Alison Freifeld

   Alison Freifeld, MD

   Professor of Medicine

   Director, Immunocompromised Host Infectious Disease Program

   Department of Medicine

   University of Nebraska Medical Center

   Omaha, NE  USA

Alison Freifeld, MD is a professor of Infectious Diseases and Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where, over the last 12 years, she has implemented programs in management of infectious complications in cancer and solid organ transplant patients. Her career focus over the last 20+ years has been to understand the best management of fever and neutropenia in cancer patients.  Recently she chaired the IDSA national clinical practice guideline for the use of antimicrobial agents in neutropenic patients with cancer, which has brought forth a more standardized framework for approaching these complex and vulnerable patients. She also has chaired and currently sits on the NCCN guideline committee for management of infections in cancer patients. Dr. Freifeld attended medical school and did her internal medicine residency at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, respectively; completed basic internal medicinal training in 1985 and went on complete her fellowship training in infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. She became director of the infectious diseases group for the National Cancer Institute from 1990 until 1999. At NCI, she developed theories about the use of oral antibiotics to treat low risk fever and neutropenia, leading to the current broad use of oral and/or outpatient antibiotics in this setting. In 2000, Dr. Freifeld moved to the University of Nebraska Medical Center to initiate programs in immunocompromised host infectious diseases. She has published numerous chapters, paper and editorials in this area.