Adam C. Levine, MD, MPH

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

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

Biography

Dr. Adam C. Levine is a 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. Levine AC. Academics are from Mars, humanitarians are from Venus: Finding common ground to improve research during humanitarian emergencies. Clin Trials. 2016 Feb;13(1):79-82. doi: 10.1177/1740774515617935. Epub 2016 Jan 14. PubMed PMID: 26768562.1.

2. Balhara KS, Silvestri DM, Tyler Winders W, Selvam A, Kivlehan SM, Becker TK, Levine AC; Global Emergency Medicine Literature Review Group (GEMLR). Impact of nutrition interventions on pediatric mortality and nutrition outcomes in humanitarian emergencies: A systematic review. Trop Med Int Health. 2017 Dec;22(12):1464-1492. doi: 10.1111/tmi.12986. Epub 2017 Nov 20. Review. PubMed PMID: 28992388.

3. Lamontagne F, Fowler RA, Adhikari NK, Murthy S, Brett-Major DM, Jacobs M, Uyeki TM, Vallenas C, Norris SL, Fischer WA 2nd, Fletcher TE, Levine AC, Reed P, Bausch DG, Gove S, Hall A, Shepherd S, Siemieniuk RA, Lamah MC, Kamara R, Nakyeyune P, Soka MJ, Edwin A, Hazzan AA, Jacob ST, Elkarsany MM, Adachi T, Benhadj L, Clément C, Crozier I, Garcia A, Hoffman SJ, Guyatt GH. Evidence-based guidelines for supportive care of patients with Ebola virus disease. Lancet. 2018 Feb 17;391(10121):700-708. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31795-6. Epub 2017 Oct 17. PubMed PMID: 29054555; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6636325.

4. Colubri A, Hartley MA, Siakor M, Wolfman V, Felix A, 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 Jun 22;11:54-64. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2019.06.003. eCollection 2019 May-Jun. PubMed PMID: 31312805; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6610774.

5. Morelli M, Cyrus G, Weissbecker I, Kpangbai J, Mallow M, Leichner A, Ryan E, Wener R, Gao J, Antigua J, Levine AC, Feuchte F. Recovering from the Ebola crisis: 'Social Reconnection Groups' in a rural Liberian community. Glob Ment Health (Camb). 2019 Aug 13;6:e17. doi: 10.1017/gmh.2019.13. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31531227; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6737586.

6. Mulangu S, Dodd LE, Davey RT Jr, Tshiani Mbaya O, Proschan M, Mukadi D, Lusakibanza Manzo M, Nzolo D, Tshomba Oloma A, Ibanda A, Ali R, Coulibaly S, Levine AC, Grais R, Diaz J, Lane HC, Muyembe-Tamfum JJ; PALM Writing Group; PALM Consortium Study Team. A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Ebola Virus Disease Therapeutics. N Engl J Med. 2019 Nov 27. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1910993. PubMed PMID:  31774950.

7. Evans NG, Hills KE, Levine AC. How Should the WHO Guide Infectious Disease Research and Clinical Practice During Outbreaks? AMA Journal of Ethics, 2020 Jan; 22(1): E27-35.

Teaching

PHP 1802S: Human Security and Humanitarian Response

Brown-PDRF Humanitarian Field Program