About this blog

In July 2017 I decided to start following as many of the top infectious disease journals as I could, curating the most interesting and important papers from each journal and sharing them with the other infectious disease fellows in my program. One year and more than 8000 articles later, my colleagues encouraged me to share these literature reviews with a wider audience, and this blog was born.

How it works:

Several times each month I gather abstracts to review using a PubMed search that includes 30 ID-related keywords, including both generic and specific terms (e.g. “infection,” “antibiotic,” “fungus” as well as “bacteremia,” “beta-lactam,” and “tuberculosis”). I limit the search by publication date, including only the month in question, as well as to a select group of journals. Currently, I review from the following 30 journals:

  • New England Journal of Medicine

  • Lancet

  • Journal of the American Medical Association

  • JAMA Internal Medicine

  • Annals of Internal Medicine

  • Lancet Infectious Diseases

  • Clinical Infectious Diseases

  • Journal of Infectious Diseases

  • Open Forum Infectious Diseases

  • Clinical Microbiology and Infection

  • European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

  • Journal of Infection

  • International Journal of Infectious Diseases

  • BMC infectious diseases

  • Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology

  • American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

  • Emerging Infectious Diseases

  • Emerging microbes & infections

  • American Journal of Transplantation

  • AIDS

  • AIDS patient care and STDs

  • HIV medicine

  • Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes

  • Journal of the International AIDS Society

  • Lancet HIV

  • Sexually transmitted diseases

  • Vaccine

  • Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

  • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

  • International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents

These searches produce about 1200 articles each month. From the titles, I select 200-300 abstracts to read in full, and from these I choose 20-30 papers to review. I try to select papers that have the potential to inform and change the clinical practice of infectious diseases, that generate important new hypotheses about infections or challenge old ones, or that will be of wide interest to infectious disease practitioners for other reasons. Finally, I group each month's papers by area of interest (e.g. antimicrobial agents, HIV ID, infection control) and publish them in a series of monthly blog posts.

I do my best to point out when I have a personal relationship (e.g. mentor, former co-fellow) with any of an article’s co-authors. I have not and do not plan to include any of my own publications in these reviews.

Disclosure Statement

I have no financial conflicts of interest relevant to the topics discussed on this website; specifically, I do not own stock in or receive funding from any pharmaceutical company or healthcare organization for this work.

The views and opinions on this website are my own and not those of Baylor College of Medicine, CHI St. Luke’s Health, the Harris Health System, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, or any other organization with which I am employed or affiliated. Nothing on this blog should be construed as medical advice or a substitute for consultation with an infectious disease specialist.

 
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About the author - Nicolás Cortés-Penfield, MD

I am an Assistant Professor in Infectious Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. I work primarily on the orthopedic ID hospital service, and also round with the general ID team, see patients in clinic, serve as medical director for the Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) program, and teach medical students, residents, and fellows. I completed medical school, residency in Internal Medicine, and a clinical ID fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and also spent three years there training and conducting basic research in enteric viruses under the mentorship of Dr. Mary Estes. My primary interests within ID are orthopedic infections, antiviral drug and vaccine development, HIV care, and antimicrobial stewardship; other professional interests include medical ethics and medical education.

I lie in Omaha with my wife Lydia and daughter Elise. We have a cat, Tigrette, who my wife insisted I not name Zosyn.

You can find me on twitter at @Cortes_Penfield and you can contact me with questions, comments, or suggestions at contact.idjournalclub@gmail.com.