Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Costi D. Sifri, MD FACP FIDSA (Moderator)
Becton, Dickinson and Company Endowed Chair of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Professor of Medicine, UVA School of Medicine

This presentation will describe the current state of the COVID pandemic and CDC’s forecast for this winter. Using examples from the pandemic, Dr. Walensky will describe how CDC is using epidemiology and data to guide policy in order to prevent medically significant illness, minimize the burden on healthcare systems, and protect our most vulnerable individuals. She will also discuss how novel surveillance such as sampling from wastewater systems has helped detect monkeypox and polio across the nation.
Co-presented with the Department of Medicine
Resources:
1. Paltiel AD, Schwartz JL, Zheng A, Walensky RP. Clinical outcomes of a COVID-19 vaccine: implementation over efficacy. Health Affairs Blog. 2020; 10.1377//hlthaff.2020.02054.

2. Walensky RP, Walke HT and Fauci AS. SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in the United States -challenges and opportunities. JAMA. Mar 16 2021;325(11):1037-1038. 10.1001/jama.2021.2294.

3. Walensky RP. A piece of my mind. Disclosure. JAMA. 2010; 303(17):1676-7.

Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. She is an influential scholar whose pioneering research has helped advance the national and global response to HIV/AIDS. Dr. Walensky is also a well-respected expert on the value of testing and treatment of deadly viruses.
Dr. Walensky served as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017-2020 and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012-2020. She served on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities.
Dr. Walensky is recognized internationally for her work to improve HIV screening and care in South Africa and nationally for motivating health policy and informing clinical trial design and evaluation in a variety of settings.

Costi D. Sifri, MD FACP FIDSA, is the director of hospital epidemiology at UVA Health, where he works to prevent infections that occur as a consequence of receiving medical care. He is also the medical director of the immunocompromised infectious disease program at UVA, which is focused on providing care to patients with infectious diseases following organ or stem cell transplantation or who have cancer.
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Dr. Sifri received his medical degree from the University of Rochester, completed internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and clinical and research fellowships in infectious disease at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He joined UVA in 2004.
Dr. Sifri’s research interests include exploring the transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in the healthcare environment and understanding the clinical consequences and prevention of healthcare-associated infections. He has helped lead efforts at UVA Health to reduce transmission of healthcare-associated pathogens, supervised infection prevention education and quality improvement efforts, and led institutional responses to high-consequence emerging microbial pathogens, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, Ebola virus, and COVID-19

How to claim Continuing Education (CE) credit:
Thank you for attending the Medical Center Hour on October 26, 2022

1. Go to www.cmevillage.com.
2. Click on the “Learning Portal” button and select “CE Certificate”.
3. Sign in with your email and password or create an account if you are a new user.
4. Enter CE Activity Code 144885 and click “Submit” and “Continue”.
5. Complete the evaluation and click “Done”.
6. Certificate Preparation; indicate the number of credits you wish to claim for attending this activity. Click “Submit”
7. Click “Print Certificate” or you can access later by visiting our website, Click “Learning Portal”, Sign in at the top of the page and click “Credit History & Past Certificate”.
8. For problems, contact the CME office at uvacme@virginia.edu
PLEASE NOTE: The post activity evaluation will only be available for a 30 day period. Credit will not be issued after the evaluation period has closed.
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Medical Center Hour is free of charge and open to the public. For more information, see Center for Health Humanities and Ethics: https://med.virginia.edu/biomedical-ethics/medical-center-hour/