Oscar Gilberto Gomez, MD, PhD

I chose to specialize in pediatric infectious diseases because I am fascinated by discovery and have a passion to improve childhood health. 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

I am board certified in both pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. I am a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. I’m fluent in Spanish.

My clinical interests focus on:

• Gastrointestinal infections
• Diagnosing, treating and preventing infections
• Severe infections requiring intensive care
• Viral hepatitis
• Neglected diseases

My research focuses on hepatitis C epidemiology with the goal of determining the prevalence of hepatitis C among pregnant women, the proportion of infants exposed to hepatitis C from mothers and the incidence of hepatitis C among children in community. I also promote screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of children with hepatitis C.

As a recognized leader in childhood gastroenteritis, my team and I conducted the first case-control study of acute gastroenteritis surveillance in children less than 5 years of age in Colombia. My work was supported by RO1 funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The findings are being published in high-impact journals and cited worldwide. In addition to my research, I lead a health literacy project for school-aged children in underserved areas in Latin America.

Among the awards and recognitions throughout my career, I received a Best Teaching Award from the Universidad de Santander, Colombia, and the Award of Excellence for Promoting Inclusion and Cultural Diversity from the State University of New York (SUNY) University at Buffalo.

I am the author and co-author of multiple peer-reviewed research articles, review articles, editorials, books and book chapters. Additionally, I am the co-inventor of two vaccine patents.

I received my medical degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá and my doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. I completed a residency in pediatrics at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Washington. Additionally, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Tübingen, Germany.

I am married and have two daughters. Outside of work, my interests include kayaking, playing guitar and traveling abroad.