HIV and ID Observations

Way back in 2008 — the year I started writing here — I drafted an exceedingly long post listing the top published papers in HIV medicine.

Oh how I tortured myself over that thing.

How to define “Top”? Most cited? Most clinically important? Most rigorously scientific? Best written?

After a while, I just abandoned the monstrosity. It still sits electronically somewhere in the NEJM Journal Watch servers, forlornly awaiting a revision.

Now, courtesy of my friend and colleague Dr. Raphael (Raphy) Landovitz from UCLA, the concept lives again. He joined me for the Open Forum Infectious Diseases (that’s “O-F-I-D”, not “Oh-fid”) podcast, where we each choose our top 5 research papers in HIV medicine — plus our least favorite.

Give it a listen, or read the transcript. We’re also on iTunes, where we’d appreciate a rating if you like what you hear.

Before leaving you, just a few words about Raphy and how great he was as an ID fellow. Since we’re ranking things, he’s easily among the top ID fellows I’ve ever worked with in my gazillion years of being an ID attending. Energetic, smart, compassionate, thorough — ticked all the boxes. He also was hysterically funny.

(Brief aside — working with great fellows is a true joy. On service or in clinic with them, you totally trust their clinical instincts, and end up finishing each other’s sentences while discussing a case. A wonderful synergy in academic medicine.)

After finishing his fellowship plus a few years on the faculty here, Raphy traded our cold Boston winters for the warmth (but geologic instability!) of Los Angeles. Under the the skillful mentorship of Dr. Judy Currier, he’s had a sensational research trajectory, focusing on HIV prevention. There is not a person on the planet who knows more about PrEP. And, just this month, Raphy was deservedly promoted to full Professor of Medicine at UCLA.

Hoping you’ll permit those of us involved in some way with his training to beam a little!