SIDP Fellow

Tam Earns National Recognition from Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists

October 16 — Regarded as one of the foremost experts in antimicrobial pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, University of Houston College of Pharmacy Professor Vincent H. Tam, Pharm.D., FIDSA, BCIDP, was recognized as a Fellow of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) at the SIDP 2024 Annual Meeting Oct. 15 in Los Angeles.

Fellow status is bestowed on active SIDP members with at least 10 years of practice in the field who have made sustained contributions to the organization and demonstrated leadership and collaboration in infectious diseases practice, education, research, and/or advocacy.

Tam's fellow status isn't the first time he has earned recognition from SIDP, having won the organization's Pharmacotherapy Paper of the Year Award in 2014 and the Young Investigator Award in 2006. Tam has served on the SIDP Board of Directors and as the SIDP-elected representative on the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. He also has served on multiple SIDP committees since 2005, including the Research Awards, Recognitions, Annual Meeting and Inter-organizational Programs committees.

Tam's research findings have influenced changes in international clinical guidelines related to the polymyxin class of antimicrobial agents (once relegated to the drug of "last resort" category) as well as microbiology laboratory testing standards. His research has been supported by over $12 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, foundations and the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, his work has led to 190 peer-reviewed manuscripts, eight book chapters and two U.S. patents.

A Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Tam has been recognized with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Foundation's Literature Award for Sustained Contributions in 2019, and the University of Houston Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award in 2008. He also is this year's recipient of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy's Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award.

Tam maintains a clinical/research site at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, where its Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Epidemiology he helped launch was recognized as an ASHP Center of Excellence in 2010.

Elizabeth B. Hirsch, Pharm.D., FCCP, FIDP, FIDSA, associate professor at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy who earned SIDP Fellow status last year, praised Tam's mentorship during her two years in the Infectious Diseases Pharmacy Fellowship collaboration between UHCOP and Baylor St. Luke's.

"Whether he is speaking locally or nationally/internationally, Tam never fails to credit his trainees and/or collaborators," Hirsh wrote in a letter supporting Tam's fellow recognition. "As one of his mentees, it is obvious that he is genuinely invested in his trainees' success."