HIV/AIDS researcher lauded for leadership on harm reduction and work on HIV, public health and addiction

BMJ Group, publisher of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), has recognized UBC Clinical Assoc. Prof. Evan Wood with its first annual Junior Doctor of the Year honour. Wood, a lead researcher at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE), was selected from more than 100 nominations from Britain, Sudan, Iraq, Australia and Brazil for his research in and contribution to HIV, public health, illicit drug policy and addiction.
 
As co-director of the BC-CfE’s Urban Health Research Initiative (UHRI), Wood has early in his career established himself as a leading international authority on evidence-based approaches to addressing HIV among drug-addicted populations.  Wood obtained his PhD in epidemiology studying the HIV epidemic in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and authored more than 200 publications before the age of 30, including groundbreaking articles in medical journals such as BMJ, the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Wood helped establish the UHRI and has received the Peter Lougheed Award as Canada’s top-ranked new investigator by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He is one of the founding principal investigators of Vancouver’s Insite, North America’s only supervised injecting facility. His scientific and peer-reviewed evaluations of Insite have demonstrated that the program reduces overdose deaths, lowers HIV transmission rates, and increases uptake into addiction treatment.  He now serves on the editorial boards of a host of infectious disease and addiction journals and is the associate editor of the International Journal of Drug Policy.

For more information, visit http://www.cfenet.ubc.ca/viewMediaRelease.php?id=29&sid=36&nid=90&year=2010