The Department of Medicine Minority Recruitment and Retention Committee has announced that Charles D. Howell, MD, will give the 2018 Phillips-Winn Memorial Medicine Grand Rounds at 8 a.m. on Fri., Nov. 30, 2018.
Dr. Howell will present "Eliminating Hepatitis C in the United States."
Dr. Howell is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Viral Hepatitis Center in the Department of Medicine at the Howard University College of Medicine. He previously chaired the Howard Department of Medicine from 2014-2018.
A native of Alabama, Dr. Howell received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Tuskegee Institute in 1977. In 1981, he received the Doctor of Medicine degree from Howard University with many honors including induction into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed an internship in Family Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1981-82), followed by an Internal Medicine residency at the Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospitals in Houston, TX (1982-85) and a Gastroenterology and Hepatology fellowship at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) in Denver, CO (1985-88). He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology.
In 1988, Dr. Howell joined the faculty at the UCHSC as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. He was a member of the liver transplantation team and conducted basic immunology research in laboratory animal models of human autoimmune liver diseases. During his tenure at Colorado, Dr. Howell was a recipient of the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Minority Medical Faculty Development Program fellowship and the NIH FIRST award. In 1994, Howell joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine faculty as Associate Professor and founding Director of Hepatology and Medical Director of Liver Transplantation.
Dr. Howell has had a long-standing research interest in racial disparities in liver diseases, with a focus on chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and primary liver cancer. Under his leadership, the Viral Hepatitis Center strives to reduce the burden of hepatitis in the Washington metropolitan area through high-quality patient care, education, research, and community service. The National Institutes of Health, private foundations, and private corporations have funded Dr. Howell’s research activity since 1988.
From 2000-2007, Howell chaired the Steering Committee for the study of viral resistance to antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C (VIRAHEP-C). He was one of eight principal investigators for this NIH-sponsored, multicenter study, which investigated the basis for the lower efficacy of interferon and ribavirin therapy for hepatitis C in African Americans compared to White Americans. From 2011-2013, he co-chaired the National Medical Association’s Task Force on Hepatitis C in African Americans.
Dr. Howell has published more than 70 journal articles, book chapters and reviews, and is recognized nationally for his medical expertise and research accomplishments. In addition, he has been a frequent lecturer at national meetings. Moreover, he has mentored many students, residents, fellows and junior faculty members during his career. He is a fellow of American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), and American College of Physicians, and is a member of the Association for Academic Minority Physicians.
Dr. Howell has served on many medical society committees, and previously chaired the AGA Committee on Under-represented Minorities and the AASLD Public Policy Committee. Currently, he chairs the AASLD Diversity Committee. He has been a member of numerous National Institutes of Health study sections and the editorial boards of Hepatology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Current Hepatology Reports, and the World Journal of Gastroenterology.