Professor of Medicine, Professor of Epidemiology

Overview

Josiah D. Rich, MD, MPH is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and a practicing Infectious Disease Specialist since 1994 at The Miriam Hospital Immunology Center providing clinical care for over 29 years, and at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections caring for prisoners with HIV infection and other medical problems along with working in the correctional setting doing research. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed publications, predominantly in the overlap between infectious diseases, addictions and incarceration. He is the Senior Medical Advisor and Co-founder of The Center for Health and Justice Transformation at The Miriam Hospital (HealthandJustice.org). Dr. Rich has advocated for public health policy changes to improve the health of people with addiction, including improving legal access to sterile syringes and increasing drug treatment for the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations. He has had continuous federal research funding since 1995 and is Principal or Co-Investigator on numerous ongoing grants. His primary field and area of specialization and expertise is in the overlap between infectious diseases and illicit substance use, the treatment and prevention of HIV infection, and the care and prevention of disease in addicted and incarcerated individuals. He has served as an expert for the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and many others. He has been appointed by former RI Governor, Gina Raimondo, to the Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force Expert Team, selected to advise the task force and formulate a strategic plan to address addiction and stop overdose in Rhode Island. The RI Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force was created to propose a strategic plan that puts forth the most impactful initiatives in the areas of prevention of opioid addiction, reversal of opioid overdose, treatment of opioid addiction, and recovery to reduce addiction and stop overdose death in Rhode Island. Their efforts are targeted at identifying the components for prevention, treatment, reversal, and recovery that will ‘shift the epidemic curve’ of overdose deaths.

Brown Affiliations

Research Areas