Positive: One Doctor's Personal Encounters with Death, Life, and the US Healthcare System
Dr. Michael Saag completed his residency in infectious disease at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. While there, he made seminal discoveries in the genetic evolution of HIV in vivo. During the last six months of his fellowship, Dr. Saag conceived the concept of an HIV outpatient clinic dedicated to the provision of comprehensive patient care in conjunction with research and high-quality clinical trials. The clinic created a dynamic interface between the patients and the investigators.Since the establishment of the clinic, Dr. Saag has participated in many studies of antiretroviral therapy as well as novel treatments for opportunistic infections. He has published more than 260 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed 50-plus chapters to medical textbooks. He has served on the editorial board ofAIDS Research and Human Retrovirusesand on the board of directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Among many other awards, Dr. Saag has received the Myrtle Wreath Award from Hadassah; he was listed as one of the top ten cited HIV researchers byScience(1996); he has been listed as one of the Best Doctors in America since 1994; he received the Outstanding Medical Research Achievement Award from the AIDS Task Force of Alabama and an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Medical Association of the State of Alabama; and he was named a ''Health Care Hero'' by theBirmingham Business Journal(2003).