Oscar Gilberto Gomez, MD

“My overall goal as a physician scientist is to decrease the morbidity and mortality of childhood preventable diseases through excellence in research, education and patient care. I choose to specialize in pediatric infectious diseases because of my fascination for discovery along with my passion to improve childhood health.”

Dr. Oscar Gomez is board certified in both pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. He is fluent in Spanish. His focus is on gastrointestinal infections, viral hepatitis and neglected diseases. He is a clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

His clinical interests include severe infections requiring intensive care and gastrointestinal infections. Dr. Gomez is committed to diagnosing, treating and preventing infections and conducting vaccine development research to find ways to prevent illnesses.

Dr. Gomez has received multiple Top Doctor awards in pediatrics from Buffalo Spree magazine, the Best Teaching Award from Universidad de Santander, the Award of Excellence for Promoting Inclusion and Cultural Diversity from the University of Buffalo and the Award for Excellence in Pediatric Basic Research from Sinai Hospital, among others.

As part of the Atrium Health Vaccine Research Program, under the direction of Dr. Christine Turley, Dr. Gomez contributes to studies on the social determinants of health and sponsored vaccine trials.

He led a successful hospital network in Colombia to conduct the first case-control study of acute gastroenteritis surveillance in children less than 5 years of age, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their findings are being published in high-impact journals and cited worldwide. He currently leads a health literacy project for school age children in underserved areas in Latin America.

Dr. Gomez is the author and co-author of multiple peer-reviewed research articles, review articles, editorials, books and book chapters. He is the co-inventor of 2 vaccine patents.

He received his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, Colombia and his doctorate (PhD) in microbiology and immunology from the University of Maryland. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Tübingen, Germany, and completed a residency in pediatrics at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Dr. Gomez completed a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Outside of work, his interests include kayaking, playing guitar and traveling abroad. He is married and has 2 daughters.