San Francisco General’s Volberding to Take Senior Post at VA Hospital
Dr. Paul Volberding, "one of the world's foremost AIDS physicians" and a "pioneering researcher since the epidemic began," will be leaving his 17-year post as director of the AIDS clinic at San Francisco General Hospital, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Volberding will become chief of the medical service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and vice chair of the department of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco. Dr. Lee Goldman, chair of the UCSF department, credited Volberding for "building the No. 1 AIDS program in the entire United States." At San Francisco General, Volberding oversaw the creation of the world's first AIDS outpatient clinic -- the Positive Health Program -- where scientists "pioneered" AZT studies for patients with HIV and researched other drugs against AIDS-related diseases. In his new position at the VA hospital, Volberding will promote more HIV research and innovation, oversee the instruction of young physicians and the quality of patient care, and work with staff doctors to treat veterans with HIV and AIDS. Volberding said, "I don't think I'll stop working in HIV leadership roles. ... It's impossible to walk away from the epidemic." He added that he looks forward to building an HIV/AIDS program at the VA hospital and "working on the problem with the entire national network of VA hospitals" (Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/25).
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