In this episode of
Transmission Interrupted, Jill Morgan joins Dr. Aneesh Mehta, Dr. Jay Varkey, and Dr. Colleen Kraft to remember Dr. Bruce Ribner, a physician, educator, hospital epidemiologist, and mentor whose work shaped biocontainment care at Emory and beyond.
The conversation moves from sharp humor and encyclopedic clinical knowledge to the quieter parts of Dr. Ribner’s life: his devotion to family, his willingness to protect and guide colleagues, and his commitment to preparedness long before it was tested. His legacy lives in the programs he built, the teams he strengthened, and the principle that doing the right work matters even when no one knows whether it will ever be needed.
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Visit Transmission Interrupted on the web at
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Guests
Colleen S. Kraft, MD, MSc
Colleen S. Kraft, MD, MSc, is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, at Emory University School of Medicine. She previously served as Associate Chief Medical Officer of Emory Hospital from 2020–2023 and currently serves as Associate Chief Research Informatics Officer for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center
Dr. Kraft was one of the infectious disease physicians at Emory Hospital in 2014 who cared for patients with Ebola virus disease and Lassa fever. Her work since then has focused in part on high reliability in health care, including human factors, infection prevention, and preparedness for highly contagious infectious diseases. She is a clinical consultant for the Emory Healthcare Human Factors Lab and a director in the Healthcare Test Kitchen Lab. She served as President of the American Society for Microbiology from 2022–2023.
Dr. Aneesh Mehta, MD, FIDSA, FAST
Aneesh Mehta is a Professor of Medicine and of Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, and also serves as the Chief of Infectious Diseases Services and Assistant Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at Emory University Hospital. He is a board-certified infectious diseases physician, who received an MD from the University of Oklahoma and completed Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases training at Emory University.
Aneesh has been one of the core physicians of the Emory Serious Communicable Diseases Unit (SCDU) since 2009. He was admitted physician for Emory’s first patient with Ebola Virus Disease and was highly involved in care of the four patients with EVD, one patient with Lassa Fever, and several PUIs cared for by the Emory SCDU. During the Ebola activation, Aneesh was involved in all aspects of unit management, patient care, laboratory handling, and research.
Aneesh is a co-Principal Investigator at NETEC. He has also been involved in the development of the Special Pathogens Research Network Biorepository and evaluation of Medical Countermeasures.
Jay Varkey, MD
Jay Varkey, MD received his BA from Marquette University and an AOA graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Duke University Medical Center, where he was a member of the Antimicrobial Evaluation Team and the Infection Control and Epidemiology Committee.
He was recruited to Emory University in 2009 to become the Director of the Antimicrobial Management Program and Associate Hospital Epidemiologist at Emory University Hospital (EUH). He also serves as the Co-Director of the Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Treatment Clinic at Emory and as the Hospital Epidemiologist at the Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital of Emory University.
Dr. Varkey currently serves on numerous institutional committees including the Department of Medicine Quality Council, the Department of Surgery Wound Infection Group, the Clinical Effectiveness Septicemia Design Team, and the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program Admissions Committee.
Dr. Varkey was the recipient of the Department of Medicine Quality Achievement Award in 2012. He is a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the American Society of Transplantation, Infectious Diseases Community of Practice.
Host
Jill Morgan, RN
Jill Morgan is a registered nurse and a subject matter expert in personal protective equipment (PPE) for NETEC. For 35 years, Jill has been an emergency department and critical care nurse, and now splits her time between education for NETEC and clinical research, most of it centering around infection prevention and personal protective equipment. She is a member of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), ASTM International, and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI)
Resources
About NETEC
A Partnership for Preparedness
The National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center’s mission is to set the gold standard for special pathogen preparedness and response across health systems in the U.S. with the goals of driving best practices, closing knowledge gaps, and developing innovative resources.
Our vision is a sustainable infrastructure and culture of readiness for managing suspected and confirmed special pathogen incidents across the United States public health and health care delivery systems.
For more information, visit NETEC on the web at
www.netec.org.
NETEC Consultation Services
Assess and Advance Your Readiness for Special Pathogens with Free, Expert Consulting.
NETEC offers free virtual and onsite readiness consulting to help health care facilities and EMS agencies prepare for special pathogen events. Our targeted support services are delivered by experts selected and assigned to each inquiry based on the unique needs of your organization. Have a question? Ask a NETEC expert.
For more information, visit:
netec.org/consulting-services.
