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Colleen Kraft

Colleen Kraft
Born
Colleen Suzanne Kendrick[1]

(1976-10-30) October 30, 1976 (age 48)
Alma materTaylor University, BA (1998)
Indiana University School of Medicine, MD (2002)
Emory University, MSc (2013)
Known forResponse to Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks
Children3
Scientific career
FieldsInfectious Diseases
InstitutionsEmory University
WebsiteResearch website

Colleen S. Kraft is an infectious disease physician, associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and the director of the Clinical Virology Research Laboratory at Emory University School of Medicine. In 2014, she led Emory University Hospital's effort to treat and care for Ebola virus disease patients and is currently working to address the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia. She currently serves on Georgia's COVID-19 task force.

Education

Kraft received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Taylor University in Biology with a pre-medicine concentration in 1998. She then attended Indiana University School of Medicine, where she received her Doctor of Medicine degree in 2002.[2] She then performed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Infectious Disease and Medical Microbiology at Emory University. She later received her Master of Science in clinical research from Emory University in 2013.[2]

Career

Kraft became an assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine in 2010 and was promoted to associate professor in 2016. She became the Associate Chief Medical Officer of Emory University Hospital in January 2020.[2] Her research interests include fecal microbiota transplants, building a large solid organ transplant population at Emory University Hospital to treat antibiotic resistant and hospital-acquired infections of Clostridioides difficile.[3][4][5] In addition, she has both studied and advanced clinical care of Ebola virus disease and COVID-19 disease 2019.[6][7]

Ebola response

Emory University Hospital received the first patient with Ebola virus disease, a missionary and physician named Kent Brantly, on August 2, 2014, followed by three patients with the disease, including the physician Ian Crozier.[8][9] During that time, she worked on developing a protocol for the first known successful delivery of renal replacement therapy to treat kidney failure in Ebola patients.[10][11] Kraft is a co-PI for the National Ebola Training and Education Center, a federally funded collaborative between Emory University, Nebraska Medicine, and New York Health and Hospital-Bellevue that is working to address gaps in outbreak preparedness.[12] As a result, Emory's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit remains prepared to treat Ebola patients.[13]

COVID-19 response

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kraft was appointed to the 18-member task force of health, airport, school and emergency preparedness officials to address and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Georgia, advising Governor Brian Kemp.[14][15] As Associate Chief Medical Officer, she is also coordinating the response to the pandemic across Emory University's healthcare system, working to ensure that healthcare workers on the frontlines do not contract the disease and avoid burnout.[16] They have already launched three in-house testing platforms that can provide COVID-19 testing results in 24 hours, as opposed to commercial labs that were taking 7–10 days.[17]

Kraft was part of a research team that found that reusable respirators, which are typically used by construction or factory workers, could be a suitable alternative to the disposable N95 masks currently used by physicians treating COVID-19 patients.[18][19] Healthcare workers can be rapidly fit tested and trained on how to use the reusable masks, and use of such masks can address the current shortage of N95 masks. There is currently no stockpile of reusable respirators, however, construction workers have begun donating them to local hospitals.[20] Kraft is also working with researchers at Georgia Tech to supply the medical community with 3D printers and laser-cutting machines to make protective gear.[21]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

  • "Training and Fit Testing of Health Care Personnel for Reusable Elastomeric Half-Mask Respirators Compared With Disposable N95 Respirators" JAMA Published online March 25, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.4806
  • "A Novel Microbiome Therapeutic Increases Gut Microbial Diversity and Prevents Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection" The Journal of Infectious Diseases 2016; 214(2):173-181. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiv766
  • "Clinical care of two patients with Ebola virus disease in the United States" New England Journal of Medicine 2014; 371:2402-2409. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1409838

References

  1. ^ "Taylor University Commencement 1998". Taylor University (taylor.edu). May 28, 1998.
  2. ^ a b c "Dr. Colleen S Kraft, MD - Atlanta, GA - Infectious Diseases - Request Appointment". providers.emoryhealthcare.org. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  3. ^ Zhang, Sarah (June 24, 2019). "Should Human Feces Be Regulated Like a Drug?". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  4. ^ Khanna, Sahil; Pardi, Darrell S.; Kelly, Colleen R.; Kraft, Colleen S.; Dhere, Tanvi; Henn, Matthew R.; Lombardo, Mary-Jane; Vulic, Marin; Ohsumi, Toshiro; Winkler, Jonathan; Pindar, Christina (July 15, 2016). "A Novel Microbiome Therapeutic Increases Gut Microbial Diversity and Prevents Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 214 (2): 173–181. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiv766. ISSN 0022-1899. PMID 26908752.
  5. ^ Aleccia, JoNel; Writer, Senior (May 11, 2013). "Not 'glamorous': Doc is universal donor for fecal transplants". NBC News. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  6. ^ "'Please don't cry, Dr. Kraft': How one doctor is handling the coronavirus pandemic". Los Angeles Times. April 8, 2020. Archived from the original on April 9, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
  7. ^ "Profile | Emory School of Medicine".
  8. ^ Beaubien, Jason. "Ebola Survivor: The Best Word For The Virus Is 'Aggression'". NPR.org. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  9. ^ Lyon, G. Marshall; Mehta, Aneesh K.; Varkey, Jay B.; Brantly, Kent; Plyler, Lance; McElroy, Anita K.; Kraft, Colleen S.; Towner, Jonathan S.; Spiropoulou, Christina; Ströher, Ute; Uyeki, Timothy M. (December 18, 2014). "Clinical Care of Two Patients with Ebola Virus Disease in the United States". New England Journal of Medicine. 371 (25): 2402–2409. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1409838. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 25390460.
  10. ^ "Faith, Medicine or ZMapp? What Cured The Ebola Patients?". NBC News. September 5, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  11. ^ Connor, Michael J.; Kraft, Colleen; Mehta, Aneesh K.; Varkey, Jay B.; Lyon, G. Marshall; Crozier, Ian; Ströher, Ute; Ribner, Bruce S.; Franch, Harold A. (January 1, 2015). "Successful Delivery of RRT in Ebola Virus Disease". Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. 26 (1): 31–37. doi:10.1681/ASN.2014111057. ISSN 1046-6673. PMC 4279752. PMID 25398785.
  12. ^ Vanairsdale, Sharon; Mehta, Aneesh K; Kraft, Colleen (October 4, 2017). "Ebola and Beyond-Developing an Infectious Diseases Treatment Infrastructure in the United States". Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 4 (Suppl 1): S244. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofx163.521. ISSN 2328-8957. PMC 5631736.
  13. ^ Prescott, La'Raven Taylor , Virginia (September 10, 2019). "Emory Remains Prepared To Treat Ebola Patients, 5 Years Later". www.gpbnews.org. Retrieved April 10, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "Georgia Governor Creates Coronavirus Task Force". U.S. News & World Report. February 28, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  15. ^ Maya T. Prabhu, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Gov. Brian Kemp names Georgia coronavirus task force". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  16. ^ Netburn, Deborah (April 8, 2020). "'Please don't cry, Dr. Kraft': How one doctor is handling the coronavirus pandemic". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  17. ^ Richardson, Savannah (April 3, 2020). "Rapid testing for coronavirus starts in Albany, Atlanta". The Brunswick News. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  18. ^ Mundell, E.J. (March 27, 2020). "Respirator Masks - In Short Supply". WebMD. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  19. ^ "Reusable respirators a potential alternative for protecting health care workers from COVID-19". news.emory.edu. March 26, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  20. ^ "Reusable respirators protect doctors and nurses against coronavirus, they aren't in the national stockpile". azcentral. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  21. ^ Helena Oliviero, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Emory hospital prepares for 'super surge' of COVID-19 patients". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  22. ^ "Colleen Kraft, MD elected to serve as 2022 president of the American Society for Microbiology". Emory Daily Pulse Blog, Emory University School of Medicine. December 9, 2020.