Michael Saag, M.D., director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Center for AIDS Research and a renowned leader in the establishment of best practices for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment, has been installed as chair of the board of directors of the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA).

HIVMA is the largest professional society of physicians, scientists and health-care professionals dedicated to the field of HIV and AIDS. The organization actively promotes quality in HIV care and advocates for policies that ensure a science-based, comprehensive and humane response to the AIDS pandemic, including adequate funding for HIV research, prevention, care and provider training and resources.

A professor of medicine, Saag also directs UAB's Division of Infectious Diseases. He is on the board of directors of the International AIDS Society-USA, and he helped author U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines for antiretroviral treatments and edits the Sanford Guide to HIV/AIDS Therapy. Saag will serve a one-year term with HIVMA that ends November 2010.

Saag is credited with being the first to demonstrate the value of viral-load testing in a clinical practice. This test allows physicians to follow the response to antiretroviral treatment, just as they follow the blood-sugar response to insulin when treating diabetics. He also is among the first to perform clinical trials of several antiretroviral drugs that are approved worldwide.

Saag helped establish UAB's 1917 Clinic, a comprehensive HIV outpatient clinic devoted to patient care and clinical-trial coordination. Opened in 1988, the clinic has grown into a hub for HIV basic science and treatment-outcomes research at UAB.

He has authored dozens of scientific manuscripts, contributed more than 50 chapters to medical textbooks and served on the editorial board of the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. He also has served on subspecialty committees of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians.

Saag earned his medical degree from the University of Louisville in Kentucky and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UAB. He is the Jim Straley Chair in AIDS Research and an active member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation.

About the HIV Medicine Association

The HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) is the professional home for more than 3,600 physicians, scientists and other health-care professionals dedicated to the field of HIV/AIDS. A part of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, HIVMA promotes quality in HIV care and advocates policies that ensure a comprehensive and humane response to the AIDS pandemic informed by science and social justice. For more information, visit http://www.hivma.org.

About the UAB Center for AIDS Research

The UAB Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is one of the seven original centers established in 1988 by the federal government to stimulate research and advances in fighting AIDS and HIV. CFAR supports prevention and HIV-patient care at the 1917 Clinic and in Africa through a partnership with the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia.

Source
University of Alabama at Birmingham