Dr. Judith Feinberg is a Professor of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry and Professor of Medicine/Infectious Diseases at the School of Medicine, West Virginia University. She serves as Co-chair of the Comorbidities Special Interest Group (SIG) and the Publications Committee of the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) and was previously Co-PI of the CTN's Appalachian Node. She obtained her M.D. from Rush Medical College. As an infectious diseases specialist, Dr. Feinberg’s research focused on HIV/AIDS and its complications for several decades before becoming specifically involved in the infections associated with injection drug use and preventing opioid overdose. She developed Ohio’s third syringe exchange—and its first true syringe services program— in southwest Ohio in 2014 after a 9-year effort. Her current research focuses on the intersection of substance use and infectious diseases, particularly hepatitis B and C, HIV, and infective endocarditis. In addition to many studies aimed at treating and preventing HIV and the complications of AIDS, Dr. Feinberg has conducted numerous observational and treatment studies connected to substance use, including research on curing hepatitis C in people who are actively injecting drugs (the HERO study), the transmission of hepatitis C from mother to baby, and establishing an effective overdose education and naloxone distribution effort as part of a mobile syringe services program.
Arthur Y. Kim, M.D. is the Director of the Viral Hepatitis Clinic in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree at Harvard Medical School and trained in internal medicine at MGH and infectious diseases at MGH/Brigham and Women's Hospital. He expresses a longstanding interest in those living with HCV, especially in special populations such as acute infection, prisoners, post-transplantation, and HIV co-infection. He currently is co-PI or co-investigator of NIH-funded studies examining the immunology and immunogenetics of HCV infection. Dr. Kim serves on the AASLD/IDSA committee that provides online guidance at http://hcvguidelines.org. He focuses on HBV, HCV, and HIV/HCV co-infected patients and especially welcomes referrals of those suspected to have early or acute infection and/or with a history of drug use. Dr. Kim also has many years of experience with inpatient transplant infectious disease and outpatient travel advice.
