The RID Program would like to offer its sincerest congratulations to one of our investigators Dr. Jeffrey Wong on receiving the Dr. Juan Embil Trainee Award for Excellence in Infectious Disease Research from the Canadian Foundation for Infectious Diseases! Dr. Wong was honored with this accolade for a publication he was the primary author on entitled “Antepartum vs postpartum amoxicillin oral challenge in pregnant patients with a reported penicillin allergy: A two-center prospective cohort study“, which the Canadian Foundation for Infectious Diseases has recognized as being a very important contribution to the field. The Dr. Juan Embil Award is given out by the Canadian Foundation for Infectious Diseases annually, to honor the legacy of Dr. Juan Embil, a highly notable researcher in the field of infectious diseases, with professorships in the Departments of Microbiology and Community Health and Epidemiology as well as Pediatrics at Dalhousie University. The Dr. Juan Embil award is given to a current or recent trainee in the field of infectious disease research, whose published work will have a highly significant and long-lasting impact on public health in Canada. Dr. Wong’s publication describes the results of a prospective cohort study that was conducted on pregnant patients at two penicillin allergy delabelling clinics in Canada, to determine the optimal penicillin allergy labeling protocol (as the two sites utilized different protocols) based on rate of successful delabelling, number of adverse events, and patient satisfaction. Key findings from the publication included that when oral amoxicillin challenge testing is completed on patients 98% passed the test (no allergic reaction) so were eligible to be delabelled and that much higher percentage of patients were successfully delabelled (97% vs. 38%) when the oral amoxicillin challenge test was completed during the antepartum period compared to postpartum administration (due to patients being lost to follow up). Congratulations again to Dr. Wong on this amazing achievement!
For more information on the award please click here and to read Dr. Wong’s awarded publication please click here to access it!