Robert Gross, MD, MSCE
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Dr. Gross is board certified in infectious diseases and epidemiology and is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology in the Division of Infectious Diseases, with a secondary appointment in the Division of Epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Dr. Gross is an Infectious Diseases Pharmacoepidemiologist with a particular interest in treatment outcomes of HIV both domestically (particularly in Philadelphia) and internationally (particularly in Botswana). His projects have focused on several aspects of the care continuum, including assessment of risk factors for treatment failure and testing various interventions to improve outcomes in the developed and developing worlds. He designed and tested a CDC-endorsed adherence intervention based on problem solving theory (MAPS-Managed Problem Solving). He has been principal investigator or co-investigator on several other interventions, including AIDS Clinical Trials Groups RCTs. Most recently, he has focused on the problem of nicotine dependence in people with HIV with several intervention trials and a mechanistic study of the etiology of the high rates of smoking in people with HIV.
His methods work has focused on the use of pharmacy-refill measures of antiretroviral adherence, and he has refined this approach over the last several years. Dr. Gross also has a research program ongoing in Botswana, where he has enrolled several thousand participants in studies to determine the impact of pharmacogenetic differences on HIV treatment outcomes and other studies of the HIV care and treatment continuum. He also holds a Fogarty grant (D43) for training Botswana in HIV clinical epidemiology.
Administratively, Dr. Gross has been actively involved in the PENN Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) since its inception and currently serves as CFAR co-director. He is also active in the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE), where he founded the Adherence Scientific Interest Group. He is a fellow of both ISPE and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and provides clinical infectious diseases care at the Crescenz VA Medical Center.