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Robert
Bollinger
,
MD

Professor
Robert Bollinger

Departmental Affiliations

School of Medicine
Primary
Joint
Division
Global Disease Epidemiology and Control

Contact Info

600 N. Wolfe Street, Phipps 540-A
Baltimore
Maryland
21287
US        

Research Interests

Global health workforce education and capacity building; Human Immunodeficiency Virus; International Health; Tuberculosis; Public Health; Tropical Medicine; mobile health; point-of-care diagnostics; India; Ethiopia; Uganda; South Africa; emocha; miDOT; miLAB
Experiences & Accomplishments
Education
MPH
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
1988
MD
Dartmouth Medical School
1984
Overview
Dr. Bollinger is the Raj and Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, and he holds joint appointments in International Health at the Johns Hopkins (JH) Bloomberg School of Public Health, and in Community Public Health at the JH School of Nursing. He is Founding Director of the Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE) and Associate Director for Medicine of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine and infectious diseases.

Dr. Bollinger has more than 40 years of experience in international public health, clinical research, and education dealing with such global health priorities as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, dengue, antibiotic resistant infections and other emerging diseases. His research interests include identifying biological and behavioral risk factors for HIV transmission; characterizing the clinical progression and treatment of HIV and related infections; development/evaluation of novel point-of-care diagnostics and implementation of research projects to optimize healthcare capacity and delivery in resource-limited settings. Working with partners in more than 20 countries, Dr. Bollinger and CCGHE faculty pioneered the development and use of distance learning and the award-winning emocha mobile health platform. He has been invited to participate in public health training programs and expert committees in more than 15 countries. He is former Director of the JHU Fogarty India Program, and he served as a member of the US Presidential Advisory Council for HIV/AIDS (PACHA), the PACHA International Sub-committee, the Institute of Medicine Forum on Public-Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety, and the NIH Fogarty International Center Advisory Board.

Dr. Bollinger is committed to improving the health of people living in resource-limited communities through clinical research, education, and leadership training. He established health research and education programs in countries throughout Africa, South and Central America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. In 1991, he initiated an NIH-funded Indo-US HIV research program in Pune, India, involving the National AIDS Research Institute/ICMR and the BJ Government Medical College. He has served as Principal Investigator for many NIH-supported studies and clinical trials in Pune, including the SWEN study, which led to changes in World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for treatment of infants born to HIV positive mothers to prevent mother-to-child transmission. Under his 26 years as leader of the Hopkins India Fogarty International Research Training Program, short-term and degree training has been provided to more than 140 visiting Indian scientists at JHU, and in-country training has been provided to more than 2,000 Indian scientists. His commitment to education has been honored with the Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine David M. Levine Excellence in Mentoring Award.

Dr. Bollinger is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed research publications and 15 book chapters, including the first and largest studies of risk factors for HIV transmission in India, the cloning and sequencing of the first HIV viruses from India, the only studies characterizing the primary immune response to HIV in India, and the demonstration of increased risk of HIV acquisition with recent HSV infection and lack of circumcision.

Dr. Bollinger received an undergraduate degree from Haverford College, a Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School, and a Master of Public Health from JH Bloomberg School of Public Health. He completed his internal medicine training at the University of Maryland Medical Systems, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in infectious diseases at JHU School of Medicine.
Honors & Awards
2007 Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE), Computerworld Honors Program Laureate in Healthcare
2008 CCGHE, Rich Media Impact Award, Sonic Foundry
2008 Lawrence Forman Award, Haverford College
2009 David M. Levine Excellence in Mentoring Award, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
2009 The electronic Mobile Open-Source Comprehensive Health Application (eMOCHA), Finalist, Vodafone Wireless Innovation Award
2010 Honorary Doctorate, Haverford College
2018 Inaugural Recipient of the Raj and Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University
Select Publications
Selected publications from the past year
  • Dhumal, G., Deluca, A., Chandanwale, A., Kadam, D., Joshi, S., Kinikar, A., Gupte, N., Mave, V., Gupta, A., Suryavanshi, N., & Bollinger, R. C. (2020). Impact of the fogarty training program on trainee and institutional research capacity building at a government medical college in India. Annals of global health, 86(1), 1-11. [86]. https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.2932
  • Paradkar M, Padmapriyadarsini C, Jain D, Shivakumar SVBY, Thiruvengadam K, Gupte AN, Thomas B, Kinikar A, Sekar K, Bharadwaj R, Dolla CK, Gaikwad S, Elilarasi S, Lokhande R, Reddy D, Murali L, Kulkarni V, Pradhan N, Hanna LE, Pattabiraman S, Kohli R, Rani S3, Suryavanshi N, Shrinivasa BM, Cox SR, Selvaraju S, Gupte N, Mave V, Gupta A, Bollinger RC, for the CTRIUMPH-RePORT India Study Team^. Tuberculosis preventive treatment should be considered for all household contacts of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in India. PloS ONE 2020, 15(7) e0236743. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236743
  • Suryavanshi N, Kadam A, Kanade A, Gupte N, Gupta A, Bollinger R, Mave V, Shankar A. Acceptability and feasibility of a behavioral and mobile health intervention (COMBIND) shown to increase uptake of prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) care in India. BMC Public Health (2020) 20:752. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08706-5. PMID: 32448299
  • Kamba PF, Mulangwa J, Kaggwa1 B, Kitutu FE, Sewankambo NK, Katabira ET, Byakika Kibwika P, Adome RO, Bollinger RC. Compliance of private pharmacies in Uganda with controlled prescription drugs regulations: a mixed-methods study. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy. 2020; 15:16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13011-020-00261-x. PMID: 32070374
  • Bollinger RC, Thio CL, Sulkowski MS, McKenzie-White J, Thomas DL, Flexner C. Addressing the Global Burden of Hepatitis B Virus while Developing Long-Acting Injectables for Prevention and Treatment of HIV. The Lancet HIV. December 20, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3018(19)30342-X. PMID: 31870675. PMCID 7376366.
Projects
Prevention of Maternal -to- Infant HIV Transmission In India
HIV Prevention Trial Unit (HPTU)-Pune, India
HPTN 059:Phase II Expanded Safety And Accessibility Study Of The Vaginal Microbicide 1% Tenofovir Gel
HPTN 052- A Randomized Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Antiretroviral Therapy Plus HIV Primary Care versus HIV Primary Care Alone to Prevent the Sexual Transmission of HIV-1 in Serodiscordant Couples
Assessment of HIV-1 drug resistance outcomes in subtype C infected infants
Reducing Global Inequities in Burden of Disease
Evaluation of a pilot cluster-randomized mobile phone intervention used by peer educators in a rural antiretroviral care program in Rakai, Uganda (through the Rakai Health Sciences Program)
Impact of Malnutrition on HIV Treatment Failure in Resource-Limited Settings
Utilization of Decentralized HIV Clinical Services in Rural Maharashtra, India
Partnership for Building the Capacity of Makerere University to Improve Health Outcomes in Uganda
Byramee Jeejeebhoy Medical College (BJMC), Pune, India: Clinical Trials Unit
Effect of Peer Health Workers and a Mobile Phone Support Intervention on AIDS Care in Rakai, Uganda
Ugandan Partnership to Improve Medical Education (UPTIME)
HIV-TB Fogarty Research Training Program
The Johns Hopkins Fogarty AIDS International Training & Research Program (AITRP)