Adam C. Levine, MD, MPH

Director, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

Areas of Interest: Disasters, emerging infectious diseases, humanitarian emergencies, human rights.

Biography

Dr. Adam C. Levine is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Director of the Division of Global Emergency Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He received his Medical Doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco and his Masters of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley before completing his specialty training in Emergency Medicine at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency in Boston. He has previously led research and training initiatives in East and West Africa and South and South-East Asia.

Dr. Levine currently serves as the Director for the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, whose mission is to promote a just, peaceful, and secure world by furthering a deeper understanding of human rights and humanitarian challenges around the globe, and encouraging collaboration between local communities, academics, and practitioners to develop innovative solutions to these challenges. He also serves as the Primary Investigator for the Global Emergency Response and Recovery Partner Engagement Cooperative Agreement between International Medical Corps and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is focused on improving international and local capacity for responding to future epidemics and pandemics. His own NIH and foundation-funded research focuses on improving the delivery of emergency care in resource-limited settings and during humanitarian emergencies.

Research

1. Cholera: Accurate and rapid assessment of dehydration status is critical to preventing morbidity and mortality in patients with epidemic cholera, yet the tools available to providers for diagnosing dehydration are limited. Previously, Dr. Levine conducted a series of studies in Rwanda and Bangladesh focused on the development of new tools for the assessment of dehydration in young children with acute diarrhea. Currently, he is the Primary Investigator for a large NIH-funded study that will develop and validate a novel mobile health tool for helping clinicians better manage cholera in older children and adults.
2. Ebola: From 2015-2016, Dr. Levine directed International Medical Corps’ Ebola Research Team, leading a series of retrospective and prospective studies in West Africa. Currently he is supporting the PALM Trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest clinical trial ever conducted of treatments for Ebola.
3. Improved Diagnostics for Global Health: Dr. Levine has carried out a series of studies investigating the novel use of cost-effective diagnostic technologies for managing the most common causes of death in children and adults worldwide. This includes several studies on the use of handheld, portable ultrasound for the assessment of dehydration in children, as well as the use of oxygen saturation for predicting pneumonia, and biosensor patches for monitoring vital signs in patients with sepsis and Ebola.
4. Trauma Management in Austere Settings: Dr. Levine has conducted prior research on the management of traumatic injuries, both in resource-limited settings such as sub-Saharan Africa and during humanitarian emergencies. His research has focused on understanding the burden of injury in these contexts, as well as developing new strategies for improving the delivery of care to patients across the globe suffering from acute injuries.

Publications

1. Waxman M, Aluisio AR, Rege S, Levine AC. “Baseline Characteristics and Survival of Patients Infected with Malaria and Ebola Virus in Sierra Leone.” Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2017. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(17)30112-3.
2. Bilal S, Nelson E, Meisner L, AlamM, Al AminSU, AshenafiY, Teegala S, Khan MA, AlamNH, Levine AC. “Evaluation of standard and mobile health (mHealth)-supported clinical diagnostic tools for assessing dehydration in patients with diarrhea in rural Bangladesh.” American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2018;99(1):171-179. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.17-0648
3.  Aluisio AR, Barry MA, Martin KD, Mbanjumucyo G, Mutabazi ZA, Karim N, Moresky RT, Nyinawankusi JD, Byiringiro JC, Levine AC. “Impact of Emergency Medicine Training and Implementation on Mortality Outcomes in Kigali, Rwanda: An Interrupted Time-Series Cohort Study.” African Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2018. doi: 10.1016/j.afjem.2018.10.002
4. Aluisio AR, Yam D, Peters JL, ChoDK, Perera SM, Kennedy SB, Massaquoi M, Sahr F, Smit MA, Liu T, Levine AC. “Impact of Intravenous Fluid Therapy on Survival Among Patients with Ebola Virus Disease: An International Multisite Retrospective Cohort Study.” Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2019. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciz344
5. Garbern SC, Yam D, Aluisio AR, ChoDK, Kennedy SB, Massaquoi M, Sahr F, Perera SM, Levine AC, Liu T. “Effect of Mass Artesunate-Amodiaquine Distribution on Mortality of Patients with Ebola Virus Disease during West African Outbreak.” Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 2019. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofz250
6. Garbern SC, Mbanjumucyo G, Umuhoza C, Sharma VK, Mackey J, Tang O,Martin KD, Twagirumukiza FR, Rosman SL, McCall N, Wegerich SW, Levine AC. “Validation of a Wearable Biosensor Device for Vital Sign Monitoring in Septic Emergency Department Patients in Rwanda.” Digital Health, 2019.
7. ColubriA, Hartley MA, SiakorM, WolfmanV, FelixA, Sesay T, Shaffer JG, Garry RF, Grant DS, Levine AC, Sabeti PC. “Machine-Learning prognostic models from the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak: data harmonization challenges, validation strategies, and mHealth applications.” EClinicalMedicine, 2019.
8.  Aluisio AR, Yam D, Peters JL, Able L,Cho DK, Perera SM, Kennedy SB, Massaquoi M, Sahr F, Garbern S, Locks L, Liu T, Levine AC. “Impact of Vitamin A Supplementation on Mortality in Ebola Virus Disease: A Multisite Propensity-Matched Cohort Study.” Journal of Nutrition, 2019; doi: 10.1093/jn/nxz142 

Teaching

PHP 1802S: Human Security and Humanitarian Response

Brown-PDRF Humanitarian Field Program