Dr. Thomas is helping lead the HCV Elimination Program in Florida.

The FL HCV elimination group convened national and local experts in August 2019 in Orlando, FL for its inaugural meeting to address screening, treatment-level barriers and liver cancer prevention. The meeting goal was to support a statewide HCV elimination program and it was attended by stakeholders including representatives from the FL DOH, patients, medical and social service providers, researchers, policymakers and others from private organizations. This followed an earlier HCV elimination meeting in February 2019, held in Miami, FL by the major liver disease societies (AASLD/EASL). Planned activities will strengthen and be synergistic with the current efforts from the FL DOH viral hepatitis program and include involvement of four major academic centers in FL. Stakeholders will continue to meet in 2020 with the goal of producing a guidance document with…
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The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine was awarded the Gilead Sciences “FOCUS Grant” to support identifying HIV and Hepatitis C infected patients, HIV and Hepatitis C testing, and testing-related services.

The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has been awarded a $299,220 grant from Gilead Sciences, Inc., to develop a replicable model program that embodies best practices in HIV and/or hepatitis screening and linkage to care. The award is provided through Gilead’s Frontlines of Communities in the United States (FOCUS) Program. The grant application described that a growing body of research has shown that opt-out testing can play a strong role in getting more individuals tested, extending earlier and better care to people who have been infected, improving their quality of life and promoting better disease management. The FOCUS program will support local initiatives to identify and link to care patients infected with HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Emergency Room while developing and…
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U.Miami School of Medicine Awarded $2.5 Million Dollar NIH Award with Emmanuel Thomas, M.D., Ph.D. to help South Florida Community.

A team of Miller school specialists including Emmanuel Thomas, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Schiff Center for Liver Diseases and Miami CTSI KL2 Scholar, Daniel Sussman, associate professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, and Sonjia Kenya, Ed.D., M.S., M.A., assistant research professor of medicine, Director of Community Health Programs at Sylvester’s Jay Weiss Institute for Health Equity, and Education and Research Officer at the Miller School’s Office of Diversity and Multiculturalism, have developed the multi-modal strategy for the early detection and prevention of four health priority conditions: Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), colorectal cancer, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and cervical cancer.
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Schiff Center for Liver Disease Wins Award.

Dr. Schiff, Leonard Miller Professor of Medicine, Dr. Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid chair in the Division of Hepatology, the director of the Schiff Center for Liver Diseases, and the director of the Hepatology Research Laboratory at the Miller School of Medicine, received the Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award, presented by Emmanuel Thomas, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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