(Vancouver) – Robert Hogg has been named the inaugural holder of the Michael O’Shaughnessy Professorship in Outcomes Research in HIV/AIDS in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and at Providence Health Care.
Dr. Hogg is the Director of the Population Health Program at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, which is based at St. Paul’s Hospital, part of Providence Health Care. Dr. Hogg is also a Professor in the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology and the Department of Medicine within UBC’s Faculty of Medicine.
A demographer, Dr. Hogg is currently examining the impact of antiretroviral therapy on quality of life and life expectancy of persons with HIV disease in BC. He is also interested in issues of access to antiretroviral therapy in developing nations. His most significant contributions to HIV research include studies that monitor HIV infection and risk behaviour among gay and bisexual men and studies that measure the impact of HIV infection on population health.
“We place a high priority on research at Providence because of the benefits it can bring our patients, and there is no finer example of that than our work in HIV/AIDS,” said Dr. Yvonne Lefebvre, Vice President of Research for Providence Health Care.”Researchers such as Bob Hogg have helped Providence earn a international reputation in HIV treatment and research. We thank our partners for their generous support for this professorship, which will help further our understanding of HIV disease here in British Columbia and around the world.”
The professorship was made possible by a $1-million award from Boehringer Ingelheim, a global leader in virology and HIV/AIDS research. The company had given its $1-million Distinguished Researcher Award in HIV to Dr. Julio Montaner, also of BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and holder of the UBC-St. Paul’s Hospital Chair in HIV/AIDS at UBC, in recognition of his pioneering research. The proceeds of the award were donated to St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation to endow the new professorship. The Faculty of Medicine has created a parallel endowment at UBC in support of the O’Shaughnessy professorship.
Representatives of Boehringer Ingelheim Canada, including President Ian Mills, were in Vancouver this week to present Dr. Montaner with the fourth and final installment of the award.
The professorship is named for Michael O’Shaughnessy, one of Canada’s leading scientists in HIV/AIDS and a passionate advocate for HIV-positive persons. O’Shaughnessy served 11 years as Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. He also served as Vice President Research at Providence Health Care and now is on the board of the Providence Research Institute.