8th Annual Internal Medicine in Primary Care

George L. Higgins III, MD graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine, is board certified in both Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine, is a Fellow in the American College of Emergency Physicians, and currently holds the rank of Professor Emeritus in Emergency Medicine at Maine Medical Center, an academic medical center located in Portland, Maine. For many years, he chaired MMC’s Department of Emergency Medicine, where he was privileged to advance the academic mission of the department and to be involved with the establishment of a successful resident training program in Emergency Medicine. His career path also provided him with attractive administrative opportunities, initially as the Associate Vice President of Performance Improvement and then as the Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for Medical Affairs for the institution. Eventually he returned to his true passion of caring for patients; teaching residents, APPs and medical students about the exciting field of Emergency Medicine; and overseeing scholarly productivity as Director of Research. More recently he provided clinical services to small, rural, Critical Access hospitals, an experience he found challenging, meaningful and professionally rewarding. As a result, he now serves as Director of Rural Education for BlueWater Health and has developed an elective in Rural/Remote Acute Care and Emergency Medicine at three clinical sites in New England for medical students, residents, and APPs.

Cecilia Low Wang (pronounced “lowwong”), MD is an endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine at University of Colorado, Clinician-Scientist at CPC Clinical Research, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. She earned her medical degree at the University of Rochester and did her residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Utah. She completed her fellowship in Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes at the University of Colorado (CU). Dr. Low Wang is Chairperson of the FDA Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee. She is the principal investigator for continuous glucose monitoring trials in the inpatient setting, and remote continuous monitoring to facilitate a dietary intervention in rural Colorado. She is a member of the Academy of Medical Educators and founding Program Director for the primary care Diabetes Fellowship Program at CU. Dr. Low Wang also directs the Glucose Management Team at the University of Colorado Hospital. She has served on a number of committees for the Endocrine Society and currently chairs the Nominating Committee. She is past chair of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology Disease State Network in Diabetes and was on the Task Force for the 2023 Update of the AACE Consensus Statement Comprehensive Type 2 Diabetes Management Algorithm. She serves on the Lifestyle Diabetes Committee of the Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health for the American Heart Association. She co-founded and is on the Executive Board of the American College of Diabetology which developed the first board certification exam for Diabetology, to be held December 2023. She is passionate about medical education and diabetes care, and does bedside teaching, as well as workshops and lectures locally, regionally, and nationally to clinicians and trainees at all levels.

Erin D. Michos, MD is an Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, with joint appointment in Epidemiology at the School of Public Health. She is the Director of Women’s Cardiovascular Health Research and the Associate Director of Preventive Cardiology at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Michos is an internationally known expert in Preventive Cardiology and Women’s Health, having authored >650 publications and 11 book chapters. Her clinical and research is focused on (1) Women’s Cardiovascular Health; (2) Lipids and Lipid management; (3) Cardiometabolic diseases (4) Coronary artery calcium, inflammation, and other biomarkers of cardiovascular risk.

She is the co-Editor-in-Chief for the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology and an Associate Editor for Circulation. She is Co-Director of the IMPACT Center (Improving Participation Among Diverse Populations in Cardiovascular Clinical Trials) at Johns Hopkins, funded by the American Heart Association (AHA). She is a co-investigator in several NIH-funded studies including the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities cohorts. She is the Training Director for four AHA Strategic Focused Research Networks. She has mentored over 60 individuals and the recipient of 2 mentoring awards.

Dr. Michos completed medical school at Northwestern University, Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a Master of Health Science degree at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Brian Pearlman, MD is the Medical Director for Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center's Center for Hepatitis C in Atlanta, Georgia, and is Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and Professor of Medicine at Emory School of Medicine. He completed his medical degree at the University of Miami and post-graduate training at both the University of Texas, Southwestern and Baylor University Medical Center.

Dr. Pearlman is Fellow for the American College of Physicians, and Fellow for the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease as well as certified by the American Academy of HIV Medicine. He is also a member of the American Gastroenterological Association. He had sat on the Board of Directors for The American Liver Foundation, Southeast Chapter.

Dr. Pearlman is widely published in leading journals such as The Lancet, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, The Lancet Infectious Disease, Clinical Infectious Diseases and the American Journal of Medicine. He is active in both patient care and in teaching physicians. He has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards and is an active investigator in multiple liver-related clinical trials, some of which are in collaboration with the CDC's Division of Viral Hepatitis.