Eric Houpt and Scott Heysell, at a TB conference in Russia.
Infectious Diseases faculty members Scott Heysell, MD, and Eric Houpt, MD, were part of a collaborative team, with staff from the Virginia Department of Health, who jointly received the Robert Koch award from the National TB Controllers Association in April. The award recognized their efforts to improve treatment outcomes for tuberculosis-related diabetes in the state of Virginia.
At the award ceremony, held on April 20 at the NTCA’s annual meeting, Suzanne Keller, a TB epidemiologist with the VDH’s Division of Tuberculosis and Newcomer Health (VDH-DTNH), accepted the award on behalf of the team. Her colleagues from the DTNH include Denise Dodge, RN, Jane Moore, RN, and Debbie Staley, MPH.
The award recognizes an “outstanding contribution with a clinical, epidemiological or academic focus by a TB researcher or TB research organization in the quest for eliminating TB.” The UVA-VDH collaboration was recognized for its groundbreaking research on the association between diabetes and low-serum TB drug levels, and for its subsequent adoption of routine monitoring for serum drug levels for all diabetic patients with TB in Virginia. Because of this work, and the resultant improved outcomes, blood sugar control screening among TB patients, followed by TB drug level monitoring for those with abnormal screening values, is becoming a standard of care across the nation.
Charles Peloquin, PharmD, professor and director of the Infectious Disease Pharmacokinetics Laboratory at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, nominated the team for the award, saying that TB patients with diabetes is “an increasingly important population [as we near the goal of] TB elimination in the United States.” He noted that “global estimates suggest 15% of all patients with TB have diabetes, and that the overall prevalence of diabetes is increasing in TB-endemic regions around the world, and among our foreign-born patients with TB in states such as Virginia.”
Dr. Heysell, an associate professor of medicine, remarked: “We were very pleased that this award recognized our partnership with colleagues at VDH. Such collaborative efforts between universities and state health departments, while not entirely unique nationwide, are unusual. This demonstrates what such partnerships can achieve, with complementary resources and expertise.”
The photo below was taken at a meeting in Istanbul of an international TB collaborative research group led by Dr. Houpt and Dr. Heysell, with members from Tanzania, Uganda, Bangladesh and Russia. Heysell is 3rd from left (white shirt) and Houpt is 5th from right (blue shirt); ID faculty members Tania Thomas and Chris Moore are also team members (Thomas is in the front row, right; Moore is in the back row, center). The group’s jackets say “Fighting Tuberculosis Together.”
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Filed Under: Notable Achievements