Jan N. Basile, MD, FACP, FASH, FAHA
Professor of Medicine
Division of Cardiology
Medical University of South Carolina
Ralph H Johnson VA Medical Center
Previous Vice-Chair of Clinical Programs AHA Council of Hypertension
US National Leader SURPASS-CVOT
Charleston, SC

Dr. Jan N. Basile earned his medical degree in 1978 from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He then completed his internship and residency at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, where he was also Chief Resident. He is board certified in internal medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), the American Society of Hypertension (FASH), and the American Heart Association (FAHA). For many years he served on the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) Board of Directors and has served within the AHA as Vice-Chair of Clinical Programs on the Council of Hypertension.

His honors and awards include the MUSC School of Medicine Excellence in Teaching award, the Golden Apple award, and, in 2014, he was the first recipient of the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control Hypertension Physician of the Year award. In 2019, he received the Marvin Moser Clinical Hypertension Award from the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension. He was President of the Southern Medical Association from 2008-2009.

Currently, he is Professor of Medicine at MUSC in the Division of Cardiology. He spent 31 years at the Ralph H Johnson VA Medical Center while faculty at MUSC, having retired from federal service as Chief of Primary Care in 2009. He remains a volunteer at the VA, his 45th year at that hospital. At MUSC, he continues to teach all 3rd year medical students clinical hypertension during their 3rd year core medicine rotation and currently sees clinical patients enrolled in research trials on the role of renal denervation in controlling hypertension.

Dr. Basile’s career research interests include outcome-based clinical trials involving hypertension, lipid disorders, and diabetes. He has been involved in many large hypertension trials that have defined how we treat hypertension including the NHLBI sponsored ALLHAT, ACCORD, SPRINT and SPRINT-MIND trials. In addition, he has been a principal investigator for the ACCOMPLISH, VALUE, ONTARGET, and TRANSCEND trials. Most recently, he has been involved in diabetes outcome trials with GLP1RA's including REWIND and is the US National Leader for the SURPASS-CV Outcome Trial comparing Dulaglutide with the dual-agonist Tirzepatide.

Dr Basile was a contributing reviewer of the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) and the 2017 ACC-AHA Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults. He has published more than 400 original papers, abstracts, and book chapters, as well as a textbook, Hot Topics: Hypertension. He continues to be a contributing author for the hypertension section of “Up To Date”.

Jeffrey R. Curtis, MD, MS MPH
Marguerite Jones Harbert – Gene V Ball, MD Professor of Medicine
Co-Director, UAB PharmacoEpidEmiology, and phaRmcoeconomics (PEER) Unit
Director, UAB Musculoskeletal Digital Health and Technology Laboratory
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology
Birmingham, AL

Dr. Jeffrey R. Curtis is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Curtis received a Medical Degree (MD) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland, OR. He subsequently completed a residency in internal medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and a fellowship in rheumatology at UAB. He completed a graduate program in Clinical Informatics at Stanford University and received his Master of Science (MS) degree in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is board certified in both rheumatology and clinical informatics.

Dr. Curtis holds the Harbert-Ball Endowed Professorship in Rheumatology and Immunology at UAB. His major research emphasis is on evaluating the safety and comparative effectiveness of medications for rheumatic diseases. He also conducts both investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA), including large pragmatic trials. He is the PI of the UAB P30 Informatics Core funded by NIH (NIAMS), focused on digital health and ‘big data’ in musculoskeletal diseases. He is the lead of the UAB Data and Analytic Center (DAC), one of two Coordinating Centers for the ACR’s Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE), the largest EHR-based rheumatology registry in the world. RISE aggregates and normalizes EHR data from more than 3 million rheumatology patients, with data contributed by more than 1,000 rheumatology providers. He is Co-Director of the UAB Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics Research (PEER) Unit. PEER uses multiple large and linked data sources to study comparative effectiveness questions across multiple chronic diseases. He is the Co-PI of the mobile health-based, PCORI-funded Patient Powered Research Network “ArthritisPower” research registry, focused on RA, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and Spondyloarthritis that has enrolled more than 30,000 patients.

The data sources he routinely uses include national electronic health record, health plan claims (e.g. Medicare, commercial insurance), traditional registry, patient reported outcomes, mobile device, and wearable technologies; he has done numerous projects that link these disparate data sources together. In 2012, he was awarded the Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and was accepted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) in 2016. In 2015, Dr. Curtis was appointed as a member to the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee, and also the CDC’s ACIP Herpes Zoster Working Group. In 2020, he was appointed lead of the ACR’s COVID Vaccine Clinical Guidance Task Force, and he also serves as a member of the ACR’s 2022 Vaccine Guideline Committee. In addition to vaccine research, Dr. Curtis studies the efficacy, comparative effectiveness, and safety of the medications, devices, and devices used in the care of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and axial spondyloarthritis patients. In the past, he served on the Core Expert Panel for the ACR’s 2008, 2012, and 2015 Recommendations for the Use of Nonbiologic and Biologic Disease Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in RA.

Dr. Curtis also studies risk factors for and outcomes of osteoporosis. He was a member of the ACR’s task force to update recommendations for the management of glucocorticoid induced osteoporosis (GIOP). He served on the ASBMR Task Force on Atypical Subtrochanteric and Diaphyseal Fractures.

Dr. Curtis is a member of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE), the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), and the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). He has been on the editorial board for Arthritis & Rheumatology, Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (PDS) and Arthritis Care and Research (AC&R). According to Google Scholar, he has an H-index of 93, and an i-10 index of 417, based on his authorship of more than 600 peer-reviewed manuscripts, review articles and book chapters.

Jennifer Green, MD
Professor of Medicine
Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Nutrition
Duke University Medical Center
Durham VA Medical Center
Durham, NC

Dr. Jennifer Green is a professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology, metabolism, and nutrition at Duke University and a faculty member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Her research has focused upon strategies to treat diabetes mellitus and reduce the risk of cardiovascular, kidney and other diabetes-related complications. Her work with the DCRI has included protocol development, oversight of adjudication committees, and clinical and operational leadership for several large, international trials designed to determine the cardiovascular effects of glucose-lowering medications (TECOS, EXSCEL, and Harmony Outcomes). She currently serves as US coordinating center PI and US national representative for the EMPA-Kidney trial of empagliflozin therapy in patients with chronic kidney disease. Dr. Green has concluded three years of service as a member of the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) Professional Practice Committee, which publishes the organization’s annual Standards of Care in Diabetes. She is now a member of the ADA-EASD writing group which recently revised a joint consensus statement on the management of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes.

Marcio L. Griebeler, MD, FACP
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Director, Diabesity Center and Obesity Programs, EMI
Associate Program Director, Obesity Fellowship
Subspecialty Director, Weight Management Enterprise Center
Endocrinology and Metabolism Institute
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio

Dr. Marcio L. Griebeler is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner college of Medicine. Dr. Griebeler is the director of the Diabesity Center and Obesity Program in the Endocrinology and Metabolism Institute at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Griebeler is also the Specialty Director of the Weight Management Enterprise Center at Cleveland Clinic and Associate Program Director of the Obesity Fellowship. Dr. Griebeler is an expert in nonsurgical obesity and weight management.

Originally from Brazil, Dr. Griebeler received his medical degree in the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre Brazil. After graduating, he moved to the United States and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was also chosen to become Chief Medical Resident at the University of Miami and the Veterans Hospital in Miami. He advanced his training and pursued fellowship at Mayo Clinic Rochester in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism.

Dr. Griebeler is triple board certified in internal medicine, endocrinology and also obesity medicine. Dr. Griebeler joined Cleveland Clinic Endocrinology in 2018 and provides specialized care in endocrinology and obesity. Dr. Griebeler has many publications in the field and his research focuses in delivery of obesity care including the use of telemedicine. His special interest is to advance research in the area of maintenance of weight loss. Dr. Griebeler is involved in a variety of professional organizations including obesity society, endocrine society and American association of clinical endocrinologists.

Danya Khoujah, MD, MBBS, MEHP, FACEP, FAAEM
Attending Physician
Department of Emergency Medicine
AdventHealth
Tampa, FL

Dr. Danya Khoujah is an emergency physician with a keen interest in geriatric emergencies and medical education. She completed her EM residency and faculty development fellowship at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, and currently practices in Tampa, Florida. She has lectured nationally and internationally on geriatric emergencies with raving reviews and is part of the writing group of the Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines. She is most passionate about simplifying the science to allow healthcare practitioners to better care for their patients, whether seasoned physicians, resident physicians-in-training, medical students, or allied health professionals.

Camiron Pfennig, MD, MHPE
Department of Emergency Medicine, Prisma Health – Upstate
Emergency Medicine Residency Director
Professor of Emergency Medicine
University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville
Clemson University School of Health Research
Clemson, SC

Dr. Camiron Pfennig is Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and currently serves as the Emergency Medicine Residency Director of the Prisma Health Greenville Emergency Medicine Residency and the Fellowship Director for the Medical Education and Technology Fellowship. She is a graduate of Marquette University and the Indiana University School of Medicine. Following her Chief Residency at Indiana University, Dr. Pfennig completed the ACEP Teaching Fellowship and then obtained her Masters of Health Professions Education from Vanderbilt University. Prior to the transition to Greenville from Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. Pfennig was the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education and EM physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University.

David M. Plourd, MD, FACOG
Staff Obstetrician & Gynecologist & Obstetric Hospitalist
Formerly Naval Hospital
San Diego, CA

Dr. David M. Plourd has been an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, and at UCSD, for two decades, before joining the Obstetrics Hospitalist Team at Scripps Hospital. Dr. Plourd has been teaching and lecturing nationally and internationally on numerous women’s healthcare topics. He was voted “Teacher of the Year” by the interns and residents at the Naval Medical Center. Dr. Plourd has been a Board Examiner for the American Board of OB/GYN. He is also an expert consultant for the Medical Board of California.

Roger D. Seheult, MD
Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine
Optum California, Redlands, CA
Associate Clinical Professor
UC Riverside School of Medicine, Riverside, CA
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Loma Linda University School of Medicine
Loma Linda, CA

Dr. Roger D. Seheult is a Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Specialist in Redlands with Optum California. He has dual academic appointments as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine and Physician Assistant Sciences at the Loma Linda University Schools of Medicine and Allied Health Professions respectively. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine. Dr. Seheult completed his Fellowship and Residency training at Loma Linda University and is Board-Certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care Medicine, and Sleep Medicine. Dr. Seheult is the co-founder of MEDCram, an on-line medical education company.

Richard P. Usatine, MD
Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Professor of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery
University of Texas Health San Antonio
Founding Director, University Health System Skin Clinic
San Antonio, TX

Dr. Richard P. Usatine is a Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery at University of Texas Health, San Antonio. He received his MD from Columbia University and completed his family medicine residency at UCLA Medical Center. He is the lead author of 8 medical books including The Color Atlas and Synopsis of Family Medicine and Dermatological and Cosmetic Procedures in Office Practice. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Usatine has been working with medical students to provide health care to homeless families and the medically underserved since 1984. He is the founding director of the University Health System Skin Clinic in San Antonio. He also directs the only underserved dermatology fellowship for family physicians in the US.

C. Wayne Weart, PharmD, FASHP, FAPhA
Professor Emeritus Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcome Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy
Professor of Family Medicine
MUSC Department of Family Medicine
Charleston, SC

Dr. Wayne Weart received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy in 1971 from the University of Georgia. He served his residency in Hospital Pharmacy at the Medical University Hospital in Charleston, SC in 1972. He received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science in 1974. Dr. Weart is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcome Sciences in the College of Pharmacy, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), as well as Professor of Family Medicine in the College of Medicine, MUSC. Prior to his teaching at the Medical University, Dr. Weart instructed at West Virginia University in pharmacy and family medicine.

Dr. Weart has more than 100 publications and he has given scores of lectures to numerous professional groups and societies. He has received outstanding teacher awards at both West Virginia University and MUSC and has been named Hospital Pharmacist of the Year in both South Carolina and West Virginia.

In 1991, Dr. Weart was among the first pharmacists to become a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist. In 1992, he was honored for his excellence in pharmacy practice and designated a Fellow of the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists. Dr. Weart was named a Primary Care Policy Fellow for 1999 by the U.S. Public Health Service and he was honored by the Alumni Association of the MUSC College of Pharmacy as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2002. He also received the Bowl of Hygeia Award from the SC Pharmacy Association in 2003 for outstanding service to the community and the profession of pharmacy and the George D. Schwerin Mentor Award, from the South Carolina Society of Health System Pharmacists in 2004. In 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009, he was recognized by the MUSC College of Pharmacy student body for his excellence in education by the Golden Mortar and Pestle Award. In 2008, the MUSC Board of Trustees named Dr. Weart as a Master Teacher. In 2012 he received the Proctor and Gamble National Leadership Award from the Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Society. In 2014, he was awarded the Ralph M. Wilkie Distinguished Lifetime Service Award by the SC Pharmacy Association Board of Directors. In 2015, he received the Kenneth Flinchum Distinguished Service Award from the SC Society of Health System Pharmacists. In 2021, he was awarded the James A. McFarland, MD, FACP Award by the SC Chapter of the American College of Physicians for his scholarship and teaching. Dr Weart served on the Board of Directors of the SC Pharmacists Association and as President and Chairman of the Board for 2010-2011. He served on the Board of Directors for the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy from 2009-2013 and President of the Waring Library Society for 2014-2015. He is one of many Hot Dog Ministry volunteers involved with serving the homeless of Charleston.