Justin R. Ortiz, MD, MS

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Dartmouth College, 1995

Post baccalaureate pre-medical training, Colorado State University, 1996

Doctor of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine, 2002

Master of Science in Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health, 2012

Certificate in Vaccinology, ADVAC Advanced Course of Vaccinology, 2011

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

Internship and Residency, Categorical Internal Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Department of Medicine, 2005

Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Influenza Division, 2007

Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship, University of Washington, Department of Medicine, 2010

Dr. Ortiz is a global health physician scientist with expertise in respiratory virus prevention and control. He is an adult pulmonary and critical care physician with additional training in field epidemiology and vaccinology. He began his research career in 2005 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer in the Influenza Division at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At CDC, he led outbreak investigations for influenza A/H5N1 in West Africa, and he collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop a global network of hospital-based respiratory virus surveillance. After leaving the CDC in 2007, he became faculty at the University of Washington where he led an influenza research group and collaborated with PATH on influenza vaccine development activities, including field trials in Bangladesh, Senegal, and South Africa. In 2009, he was seconded to WHO to provide clinical expertise during the 2009 influenza A/H1N1 pandemic.

From 2014-2017, he was the WHO Immunization Department lead for influenza vaccine research, policy, and implementation, and he directed projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CDC, and the US National Institutes of Health. His major focus was to build the evidence base for and to remove obstacles to influenza immunization in LMICs. This included strengthening routine immunization systems and preparing for future respiratory virus pandemics. 

Since 2018, he has worked as a physician scientist at the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at the University of Maryland. He is the PI on the NIH-funded Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs) Clinical Core at UMSOM. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he contributed to most of the CVD SARS-CoV-2 prevention trials, and he was the site PI on the NIH ACCT trial which demonstrated the efficacy of remdesivir for COVID-19. His greatest contribution within CIVICs has been to help reestablish influenza challenge studies within the United States, as they had been halted outside NIH for nearly 20 years. Outside of CIVICs, Dr. Ortiz is the PI on a U01 evaluating a novel pandemic influenza vaccine, a site PI on an industry-funded COVID-19 vaccine trial, and the protocol PI on an NIH-funded Lassa fever virus vaccine trial.

pneumonia, influenza, pandemic preparedness and response, vaccines, global health

1. Ortiz JR, Sotomayor V, Uez OC, Oliva O, Bettels D, McCarron M, Bresee JS, Mounts AW. Strategy to enhance influenza surveillance worldwide. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 Aug;15(8):1271-8.
2. Ortiz JR, Zhou H, Shay DK, Neuzil KM, Fowlkes AL, Goss CH. Monitoring influenza activity in the United States: a comparison of traditional surveillance systems with Google Flu Trends. PLoS One. 2011 Apr 27;6(4):e18687. PubMed PMID: 21556151; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3083406.
3. Madhi SA, Cutland CL, Kuwanda L, Weinberg A, Hugo A, Jones S, Adrian PV, van Niekerk N, Treurnicht F, Ortiz JR, Venter M, Violari A, Neuzil KM, Simões EA, Klugman KP, Nunes MC; Maternal Flu Trial (Matflu) Team. Influenza vaccination of pregnant women and protection of their infants. N Engl J Med. 2014 Sep 4;371(10):918-31. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1401480. PubMed PMID: 25184864.
4. Ortiz JR, Bernstein DI, Hoft DF, Woods CW, McClain MT, Frey SE, Brady RC, Bryant C, Wegel A, Frenck RW, Walter EB, Abate G, Williams SR, Atmar RL, Keitel WA, Rouphael N, Memoli MJ, Makhene MK, Roberts PC, Neuzil KM. A Multicenter, Controlled Human Infection Study of Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 in Healthy Adults. J Infect Dis. 2023 Aug 11;228(3):287-298. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad021. PMID: 36702771; PMCID: PMC10420403.
5. Fell DB, Azziz-Baumgartner E, Baker MG, Batra M, Beauté J, Beutels P, Bhat N, Bhutta ZA, Cohen C, De Mucio B, Gessner BD, Gravett MG, Katz MA, Knight M, Lee VJ, Loeb M, Luteijn JM, Marshall H, Nair H, Pottie K, Salam RA, Savitz DA, Serruya SJ, Skidmore B, Ortiz JR; WHO taskforce to evaluate influenza data to inform vaccine impact and economic modelling. Influenza epidemiology and immunization during pregnancy: Final report of a World Health Organization working group. Vaccine. 2017 Aug 31. pii: S0264-410X(17)31125-8. doi: 10.1016/j.Vaccine.2017.08.037. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28867508.

Full bibliography on pubmed:  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/justin.ortiz.1/bibliography/40490877/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending