Dr. Kathleen M. Mullane Noted for Her Work in Health Care

    CHICAGO, IL, November 19, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The University of Chicago Medical Center Infectious Diseases Specialist Kathleen M. Mullane, DO, Pharm.D., FIDSA, has been recognized for showing dedication, leadership and excellence in health care.

Dr. Mullane serves as the Director of Infectious Diseases clinical trials, specializing in transplant related opportunistic infectious diseases. She has led as the principal investigator in various clinical trials and worked with other researchers across the country. Awarded as a top doctor in infectious diseases by Castle Connolly, Dr. Mullane's subject areas include human subject protection, and clinical trials involving new therapies for HIV infection, infections in immunocompromised hosts and infections with pathogens resistant to available antimicrobial agents.

An expert in the study of infectious diseases, Dr. Mullane has 25 years of experience in the medical field, including 10 years as a physician at the University of Chicago Medical Center, 10 years at Loyola University Medical Center and 5 years at the University of Illinois. On a day-to-day basis, she treats stem cell and solid organ transplant recipients who have infections, and patients with HIV. She as well treats individuals who have Clostridium difficile colitis. When she is not treating patients, Dr. Mullane researches new treatments for infections in immunocompromised hosts and those infected with HIV. This encompasses invasive fungal pathogens including aspergillosis and mucormycosis, viral pathogens including CMV, Influenza, Parainfluenza, RSV and Varicella; and bacterial pathogens including blood stream and skin and soft tissue infections with multidrug resistant organisms.

In looking back, Dr. Mullane became involved in her profession because of her experience as a clinical pharmacist during the time when HIV was first presenting in the United States. This was during the early days of AIDS, when the routes of transmission of the infection was unknown and there were no treatment options available and health care professionals were afraid of working with these patients. As a clinical pharmacist she participated in the early treatment trials for these patients and knew that the next step in her career path would be an infectious diseases physician.

Dr. Mullane received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy at the University of Iowa and went on to earn her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. She returned to the University of Illinois where she completed a clinical pharmacy residency and stayed on as a faculty member at the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy until deciding to go medical school. She received a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Midwestern University, and completed her internal medicine residency at Rush Presbyterian St. Lukes Medical Center in Chicago. She completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at the combined University of Chicago/University of Illinois program. Licensed in medicine and pharmacy by the state of Illinois, Dr. Mullane is also certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases by the American Board of Internal Medicine. She was recently inducted into Worldwide Registry and also maintains affiliations with the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Society of Transplantation, the International Immunocompromised Host Society and the Chicago Mycoses Study Group. In the years to come, Dr. Mullane plans to continue on the same path and hopes to provide even better treatment options for the immunocompromised host population.

For more information about the University of Chicago Medical Center, visit http://www.medicine.uchicago.edu.

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