2017, takes place Oct. 4-8 at the San Diego Convention Center. To learn more, visit IDWeek.org.

# # #

About the HIV Medicine Association

The HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) is the professional home for more than 5,000 physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals dedicated to the field of HIV/AIDS. Nested within the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), HIVMA promotes quality in HIV care and advocates policies that ensure a comprehensive and humane response to the AIDS pandemic informed by science and social justice. For more information, visit www.hivma.org.