HIVMA Recognizes Excellence in HIV Clinical Care, Education With 2020 Awards
ARLINGTON, VA—Nov. 30 -- Honoring careers in research, clinical care and education that have resulted in significant improvements or discoveries in HIV care, the HIV Medicine Association presented its 2020 Awards for Excellence to Adaora Adimora, M.D., FIDSA, and Gabriel Chamie, M.D., MPH, in October.
The HIVMA Clinical Educator Award was presented to Dr. Adimora in recognition of her accomplishments as a clinician, her extraordinary contributions to advancing HIV clinical education among trainees and researchers and her commitment to mentoring students and researchers in the U.S and globally. She is a sought-after lecturer and thought leader who has disseminated her findings on the drivers of HIV-related racial and ethnic disparities around the globe.
Dr. Adimora is a passionate advocate for underserved patient populations--specifically focusing on African American women at risk for or living with HIV. She is a Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor in the School of Medicine and professor of epidemiology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An outstanding educator, she teaches medical students, residents and fellows on the internal medicine ward and the ID consultation service. During her time at UNC, Dr. Adimora has mentored numerous postgraduate students and junior, mid-level, and senior scientists, along with countless fellows, residents and medical students.
As the principal investigator of the UNC site of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study-Women’s Interagency HIV Study Combined Cohort Study, Dr. Adimora’s leadership has engaged students, trainees and investigators with opportunities for discussion, networking and collaboration. She is a frequent lecturer on various aspects of HIV and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, including work characterizing the epidemiology of heterosexual HIV transmission among African Americans, the role of sexual network patterns in the spread of HIV and the importance of macroeconomic and social forces in racial disparities in the U.S. HIV epidemic.
A past chair of HIVMA, Dr. Adimora, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019 and has served on numerous national committees, including for the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Dr. Adimora has been an extraordinary leader in clinical education and research focused on the drivers of HIV-related health disparities; she is one of the most influential and inspirational leaders in our field,” remarked Rajesh T. Gandhi, M.D., FIDSA, chair of HIVMA.
The HIVMA Research Award was presented to Dr. Chamie, who has greatly expanded the use of economics theory and conditional incentives in the field of HIV research.
An associate professor in residence in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. Chamie has been conducting HIV and tuberculosis clinical and epidemiological research in sub-Saharan Africa since 2008. He has formed innovative collaborations with economists and modelers to explore the effect of conditional and nonconditional incentives on HIV treatment and prevention behavior. His work has applications in many other areas of infectious diseases, including, most recently, SARS-CoV-2 testing.
A co-investigator in the National Institutes of Health-funded SEARCH Trial of a “test and treat” approach in East Africa, Dr. Chamie serves as chair of the SEARCH Trial HIV Testing Working Group implementing large-scale, multi-disease community health campaigns and population-wide HIV testing. He is also co-principal investigator of a study investigating novel incentive approaches to increase HIV testing and linkage to care among men in rural Uganda. He has more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
“Dr. Chamie’s outstanding research has helped to forge new ground in studying innovative approaches to engaging patients in HIV prevention and care,” Dr. Gandhi said.
Dr. Chamie has received several young investigator awards, in addition to other honors, and has been invited to speak at national and international meetings about his work. An active research mentor, he started and continues to lead a research seminar for young investigators, which attracts junior investigators from across his campus working in global health. Also considered an outstanding clinician and teacher by his peers, Dr. Chamie cares for patients in San Francisco General Hospital’s HIV and TB clinics.
“HIVMA is pleased to recognize the important contributions of Dr. Adimora and Dr. Chamie to advancing HIV prevention and care. Both have taken on critical areas of medicine and public health that must be addressed if we are to successfully end HIV as an epidemic,” Dr Gandhi commented.