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Hepatitis C Choices, 4th EditionAbout the AuthorsTerry Baker Terry Baker is an advocate for military veterans and Executive Director of Veterans Aimed Toward Awareness (VATA). Terry advocates for veterans’ rights regarding hepatitis C and other illnesses related to military service. Terry works to educate veterans about the need to be tested for viral hepatitis. VATA represents the interests of a large portion of the hepatitis C population in the United States.
Misha Cohen, OMD, LAc Misha R. Cohen is a doctor of oriental medicine and a licensed acupuncturist. She is an internationally recognized practitioner, lecturer, and leader in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Dr. Cohen is the author of The Chinese Way to Healing: Many Paths to Wholeness (Perigee 1996, iUniverse 2007), The HIV Wellness Sourcebook (Holt 1998), and The Hepatitis C Help Book (St. Martin’s Press 2000, 2007). She has also authored numerous professional articles and book chapters on Chinese medicine and research subjects. Dr. Cohen is Clinical Director of Chicken Soup Chinese Medicine, Research and Education Chair of Quan Yin Healing Arts Center, Research Specialist at the University of California Institute for Health and Aging, and Research Consultant to the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine Cancer Center. She contributes regular columns to Liver Health magazine and NuMedx.com magazine. POZ Magazine named her one of the "Top 50 AIDS Researchers in the Country" in 1997. She currently sits on the Board of Directors and is the 2004 Conference Chair for the Society for Acupuncture Research.
Stewart Cooper, MD Dr. Cooper is an expert in immunology and hepatology with special clinical and research interests in viral hepatitis. He has been a pioneer in liver immunology research for more than a decade. At California Pacific Medical Center, Dr. Cooper oversees the Liver Immunology Laboratory. His research investigates hepatic immunity, focusing on the determinants of HCV clearance. Dr. Cooper has served as Assistant Professor of Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology at University of California San Francisco and as a Research and Gastroenterology Fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has an international reputation in viral hepatitis research and management, and is listed in Who's Who of Medical Science Educators.
Randy Dietrich Randy Dietrich was diagnosed with hepatitis C in January 1999 following a routine physical examination. Randy is a successful executive in the finance arena. As a result of his diagnosis, Mr. Dietrich, together with his employer Republic Financial Corporation, founded the Caring Ambassadors Hepatitis C Program.
Gregory T. Everson, MD Dr. Everson received his medical degree from Cornell Medical College in New York, New York. He is currently a Professor of Medicine and the Director of Hepatology in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado. Dr. Everson is a recipient of both NIH and industry sponsored research grants and contracts to study and treat patients with hepatitis C. He was a principal investigator of the HALT C trial. Dr. Everson is an author and contributor to many scientific and clinical publications related to hepatitis C and liver disease. He and his coauthor Hedy Weinberg have written four editions of Living with Hepatitis C: A Survivor’s Guide,one edition of My Mom has Hepatitis C, one edition of Living with Hepatitis B: A Survivor’s Guide, and the new book Hemochromatosis: Answers to Your Questions About Iron Overload. Dr. Everson is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the American Gastroenterologic Association, the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, and the American Society of Transplantation. He is the Associate Editor of the journal Liver Transplantation, and a reviewer for numerous scientific and medical journals.
Sylvia Flesner, ND Dr. Flesner is a naturopathic doctor, a graduate of the former American Holistic College of Nutrition (now the Clayton School of Natural Healing). She has maintained clinical practices in Houston, Texas and Denver, Colorado for the past 23 years. Her training as a doctor of naturopathy included the study of several alternative medical disciplines including homeopathy, nutrition, pressure points, herbology, massage, acupressure, reflexology, iridology, psychology, degenerative diseases, allergic diseases, immune deficiency problems, and techniques for survival in the 21st century. Dr. Flesner is also certified in psychoneuroimmunology. She is a member of the American Naturopathic Medical Association and the American Holistic Medical Association. Currently, Dr. Flesner is participating in research at the Duke University Rhine Research Center correlating medical records of patients using intuitive diagnostics. She is also working on alternative treatment approaches for cancer and other illnesses. Dr. Flesner has lectured at the School of Public Health and MD Anderson Methodist Hospital in Texas.
Robert Gish, MD Dr. Gish is Medical Director of the Liver Transplant Program at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He is an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Nevada, Reno. He earned his medical degree from the University of Kansas and received his training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Gish has conducted extensive research on treatments for hepatitis B and C, and has authored more than 100 original articles, review articles, abstracts, and book chapters. Along with being a co-principal investigator or sub-investigator on a number of grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Gish has also received the NIH physician scientist award. He is actively involved in numerous professional societies including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Transplant Physicians, and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease. Dr. Gish collaborated with Dr. Misha Cohen to author The Hepatitis C Helpbook, which examines the use of Chinese medicine in combination with conventional western biomedical therapies.
Peter Hauser, MD Dr. Hauser received his medical degree from the University of Virginia Medical School. He currently serves as the Clinical Director, Chief of Psychiatry, Mental Health & Neurosciences Division, Portland VA Medical Center, the Director of the Portland VA Mood Disorders Center, and the Associate Director at the VA Northwest Hepatitis C Resource Center. Dr. Hauser is also a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Oregon Health Sciences University. He serves as a editorial reviewer for 7 scientific publications and has received numerous awards for his work in the field of Psychiatry.
Randy Horwitz, MD, PhD Dr. Horwitz is the Medical Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine and assistant professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Arizona. He earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois and a PhD in immunology and molecular biology from the University of Florida. Dr. Horwitz did his postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health, and completed a three-year fellowship in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Horwitz also completed a two-year integrative medicine fellowship at the University of Arizona, which focused on mind-body approaches to illness. He is board certified in internal medicine, and allergy and clinical immunology.
David W. Indest, PsyD
Jessica Irwin, PAC Jessica Irwin is a Physician Assistant working in the field of hepatology and liver transplant. Ms. Irwin completed her Master's in Physician Assistant Studies and Public Health at Touro University in California. Her continuing education through the AASLD Hepatology Physician Assistant fellowship was completed at the University of California, San Francisco under the preceptorship of Norah Terrault, MD.
Julia Jernberg, MD Dr. Jernberg is a board-certified internist and a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin. She received her medical degree from the University of Illinois, and completed her internal medicine training at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She has a keen interest in basic science and clinical research, and previously performed postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Jernberg’s work has been published in numerous professional journals. She currently practices in Wisconsin and Arizona.
Joyce S. Kobayashi, MD Dr. Kobayashi is a renowned Psychiatrist who works with people living with hepatitis C. She was an Associate Professor of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and staff psychiatrist at Denver Health Medical Center where she was a consultant to the Hepatitis C Clinic. Dr. Kobayashi received the 2007 "Outstanding Achievement Award" from the Colorado Psychiatric Society. Dr. Kobayashi served on the Institute of Medicine Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, as the Board liaison to the Committees on HIV Prevention Strategies, Public Financing of HIV Care. as well as a number of components of the American Psychiatric Association, including the Commission on AIDS and the Committee of Asian-American Psychiatrists.
Douglas LaBrecque, MD Dr. LaBrecque received his medical degree from Stanford Medical School, Stanford, CA. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa College of Medicine. Dr. LaBrecque was Chief of Gastroenterology-Hepatology at the Veterans Administration hospital in Iowa City, IA from 1982 to 2001. He has won a number of awards including the Lange Book Award, the J. D. Lane Research Award, and the Medical Residents Teaching Award at the University of Iowa. Dr. LaBrecque is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise in liver diseases, particularly the field of hepatitis. Dr. LaBrecque has built a nationally recognized program in liver diseases at the University of Iowa with an over 1000% increase in patients over the past 15 years, five full-time faculty members, and a liver transplant program. He has written key chapters on clinical subjects in standard internal medicine and hepatology textbooks, and co-edited a textbook on liver diseases.
Lark Lands, PhD Lark Lands is a contributing medical writer and editor for the American Academy of HIV Medicine, AIDS Treatment News, www.AIDSmeds.com, CATIE's The Positive Side, CATIE's Practical Guides, and the Houston Buyers Club. She is a long-time HIV treatment activist, journalist, and educator. A former think tank scientist, she was a pioneer in bringing attention to the need for an integrated approach to HIV disease. Her articles, many of which are available at www.larklands.net, have been widely printed and reprinted in AIDS newsletters and on the Internet. She is a frequent speaker at international, national, state, and local HIV/AIDS conferences.
Shri Kant Mishra, ABMS, MD, MS, FAAN, FNAAM Dr. Mishra is a professor of neurology and Coordinator of the Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. He graduated from Banaras Hindu University Ayurveda Charya with an ABMS (bachelor of medicine and surgery) from the Institute of Medical Sciences. He holds an MS degree in anatomy from Queens University, Canada and an MD from the University of Toronto, Canada. He also holds an MBA in Health Systems from the University of Wisconsin. He is a neurologist with a special interest in neuromuscular diseases. He served as medical director at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic and Associate Dean at the University of Southern California. He is a member of many neuroscience societies and serves on editorial boards of many neurological and integrative medicine journals. Dr. Mishra has been very active in the field of integrative medicine and serves on various committees in this field. He is a practicing Ayurvedist, and yoga teacher and practitioner. Dr. Mishra’s goals are to develop evidence-based, cost-effective, quality clinical care education and research in integrative medicine. He is president of the American Academy of Ayurvedic Medicine (AAAM).
Sharon D. Montes, MD Dr. Montes received her degree from the University of Colorado. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Medical School, and Board certified in Family medicine and in Holistic Medicine with a certificate in Geriatrics. Dr. Montes has extensive experience in tending to women's health and conditions associated with aging. She has a particular interest in acupuncture, herbal, energetic, and nutritional therapies.
Julie Nelligan, PhD Julie Nelligan received her doctorate from Ohio State University in Clinical Psychology with a specialty in Health Psychology. Her area of expertise is in brief interventions to address alcohol use in patients with hepatitis C. While working with the Hepatitis C Resource Center at the Portland VA Medical Center she assisted in developing an intervention with a toolkit to enable specialty and primary care providers to address alcohol use in chronically-infected hepatitis C patients who continue to drink alcohol. She also has experience in evaluating substance use and relapse risk in patients being considered for liver transplant, conducting psychosocial assessments as part of a multidisciplinary chronic pain team, and facilitating support groups for veterans who are being treated with interferon for hepatitis C. Dr. Nelligan is currently in private practice in Portland, Oregon.
Lyn Patrick, ND Dr. Patrick graduated from Bastyr University in 1984 and was in private practice as a state-boarded naturopathic physician in Tucson, Arizona for 17 years. She is currently in private practice in Durango, Colorado and specializes in chronic hepatitis C and environmental medicine. She is a member of the American College for Advancement in Medicine, the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians. She has provided care for HIV positive and HIV/HCV coinfected patients through federally funded programs that incorporate complementary medicine in a primary care treatment model. She is currently an Associate Editor for Alternative Medicine Review, a peer-reviewed journal. She has published over 20 scientific reviews in the field of complementary and alternative medicine. Dr. Patrick has presented information on CAM and hepatitis C at numerous medical meetings.
Bharathi Ravi, BAMS Dr. Bharathi Ravi graduated from the University of Bangalore, India. She is a chief ayurvedic practitioner at the Ayurvedic Center in Southern California. Dr. Ravi specializes in pancha karma, diet, and lifestyle. She volunteers and conducts research at the University of Southern California in the Integrative Medicine Program. She regularly lectures on CAM and healthy living through Ayurveda. Dr. Ravi is an active participant in numerous medical conferences to help raise awareness about natural living and healing. She is also a consultant at the Local Charity Health Care Center. Her areas of interest include chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, hepatitis, skin diseases, and gynecological disorders.
Aparna Roy MD, MPH Dr. Roy received her medical degree from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, India. She then completed her clinical internship at the Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals, Mumbai, India. She has a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health with an area of focus on infectious diseases and international health. Dr. Roy works as the Senior Research Clinical Trials Coordinator in the Pediatric Liver Center at Johns Hopkins. She works on NIH-funded grants in a variety of pediatric liver diseases including biliary atresia, acute liver failure, hepatitis C and hepatitis B. She has initiated and coordinated several community projects in India. Dr. Roy currently sees research patients in the Johns Hopkins David M. Rubenstein Pediatric Subspecialty Clinic and the Pediatric Clinical Research Unit.
Lorren Sandt Ms. Sandt has managed the hepatitis C division of the Caring Ambassadors Program since its inception in 1999. She is responsible for the oversight and implementation of all program activities and spearheads its ongoing mission. Ms. Sandt is the liaison to the program’s Medical Brainstorming Team, which is comprised of hepatitis C health care professionals from the different disciplines and the program’s research staff. Ms. Sandt regularly participates in state-of-the-art medical conferences to stay abreast of cutting-edge information in hepatitis C clinical and applied research. She is a frequent participant and presenter at conferences and symposia, interacting with those living with hepatitis C as well as with their families, patient advocates, representatives of hepatitis C organizations, physicians, and other health care workers. Ms. Sandt is the founder and past President of the National Hepatitis C Advocacy Council, vice-chair on the Board of Directors of the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR), and a member of the Hepatitis C Appropriations Partnership (HCAP), and the Oregon State Hepatitis Advisory Group (HAG). In 2001, The Hepatitis C Global Foundation honored Ms. Sandt with the Ronald Eugene Duffy Memorial Award for Patient Activism: for leadership and mentoring of patients, making them advocates for their own health.
Kathleen B. Schwarz, MD Dr. Schwarz received her medical degree from Washington University. She then completed her residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Schwarz is Director of the Pediatric Liver Center at Johns Hopkins in which there are over 1,000 patients who receive medical care. She focuses on liver disorders of childhood with a particular emphasis on biliary atresia, metabolic liver disorders, autoimmune liver disease, and viral hepatitis B and C. Dr. Schwarz is the Medical Director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program at Johns Hopkins and directs NIH-funded grants in a variety of pediatric liver diseases including biliary atresia (BARC), cholestatic liver diseases of childhood (CLIC), acute liver failure, pediatric liver transplantation, cystic fibrosis liver disease and hepatitis C. Baltimore Magazine named her as one of the top 25 pediatricians in Baltimore and she has won teaching awards at both St. Louis University and Johns Hopkins. In 2005 she received the Distinguished Service Award of the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition and, since 2001, has been named one of the Castle Connolly Top Doctors in America. Dr. Schwarz currently sees patients in the Johns Hopkins David M. Rubenstein Pediatric Subspecialty Clinic.
Amy E. Smith, PAC Amy E. Smith, PA-C obtained a BA degree from California State University at Long Beach, and a Physician Assistant Certificate from Stanford-Foothill Primary Care Associate Program in Palo Alto, CA. She is currently employed by O.A.S.I.S., Inc (Organization to Achieve Solutions in Substance-Abuse), a non-profit organization located in Oakland, CA. The clinic and research has focused on hepatitis C access and outcomes in marginalized populations, including those with substance abuse and mental illness.
Tina M. St. John, MD Dr. St. John is a graduate of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia; she is an epidemiologist, medical writer, editor, educator, and clinical research consultant. She was formerly a senior medical officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At CDC, Dr. St. John designed and conducted epidemiological and practice-based research, and oversaw continuing medical education activities sponsored by CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). She worked in the private sector as a medical director and medical editor before launching her own company in 2000. She is a member of the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Women’s Association, the American Medical Writers Association, and the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. She has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature, is the author of With Every Breath: A Lung Cancer Guidebook, and has been an invited author in a number of professional texts. Dr. St. John is the Executive Director and Medical Director of the Caring Ambassadors Program.
Diana L. Sylvestre, MD Diana L. Sylvestre, MD obtained a BS degree from the University of Florida, and her MD from Harvard Medical School. She trained in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, and underwent fellowship training in Biochemical Genetics at the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York, NY. She is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Executive Director and Founder of O.A.S.I.S. (Organization to Achieve Solutions in Substance-Abuse), a non-profit organization located in Oakland, CA. Her research has focused on hepatitis C access and outcomes in marginalized populations, including those with substance abuse and mental illness.
Norah Terrault, MD, MPH Dr. Norah Terrault completed medical training at the University of Alberta and specialty medical training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University of Toronto, both in Canada. Her post-doctoral fellowship in hepatology and viral hepatitis was completed at the University of California, San Francisco while earning a concurrent master's degree in public health from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Terrault is an internationally recognized hepatologist, and is widely known for her work in the treatment of viral hepatitis and liver transplantation. Her research includes the study of viral hepatitis and its progression and treatment, especially in liver transplant patients.
Sivarama Prasad Vinjamury Dr. Sivarama Prasad Vinjamury graduated from University of Kerala, South India. He is in private practice as a licensed Ayurvedic physician. He is currently studying for his master’s degree in acupuncture and oriental medicine at the Southern California University of Health Sciences at Los Angeles. He volunteers and conducts research at the University of Southern California in the Integrative Medicine Program. He is also involved in part-time research at Southern California University of Health Sciences. Dr. Vinjamury is the former Director of Product Development for Venkat Pharma, Hyderabad, South India, and a former consultant Ayurvedic physician at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, South India. For the past eight years, he has been treating various chronic ailments with Ayurvedic medicines at his clinic and at Apollo hospitals. His areas of interest include HIV, hepatitis B and C, and rheumatology. Dr. Vinjamury is a member of the American Association of Alternative Medicine Practitioners.
Qing-Cai Zhang, LAc, MD (China) Dr. Qing-Cai Zhang graduated from Shanghai Second Medical University. He worked as a clinician at Reijing Hospital of the medical university. Dr. Zhang conducted clinical work and research to integrate Chinese and western medicine. In 1980, he was awarded a World Health Organization scholarship, which supported his two-year fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He worked as a research fellow at the Wakai Clinic in Nagoya, Japan. Dr. Zhang received a one-year appointment from the University of California, Davis as a visiting professor. Since 1986, Dr. Zhang has been the primary researcher at the Oriental Healing Arts Institute where he conducts research on treating HIV/AIDS with Chinese medicine. He has published two books on this topic. Dr. Zhang went into private practice in 1990, first in Cypress, California, and now in New York City. He focuses on treating chronic infectious diseases such as viral hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, Lyme disease, and autoimmune diseases. He is the author of Healing Hepatitis C with Modern Chinese Medicine.
Susan L. Zickmund, PhD Susan Zickmund is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System at the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP) where she directs the Qualitative Research Core. She has a PhD in Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Subsequently she studied inter-ethnic conflict at the University of Bielefeld, Germany and was a Gastprofessorin at the University of Dortmund, Germany. She was a Visiting Faculty member in the Program in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities and was the Certificate Director for the Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry at the University of Iowa (UI). There she was the Primary Investigator of the Patient Narrative Study, a psychosocial study examining quality of life and health outcomes of patients with hepatitis C, heart failure, and cancer. At the UI she also completed a three-year post-doctoral training in the Cardiovascular Center exploring the impact of communication problems on health outcomes in patients with congestive heart failure. At the University of Pittsburgh she now focuses her research on barriers to initiating antiviral therapy for patients with hepatitis C and has completed a career development award in the VA Medical Center on that topic. Her VA Medical Center study, entitled the Patient/Provider Attitude toward Hepatitis Study (PATHS) explores patient as well as provider barriers that HCV positive veterans can experience when deciding to enter antiviral treatment.
Authors’ DisclosuresAll of the authors of Hepatitis C Choices submitted a voluntary disclosure form indicating financial and/or collaborative affiliations with organizations that may have an interest in hepatitis C. While we do not believe that these voluntarily disclosed interests or affiliations bias the material presented, in the spirit of transparency, we are making the contents of the disclosures available to our readers. Terry Baker Misha Cohen, OMD, LAc Stewart Cooper, MD, MB, ChB, MRCP Randy Dietrich Gregory Everson MD Sylvia Flesner, ND Robert Gish, MD Peter Hauser, MD Randy Horwitz, MD, PhD David W.Indest, PsyD Jessica Irwin, PAC Julia Jernberg, MD Joyce S. Kobayashi, MD Douglas R. LaBrecque Lark Lands, PhD Shri Kent Mishra Sharon D. Montes, MD Julie Nelligan, PhD Lyn Patrick Aparna Roy, M.D., M.P.H. Bharathi Ravi Lorren Sandt Kathleen B. Schwarz, MD Amy E. Smith, PAC Tina M. St. John, MD Diana L. Sylvestre, MD Norah Terrault, MD, MPH Sivarama Prasad Vinjamury Qing-Cai Zhang, LAc, MD (China) Susan L. Zickmund, PhD
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