Hooked on ID with Aditya Shah, MBBS
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I was always interested in infectious diseases, owing to the vast breadth of the field.
This interest peaked during residency. Ours was a busy residency program with many critically ill and complex patients. In the course of my residency training, I realized that many patients who are critically ill get exposed to a wide and broad spectrum of antimicrobials, many times in the absence of proven infection. These are patients who are critically ill and challenging to manage and at a high risk for nosocomial and other infections.
This got me interested in the field of antimicrobials and then diagnostic stewardship, which I was able to expand on during my fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic. Antimicrobials are a limited resource, nonjudicious use of which leads to antimicrobial resistance. This problem already leads to about 35,000 deaths and 3 million cases per year, with Clostridioides difficile leading to about 12,000 deaths and 200,000 cases per year in the United States. Hence, antimicrobial resistance, stewardship and diagnostic stewardship are my primary interests in the field of infectious diseases. This, along with the wide spectra of topics — including orthopedic infections, infections in the immunocompromised host, cardiovascular infections, tropical and travel-related infections, general infectious diseases and HIV — gives one a wide spectrum of complex clinical and research practice. Lastly, as evidenced in the current pandemic, infectious disease has wide public health impact.
– Aditya Shah, MBBS
Senior associate consultant, infectious diseases
Assistant professor of medicine
Mayo Clinic, Minnesota