This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Remembering an Infectious Disease News Editorial Board member: Alan Tice, MD
Alan Tice, MD, aged 69 years, of Honolulu, died on March 30. I lost a dear friend, and the infectious disease community lost one of its strongest advocates that day.
Alan was raised in Iowa. His grandfather, father, uncle, brother and sister were all physicians. After graduating from Harvard University, Alan followed a similar career path. He trained in internal medicine at Roosevelt Hospital in New York and New York University. After his fellowship in infectious disease at Tufts University, he spent several years teaching at Brown University School of Medicine until he opened his own practice, Infections Limited, in Tacoma, Wash., in 1979.
In 2000, he decided on a career change and joined the faculty of the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu. Alan continued to share his broad knowledge of medicine through teaching, consulting, lecturing, writing and seeing patients.
His contributions to the profession are too numerous to list, but I want to highlight a few.
Alan and his partners in Tacoma established a private practice offering a full-service office laboratory with microbiology, outpatient infusion of anti-infectives, and a travel clinic in the 1980s.
During his years on the Clinical Affairs Committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Alan represented the organization in developing the Harvard Resource-Based Relative Value Scale in defining medical fee payment in infectious disease.
He was named IDSA’s Clinician of the Year in 1996 and served on its board of directors from 2003 to 2006. In March 2012, the IDSA awarded Alan a Society Citation Award in recognition of his “tireless energy in providing quality patient care, along with his countless hours of commitment to the Society.”
Alan also was the founder, president and executive director of the Outpatient Intravenous Infusion Therapy Association (OPIVITA) from its founding in 1989. He conducted more than 60 clinical trials in infectious diseases, including outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT), HIV, viral hepatitis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vaccines, and he had a full-time practice.
He used his days off and vacations to travel worldwide speaking on OPAT and other topics. We all were amazed at what Alan Tice accomplished and wonder when he slept. We shall miss his boundless energy and his wit.
Dear friend, physician and colleague, we thank you for all you have given us. Rest well.
– R. Brooks Gainer, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA, who is an Infectious Disease News Editorial Board Member.