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Timothy  Holtz

Adjunct Associate Professor

Adjunct or Visiting, Global Health

Timothy H. Holtz, MD, MPH, FACP, FACPM, is an adjunct associate professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and has taught courses in TB and health and human rights in the past. Between 2004–2009 he also taught an elective in human rights and social medicine for medical students. A graduate of St. Olaf College and the University of Iowa Medical School, Dr. Holtz trained in primary care medicine at Harvard University/Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge MA, after which he worked with the Tibetan Government-in-exile in the Indian Himalaya while on a Health and Human Rights fellowship from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is board certified in internal medicine as well as preventive medicine, and was elected as a Fellow in the American College of Physicians in 2003, and a Fellow in the American College of Preventive Medicine in 2015.

While completing his preventive medicine residency he was intensely involved with the response to the World Trade Center Disaster and anthrax attacks in 2001. From 2002–2009 Dr. Holtz worked in southern Africa, Eastern Europe, and South America on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) control and TB/HIV program capacity building. Dr. Holtz was part of a team of scientists to recognize the emerging threat of resistance to second-line anti-TB drugs, and his analysis established the evidence base for the working definition and acronym for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). He has worked with several governments in sub-Saharan Africa to evaluate the extent of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the continent, and formulate policies to address TB and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Holtz has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, and from 2006–2009 was a representative to the STOP TB Partnership’s Green Light Committee (GLC). The GLC provides access to preferentially priced second-line drugs for MDR/XDR TB treatment to national TB programs while ensuring rational use through mandatory program review and monitoring.

Dr. Holtz is currently working in collaboration with the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to increase access to HIV care and treatment, improve HIV testing yield, and decrease stigma and discrimination – as India has the 3rd largest number of PLHIV. Previously, from 2012-2016 he was the chief site investigator for clinical prevention research activities on HIV and STDs in Thailand with the Emory-CDC Clinical Trials Unit, including clinical trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV using antiretroviral medications among people who inject drugs and high-risk men who have sex with men.

He is a founding member of Doctors for Global Health (DGH), a non-governmental organization that runs health and human rights programs in Central America, South America, and Africa, and served on its board from 1997–2003. The core principles of DGH are firmly rooted in social justice and human rights, delivering quality medical care and fostering social rights among impoverished and marginalized communities. Along with Drs. Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Yogan Pillay, Dr. Holtz is a co-editor of the 3rd (2009) and 4th (2017) editions of the Oxford University Press’ Textbook of International Health: Global Health in a Dynamic World. His medical memoir of working in India with Tibetan refugees, entitled “A Doctor in Little Lhasa: One Year in Dharamsala with the Tibetans in Exile” was published in 2009. He has received multiple awards for his public health service, from the American Public Health Association, and from his alma mater University of Iowa College of Medicine.

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Contact Information

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Phone: 404-553-7334

Email: THOLTZ@emory.edu

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Affiliations & Activities

PROFESSIONAL CLINICAL POSITIONS

2004-2009        Tuberculosis Staff Physician

                        Fulton County Tuberculosis Clinic, Atlanta, GA

2004-2009        Adjunct Clinical Faculty, Division of Infectious Disease

                        Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine

1999                 Emergency Room Physician

                        Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation, Bethel, Alaska

1995- 1999       Primary Care Internist

                        Neponset Health Center, Dorchester, Massachusetts

1995                 Primary Care Internist

                        Orchard Park Health Center/RoxComp Clinic, Roxbury, Massachusetts

1994-1995        Medical Officer

                        Tibetan Delek Hospital, Dharamsala, India

1993                 Visiting Physician

                        Khayelitsha Day Hospital, University of Cape Town, South Africa

PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH POSITIONS

2012-2016        Site Investigator, Clinical Research Site, Emory-CDC Clinical Trial Unit, Bangkok

2003-present     Faculty, Institute of Human Rights, Emory University

1995-1999        Affiliated Scholar, Institute for Health and Social Justice, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1998-1999        Sub-Investigator, Community Research Initiatives, Boston, Massachusetts

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

2014-                American College of Preventive Medicine, Global Health Track Committee

2012-                American College of Preventive Medicine, Global Health Committee

2007                 Founding member, Forum on Trade and Health, American Public Health Association

2006-2009        PHS Music Ensemble, Atlanta group

2004                 US Association of Military Surgeons

2002-                American Board of Preventive Medicine

2000                 US Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Association

1999                 American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

1997                 American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine

1996-                American Board of Internal Medicine

1991                 Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society

1989                 American Public Health Association

1987                 Physicians for Human Rights

Publications

  • , , Subtypes and risk behaviors among incident HIV cases in the Bangkok Men Who Have Sex with Men Cohort Study, 2006–2012., AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses., ,
  • , , Longitudinal analysis of key HIV-risk behavior patterns and predictors in Thai men who have sex with men, Bangkok, Thailand. , Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44, 341-348
  • , , Prevalence of syphilis and HSV-2 in a cohort of men who have sex with men, Bangkok. , Int J STD AIDS, 23, 424-428
  • , , Use of a WHO-recommended algorithm to reduce mortality in seriously ill patients with HIV infection and smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis in South Africa: an observational cohort study. , Lancet Infectious Diseases, 11, 533-540
  • , , Health is still social: contemporary examples in the age of the genome., PLoS Medicine, 3, e419
  • , , Risk factors associated with default from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment, South Africa, 1999-2001. , International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 10, 649-655
  • , , Time to sputum culture conversion in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: predictors and relationship to treatment outcome. , Annals of Internal Medicine, 144, 650-659
  • , , The re-globalization of malaria, In: Globalization and Health. Mercer MA, Gish O, & Fort M, eds. Boston, MA: South End Press, In press, In press
  • , , Use of antenatal care services and intermittent preventive treatment for malaria among pregnant women in Blantyre District, Malawi , Tropical Medicine and International Health, 9, 77-82
  • , , Inhalational Anthrax - New York City 2001, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 9(6), 689-696
  • , , The public health response to the World Trade Center disaster, New York City, September 2001, In: Terrorism and Public Health. Levy BS & Sidel VW, eds. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, ,
  • , , Care-seeking behavior and home treatment for febrile illness in children, a household survey in Blantyre District, Malawi, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, In press, In press