The Department of Medicine is pleased to announce the appointment of Jennifer Pisano, MD as chief of the Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health effective July 1, 2022 . For the past year, Dr. Pisano has been serving the Department of Medicine and the Section of Infectious Diseases & Global Health (IDGH) in an interim capacity where she has demonstrated remarkable leadership, fortitude and thoughtful academic vision. Under her leadership, the Section has already realized remarkable success and stability following the retirements of several faculty with the recruitment of two outstanding faculty members: Dr. Michael Czapka and Dr. Daniel Friedman.
Dr. Pisano received her MD at Rush Medical College in 2005 and completed her internal medicine residency training, infectious diseases fellowship training and advanced fellowship training in infectious diseases/transplant infectious diseases at the University of Chicago. She is also a graduate of our Summer Program in Outcomes Research Training (SPORT) and the Medical Education, Research, Innovation, Teaching and Scholarship (MERITS) fellowship programs. In 2011 Dr. Pisano joined the faculty in the Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health where she currently serves as Associate Professor.
In 2014, Dr. Pisano was appointed as medical director for UCM’s Antibiotic Stewardship Program after serving as associate medical director for three years. In this capacity, she co-leads a multidisciplinary team whose primary objective is to improve clinical outcomes and curb antimicrobial resistance through the safe and careful use of antimicrobials in the hospital and community. As a result of this leadership, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) designated the program as an Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence. In addition to antimicrobial stewardship educational outreach to hospital clinicians and staff, Dr. Pisano developed the ID fellowship antimicrobial stewardship curriculum, including a third-year advanced antimicrobial stewardship track and co-led the development of the Section’s quality improvement curriculum. Dr. Pisano also serves as chair of UCM’s Antimicrobial Subcommittee of Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee.
Dr. Pisano’s research is focused on leveraging the electronic medical record to optimize antibiotic prescribing and identify high-impact stewardship interventions. She is an active member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and continues to be an active member of the IDSA Leadership Institute. Dr. Pisano is also a member of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America and the American Society of Transplantation’s Infectious Diseases Community of Practice and is the current co-chair of the ID-COP Antimicrobial Stewardship workgroup. She served on the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and as the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s Liaison for American Transplantation Society White Paper on Antimicrobial Stewardship. Dr. Pisano has published nearly 3 dozen papers and book chapters.
Dr. Pisano’s vision for the Section includes focusing on the recruitment of new faculty and fostering institutional collaborations to expand clinical, translational, and basic science research programs and fellowship training opportunities in the Section of IDGH. Dr. Pisano will work with Section faculty to continue the growth of the ID Clinical Trials Program as well as build upon already outstanding innovative clinical and research programs focused on the approach to the prevention and treatment of infections to broaden their influence and impact, regionally, nationally and internationally.