Fellow Spotlight: Dr. Yvetot Joseph

The Center for Global Health would like to spotlight Dr. Yvetot Joseph, a current Global Health Fellow in the Consortium of Vanderbilt, Emory, Cornell, and Duke (VECD) program. The program, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provides a year of mentored global health research training opportunities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for pre- and post-doctoral candidates from the U.S. and LMICs. Dr. Joseph is currently spending his fellowship year under the mentorship of Drs. J. William Pape and Daniel FitzGerald at the GHESKIO Centers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Dr. Yvetot’s research focuses on immune factors associated with recurrent tuberculosis (TB) in HIV-infected patients.

After completing medical school at the Université Notre Dame d'Haïti and completing a Post-Graduate Training Program (PGTP) in infectious diseases and HIV-AIDS care offered by the same univeristy in collaboration with Maryland University, Dr. Joseph joined the GHESKIO Clinical Trials Unit research team as a research physician in 2015. Since joining GHESKIO, Dr. Joseph has coordinated Adult Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) trials on HIV and TB treatment among adults in Haiti.  

Dr. Joseph also served as the coordinator during recruitment for the REPRIEVE trial at GHESKIO, which is a Phase III clinical trial to evaluate the use of pitavastatin to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults infected with HIV who are on antiretroviral therapy (ART). He also acted as the coordinator for ACTG trial A5312, an intensive Phase II TB trial of high dose isoniazid therapy, which was recently completed despite unforeseen challenges in Haiti.

In 2019, Dr. Joseph presented his research on long-term mortality after TB treatment among persons living with HIV in Haiti as an oral presentation at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). In July of this year, Dr. Joseph had these findings published as an independent first author paper in the Journal of the International AIDS Society.

In addition to being a VECD Global Health Fellow, Dr. Joseph is currently furthering his education as a graduate student in the Weill Cornell Medicine MS program in Clinical Epidemiology. This, in addition to his experience coordinating clinical trials on HIV and TB treatment, will allow him to continue to contribute to the improvement of the Haitian health system for vulnerable populations.

Those interested in learning more about the VECD Fogarty Global Health Fellowship, which includes a week-long intensive training by the NIH as well as a year of research training support, can access the application portal for the 2022-23 academic year here. Applications for the program beginning in spring 2022 are due November 1st, 2021, and will be developed under the guidance of faculty and staff at the Center for Global Health.

Photo of Yvetot Joseph