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1st appeared
24
January 2001
AIDS Pioneer Named Chief of VAMC Medical Services
Volberding, UCSF professor of medicine, will remain as principal investigator and co-director with Warner Greene of the UCSF Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). The center is part of a national network of CFARs organized by the National Institutes of Health. Volberding will leave his position as director of the UCSF Positive Health Program, the University’s AIDS clinical service based at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center (SFGHMC). He helped to found the service in 1983, and led it to become the highest-ranked AIDS program in the United States. "We are excited about Paul’s new position at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). Although his title is changing, the University is proud to be providing a greater leadership opportunity to one of the world’s most distinguished figures in AIDS research," Goldman said. In his new position, Volberding will oversee all physicians in the SFVAMC medical service, including specialists in general internal medicine, infectious diseases, pulmonary and critical care medicine, cardiology, hematology/oncology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, rheumatology/immunology, and nephrology. He will be promoting research, teaching and patient care activities in these areas.
"We are delighted to welcome Paul to the VA. His broad array of talents in clinical treatment and research will be of great benefit to us, and to the VA’s national commitment to patient care, education and research. His presence here will help to strengthen the relationship between the SF General and the VA," said Diana Nicoll, MD, PhD, MPA, chief of staff at SFVAMC and associate dean of UCSF School of Medicine. During his years at SFGHMC, Volberding became a pioneer in AIDS treatment and clinical research, and was instrumental in creating and developing the AIDS programs at UCSF, said Talmadge E. King, Jr., MD, UCSF vice chair of the department of medicine and chief of medical services at SFGHMC. "We are extremely grateful for Paul’s many contributions, including his work to found and develop the world’s first AIDS clinic and inpatient service, and to expand clinical and basic AIDS research at San Francisco General. We wish him success in meeting the challenges he will face in his new position. Our challenge now is to search for a new leader to take the helm of the Positive Health Program and help it to thrive in the coming years. We are beginning a national search for a leader with the vision and experience to follow in Paul’s footsteps," King said. Volberding joined the UCSF faculty at SFGHMC in 1981 --the same year that San Francisco recorded its first cases of a mysterious illness that later became known as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Two years later, with funding from the San Francisco and California departments of public health, Volberding teamed with oncologist Donald Abrams, MD, and the late Constance Wofsy, MD, an infectious disease specialist, to establish the first program dedicated to treating AIDS patients, called Ward 86. At the clinic, now known as the UCSF Positive Health Program, Volberding worked with his colleagues to perform clinical testing of many of the first anti-retroviral drugs on AIDS patients, and has continued to test and study new treatments for HIV/AIDS. Under Volberding’s leadership, the Positive Health Program was a major influence in developing a widely accepted model for effective and compassionate care of HIV/AIDS. A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Volberding helped to lead several groundbreaking clinical studies in the early days of the war against HIV, including treatment of the HIV-related cancer Kaposi's sarcoma and the treatment of asymptomatic HIV positive people with the anti-retroviral drug AZT. Source: Kevin Boyd, News Services |
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Paul
Volberding, MD, has been appointed chief of the medical service at the
San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and will also serve as
vice chair of the UCSF Department of Medicine, department chair Lee
Goldman, MD, has announced.