Emil Lesho DO, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA

Education

2009: Advancing Practice Using Epidemiologic Principles, Association for
Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Baltimore, MD
2007: Trauma Management Course, Ryder Trauma Center, Miami, FL
2003-2006: Fellowship-Infectious Diseases, National Capital Consortium, DC, MD
1997-1999: Army Command and General Staff College, Ft Leavenworth, KS
1994-1997: Residency-Internal Medicine, Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA
1990-1991: Internship-Family Practice, Warren Hospital, Phillipsburg, NJ
1986-1990: D.O. Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
1982-1986: B.S. Magna cum laude, DeSales University, Center Valley, PA

Biography

I am a compassionate physician dedicated to reducing antimicrobial resistance and healthcare associated infections, board certified in both internal medicine and infectious disease, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society, and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. I have gained much experience building teams and practicing in diverse settings in the U.S. and abroad. Because I have a genuine appreciation for the efforts and dedication of those who provided oversight for my own medical education, I am strongly committed to providing the same for students and trainees. I feel a sense of duty to not only serve as a lifelong teacher of medicine, but to improve and advance medical education and research, and I look forward to continuing these efforts for the USUHS community.

I have been involved with USUHS teaching programs for over 14 years, as a fellow and key faculty at various institutions. During this time, I have taken an active leadership role in clinical, academic and research programs and have been recognized for teaching excellence at every level of training, and as a staff physician. Having served on academic, research, and administrative committees at local, regional, DoD, national, and international levels, I have a broad perspective on organizational functions and problem solving for academic medicine programs. As a medical officer with two specialties and varied assignments in academic, clinical, and operational medicine, I have had a breadth of experience for over 26 years, which has allowed me to contribute to the advancement of military medicine through work in international health, operational medicine and military medical leadership. In addition to these experiences, I have also contributed significantly to the advancement of academic medicine through clinical education, curriculum development and research.

I have been actively involved in developing new training programs and curricula at different institutions and at the international level. Prior to my fellowship, I established a program in ambulatory Internal Medicine for fourth year medical students at the University of Heidelberg, and wrote the curriculum for that rotation. I also established linkages to U.S. training programs, whereby those students could study abroad (Greater Hazleton Health Alliance, Wilkes-Barre Veterans Administration). I also established and taught an elective in medical writing for German medical students, which has led to several publications for those students. My effectiveness in mentorship is evidenced by providing the concept, substrate, and funding as the principle investigator for the winner of the 2010 The Rear Admiral Phillips Research award and the Bailey K. Ashford Clinical Research award. The resulting manuscript, of which I am the senior author, "Gram Negative Multidrug-Resistant Organism Colonization in a U.S. Military Hospital in Iraq," by Ake J, et al. in the journal of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

Given my public health, international health, and leadership assignments, I have a strong research interest in infections affecting military trainees and deployed service
members. I participated in humanitarian assistance projects in Sri Lanka, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. From 2007-2008, I served as the Brigade Surgeon, 214th Fires Brigade, Forward Operating Base Delta, and Senior Medical Officer/Officer in Charge, US Level NATO Role II Hospital with Forward Surgical Augmentation in al-Kut, Iraq during one of most active periods of high intensity combat and counterinsurgency operations. As senior medical officer advisor to the brigade commander and infectious disease consultant for all facilities in south central Iraq and Kuwait, and consultant for multi-national coalition providers for serious IM and ID conditions covering >3500 troops, I treated > 800 patients per month during, and maintained extremely low died of wounds rate (1-2%) despite more than 70 major traumas. In Iraq, I re-defined the concept and value of the traditional MEDCAP transforming them into a collaborative medical engagement paradigm. This was highlighted in several publications and editorials in Military Medicine, Journal of Special Ops Medicine, and Clinical Infectious Diseases. I performed the proof-of-concept study which ultimately led to my cofounding and directing the Multidrug-resistant organism Repository and Surveillance Network (MRSN) at WRAIR. Additionally, I have mentored several students, interns, residents, and fellows on projects that have led to regional and national presentations, as well as scientific publications.

In addition to my teaching, clinical, international health, and research contributions, during my time as Cofounder and Director, the MRSN has won three Military Health System awards for healthcare innovation and readiness/ health protection and research (2010, 2013, and 2015) and achieved programmatic excellence as exemplified by getting the program specifically named in the White House National Action Plan to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (POTUS Executive Order #13676). As featured in several major newspapers, the MRSN was the first to discover the emergence of a very concerning potential ‘superbug’ in the U.S. Throughout my career, I have continued to see patients and teach medical students as part of his responsibilities as an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences and Assistant Clinical Professor at University of Maryland’s Shock Trauma Center. I have represented Army Medicine’s proud tradition of expertise through the publication of 139 papers and one book chapter, and executing numerous international public speaking engagements and membership on advisory boards and committees.

Career Highlights: Positions, Projects, Deployements, Awards and Additional Publications

2016-present: Infectious Diseases Physician and Healthcare Epidemiologist, Rochester Regional Health, Rochester, NY

2015-2016: Co-chair of the Department of Defense’s Infection Prevention and Control Working Group (IPCWG), Falls Church, VA

2010-2016: Attending Physician, Infectious Diseases R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, Baltimore, MD

2008-2016: Co-founder and Director Multidrug-resistant Organism Repository & Surveillance Network, Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Research Program (MRSN-ARMoR), Silver Spring, MD

2006-2016: Attending physician, Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases Consultant, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD

2007-2008: Brigade Surgeon, 214th Fires Brigade, Forward Operating Base Delta Senior Medical Officer/Officer in Charge, US Level NATO Role II Military Hospital with Forward Surgical Augmentation al-Kut, Iraq

2003: Acting Deputy Commander for Clinical Services, USAMH, Heidelberg, Germany

2001-2003: Chief, Department of Primary Care, USAMH, Heidelberg, Germany

2000-2001: Chief, Internal Medicine Service, USAMEDAC, Heidelberg, Germany

140 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals, the majority as first or last author.

Representative Bibliography

Lesho, E, Yoon EJ, McGann P, Snesrud E, Kwak Y, Milillo M, Onmus-Leone F, Preston L, St.Clair K, Nikolich M, Viscount H, Wortmann G, Zapor M, Grillot-Courvalin C, Courvalin P, Clifford R, Waterman P. Emergence of colistin-resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii containing a novel pmrCAB operon during colistin therapy of extremely-drug-resistant wound infections. Journal of Infectious Diseases 2013;208:1142-51

Lesho E. Fighting Ebola and Advancing Knowledge on the Front Lines in a Capital City. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2015;60:1825-7.

Jones C, Clancy M, Honnold C, Singh S, Snesrud E, Onmus-Leone F, McGann P, Ong A, Kwak Y, Waterman P, Surawski D, Clifford R, Lesho E. A fatal outbreak of an emerging, highly virulent, and extensively drug-resistant clone of Acinetobacter baumannii. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2015;61:145-54.

Lesho E, Waterman P, Chukwuma U, McAuliffe K, Neumann C, Julius M, Crouch H, Chandrasekara R, English, Clifford R, Kester. The Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring and Research (ARMoR) Program: the Department of Defense’s Response to Escalating Antimicrobial Resistance. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2014;59:390-7.

Lesho E. An overview of osteopathic medicine. Archives of Family Medicine. 1999;8:477-84.

Lesho E, Forestiero FJ, Hirata MH, Hirata RD, Cecon L, Melo FF, Paik SH, Murata Y, Ferguson EW, Wang Z, Ooi GT. Transcriptional responses of host peripheral blood cells to tuberculosis infection. Tuberculosis 2011;91:390-9.

Lesho E, Craft D, Kirkup BC Jr, Waterman P, Summers A, Vahey MT, Kester KE, Bowden R. Surveillance, characterization, and preservation of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Lancet Infectious Diseases 2011;11:8-10.

Lesho E, Bronstein M, McGann P, Stam J, Kwak Y, Maybank R, McNamara J, Callahan M, Campbell J, Hinkle M, Walsh E. Importation, mitigation, and genomic epidemiology of Candida auris at a large teaching hospital. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. 2017. At press.

Lesho E. When the spirit hurts: an approach to the suffering patient. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2003;163:2429-32.

Lesho E, Foster L, Wang Z, Sarmiento D, Dennison S, Vahey MT, Nolan E, Smalls C. The accuracy of physicians’ perceptions of patient suffering. Academic Medicine. 2009;84:636-42.