This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
A Conversation with Andrew J. Muir, MD, MHS
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In this issue, HCV Next asks five questions of Andrew J. Muir, MD, MHS, clinical director of hepatology and fellowship director of gastroenterology and transplant hepatology at Duke University in Durham, NC.
Andrew J. Muir
Muir completed his undergraduate degree at Trinity University in San Antonio before moving on to Duke, where he finished his MD in 1993. Then came a residency and a fellowship in gastroenterology at Duke and a fellowship in health services research at the Durham VA Medical Center. By 2001, he had joined the division of gastroenterology and had completed a Master of Health Sciences degree at Duke.
The site-based research program in gastroenterology at Duke was created in part by Muir. Under his leadership, the program has gone from conducting successful clinical trials to developing hepatitis C virus therapies and working with the Duke Translational Medicine Institute to bring those therapies to underserved populations.
Muir has been the recipient of Duke’s Golden Apple Teaching Award, the Eugene A. Stead Jr. Teaching Award and the Joseph Greenfield Jr. MD Mentor Award, among others.
Who has had the greatest influence on your career?
From a professional standpoint, John McHutchison, MD, was a big influence. He built up the clinical trials department at Duke and really gave me the opportunity to participate in the development of all of those studies. When he left Duke in 2010, he turned it over to me and allowed me the opportunity to grow with the program
What was the moment that led you to your field?
I don’t remember as many moments as I remember people. One that sticks out to me is Paul Killenberg, MD, who was an old-school hepatologist who thought a lot about the physiology of the disease. He had been at Duke for 30 years and had so many patients who were devoted to him. Going to his clinic provided insight into what it would be like to be a hepatologist. I admired the way he approached hepatology. Watching him helped me to develop my instincts in the field.
What area of research in hepatology most interests you right now and why?
We have all of these new drugs that are revolutionizing treatment of the disease, so one thing that I am interested in is figuring out how to get them to the right people. There is great variety in the hepatitis C patient population. Some of them are poor, some don’t understand that the disease can be asymptomatic, but that they still need treatment. Some of them have mental health or substance abuse issues. For us to ultimately be successful in controlling hepatitis C, we need to make sure that treatments are reaching these populations, and not just the educated and the people with adequate health care who have had every advantage that allows them to treat their disease.
What advice would you offer a student in medical school today?
I would tell them that they can’t possibly know how their career is going to pan out, so they should be prepared for anything. Learning the core principles of medicine will allow them to be ready for that unknown future. I would also remind them that practicing medicine is a privilege that is to be undertaken seriously. Finally, I would tell them to steer their career toward places where they can be thoughtful, empathetic physicians.
Have you ever been fortunate enough to witness or to been part of medical history in the making?
I would argue that being a hepatologist in the last decade has been a really historic time. I feel like I have had a front row seat at this amazing series of developments in the treatment of this disease. Ten years ago, treatments were available only to a small group of people, and those treatments were full of complications and side effects. Now, of course, we have to figure out how to pay for the current therapies and get them to everyone, but we might be looking at the first opportunity where a virus can be cured completely. This is all happening much faster than any of us expected. It feels good to have worked hard and to have the outcomes be so meaningful.