Dr. Trish Perl

By Cathy Frisinger

As an infectious disease specialist, Dr. Trish Perl, sees Texas as a wonderland.

“Texas is this unbelievable place for infectious diseases. You’ve got the fourth-largest airport in the world, we’ve had Ebola, we’ve got Zika. In clinic today, they were talking about Brucella. The exotic diseases here are an infectious disease doctor’s dream,” said Dr. Perl, Professor of Internal Medicine and the new Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Dr. Perl, who is a specialist in health care-associated infections, antimicrobial-resistant organisms, emerging pathogens, and infection prevention, previously served for 20 years on the faculty of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, which was one of the first Centers of Excellence for health care-associated infections.

She earned her medical degree at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, did her residency at Royal Victoria Hospital at McGill University in Montreal, and did her fellowship in clinical epidemiology and infectious diseases at the University of Iowa. Dr. Perl also did a two-year stint with the Canadian equivalent of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, and her first outbreak investigation – an encephalopathy caused by eating mussels – was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

On July 1, she assumed her Infectious Diseases leadership post at UT Southwestern. “I hope to strengthen our clinical presence; really work on our service, enhancing our role in infection prevention and stewardship; and to support the ongoing strength in basic science but also develop more complete translational portfolio,” Dr. Perl said.

Dreaming big – and living in a big place like Texas encourages thinking big, she says – she’d like to develop a center for emerging infectious diseases. “There aren’t that many and I think it’s a huge opportunity to marry the basic science strengths that already exist, some of the epidemiologic as well as health services research expertise, and become a leader on this looming problem,” she said. 

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Dr. Perl holds the Jay P. Sanford Professorship in Infectious Disorders.