DMDP - Key Persons
Dr. Ferguson has worked as tertiary staff specialist in infectious diseases and microbiology since 1992. Under the auspices of the Pacfic Region Infectious Diseases Association (http://pridanetwork.org) he conducts a postgraduate microbiology course in conjunction with the University of Papua New Guinea and Fiji National University. He currently orchestrates an infection control and microbiology laboratory development project based at Port Moresby and Lae hospitals funded by Australian aid.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Clinical Team Lead
Dr. Khim Gaetan is the Deputy Clinical Team Lead for DMDP. He graduated as a specialist in Internal Medicine from the University of Health Sciences in Phnom-Penh in 2013. He is also an Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certified international medical graduate. He has worked for DMDP since 2016 working with physicians to improve microbiology laboratory utilization. Dr. Gaetan works at the patient bedside providing support to physicians, helping them interpret microbiology results to inform optimal patient management. Dr. Gaetan also has a significant teaching role for improving laboratory utilization and antimicrobial usage in the hospital. He and his team have conducted antimicrobial stewardship programs in Cambodian provincial hospitals to showcase the importance of data collection to physicians and hospital management for quality improvement. Dr. Gaetan teaches at the University of Health Sciences and has provided interactive lectures and simulation to the International Program since 2016. Dr. Gaetan has also provided support to melioidosis awareness both at the national and regional level through workshops, peer-reviewed publications and guideline implementation.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Global Health
Dr. Lucy A. Perrone is an Assistant Professor of Global Health and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and is a member of the core faculty in the International Training and Education Center for Health where she leads the Laboratory Systems Strengthening portfolio. Dr. Perrone is also an Associate Member of the Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Bachelors of Biological Science from Fordham University, a Masters of Science in Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a Doctorate in Infectious Disease Pathology from the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Dr. Perrone's research and practice work at the University of Washington concentrates on infectious disease diagnosis and surveillance, laboratory systems and capacity building, and improving human resources for health in resource-limited countries. She has led the team since 2015, spanning work in multiple countries and a portfolio >17 million USD in funding. Before joining the University of Washington Dr. Perrone worked for the US Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization supporting the Global Influenza Surveillance Program and has worked in >25 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and North Africa in her career. Dr Perrone has published 23 peer reviewed manuscripts, a book chapter, and >20 publicly available public health practice products including national strategic plans, national guidelines, and e-learning tools for health professionals among others.
Dr. Perrone joined the Board of Directors of the Diagnostic Microbiology Development Program (DMDP) in November 2020 and brings her passion for improving diagnostic testing to the organization. Dr. Perrone believes that technology has transformative power when combined with health system strengthening efforts that puts people at the center.
Dr. Oeng Sopheap graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Royal University of Phnom Penh in 2009 and subsequently earned a diploma of doctor in specialized pharmacy (DES) from the University of Health Sciences in 2011. Sopheap has experience in production medicine in the pharmaceutical industry in Phnom Penh and was Deputy Laboratory Director of the clinical laboratory in Serey Saophoan Referral Hospital, Banteay Meanchey province. He started working with DMDP in 2013 as a Microbiology Laboratory Mentor providing training in the identification of medically important pathogens and antibiotic susceptibility testing using the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute standards. He was promoted to Deputy Scientific Officer in 2015. In 2018 Sopheap received the honor of being appointed as the American of Society Microbiology's Young Ambassador for Cambodia with duties including facilitating networking and professional development. Since July 2017, Sopheap had served as a Senior Advisor to the Central Media Making Laboratory and participated in the strengthening of the laboratory quality management system to attain ISO 9001:2015 certification.
Steven came to medicine as a second career after teaching English following graduation from college. He received his MD from the University of Cincinnati in 2002, completed internal medicine training at Tufts Medical Center in 2005, and completed infectious diseases training in 2008 at the University of Massachusetts, where he continued on as faculty until joining DMDP in 2021. Steven's career has focused on both teaching and working in resource-limited settings, and he has worked in healthcare facilities in Haiti, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, and Mozambique, and the Federated States of Micronesia. In particular, he has worked in Liberia before, during, and after the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014-15; prior to joining DMDP he was actively involved in incorporating infectious disease curricula into graduate medical training there.
You can read an article about the work of DMDP in Cambodia and a profile of Dr. McLaughlin published in the Sept. 2012 issue of Microbe, the monthly news magazine of the American Society for Microbiology. Jim McLaughlin, Ph.D., is the co-founder and president of DMDP. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship in Medical and Public Health Microbiology at the US Centers for Disease Control, he became the director of the microbiology lab at the Cholera Research Lab in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dr. McLaughlin then served as the deputy director of the microbiology laboratory at Hartford Hospital. In 1990, he became the director of the University of New Mexico Hospital microbiology laboratory. He is an Emeritus Professor at UNM.
From 2004-2009, he worked with the Centers for Disease Control/Global AIDS Program Cambodia as the liaison with the National Institute of Public Health microbiology laboratory and the Cambodian National Tuberculosis Program.
He is a former member of the American Society for Microbiology Global Laboratory Capacity Strengthening Committee.
Job Titles:
- Country Director
- Hospital Laboratory Scientist
Jo Letchford is a hospital laboratory scientist from Port Macquarie, Australia. Jo has a Bachelor of Science with a major in Microbiology from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Public Health with a major in Biosecurity and Disaster Preparedness from James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. Jo has more than 30-years' experience in clinical diagnostic microbiology. Since 2009, Jo has lived and worked in Cambodia training government staff according to Dr Ellen Jo Baron's visual flow charts, a sustainable approach to benchtop diagnostic microbiology. She first arrived in Cambodia as a ‘Volunteer for International Development from Australia' (VIDA) with an assignment to build capacity in clinical microbiology diagnostic testing in Kampong Cham Provincial Hospital. After 18 months, Jo continued this work as a consultant for the World Health Organization and then DMDP in provincial and national hospital laboratories: Battambang, Takeo, Kampong Cham, Siem Reap Kampot and the National Pediatric Hospital and Preah Kossamak Hospital in Phnom Penh. In 2013, Jo begun working as the Chief Technical Officer for DMDP and added the position of Cambodia Country Director in 2016. In 2017, Jo was awarded the University of Sydney, Faculty of Science Alumni award for Service to Humanity.
John Ridderhof, MPH, DrPH has worked in public health since the start of his career as a microbiologist with the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Service and then as the Deputy Director of the Delaware State Public Health Laboratory. In 1992, Dr. Ridderhof began his Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) career in the Division of Laboratory Systems. In particular, from 2000 to 2007, he was Chief of the Laboratory Systems Development Branch, where he coordinated global HIV, TB, and Quality Management Systems (QMS) training, guidance and technical assistance activities, and the National Laboratory Systems initiative. In 2007, he was appointed as Associate Director for Laboratory Science for one of the CDC's Infectious Disease centers, and in 2010 he served as senior advisor for global health for the Office of Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Ridderhof became a Senior Laboratory Advisor in the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (CSELS) where he helped direct the Laboratory Efficiencies Initiative that, in partnership with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), supported the sustainability of the public health laboratory system. Multiple national activities focused on workforce, regional networks, laboratory informatics, and a national test directory. Other roles have included chairing the Joint Commission, Laboratory Professional and Technical Advisory Committee. He has a special interest in developing guidance, tools, and systems that are comprehensive and cross cutting to encompass and complement many separate programmatic efforts.
Along with CDC colleagues, Dr. Ridderhof worked with WHO and other organizations to develop and co-brand many of the existing global training packages, training aids and guidelines for HIV rapid testing, TB testing, and Laboratory Quality Management Systems.
Dr. Ridderhof was the founding chair of the Global Laboratory Initiative of the Stop TB Partnership that continues as the global forum for developing consensus frameworks, guidance and tools for all countries and technical partners that are strengthening TB laboratories within integrated laboratory systems
Dr. Ridderhof has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) in 2018 and he was the 2018 CDC recipient of the prestigious Health and Human Services (HHS) Career Achievement Award. These awards recognize individuals with a distinguished history of service to public health through the advancement of public health laboratory science or practice.
Dr. Ridderhof holds masters and doctorate degrees in Public Health Laboratory Practice from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and certification as a High Complexity Laboratory Director (HCLD/ABB).
He has co-authored more than 30 peer review publications, including many national and global training tools and guidance documents.
Robyn is a multidisciplinary Medical Scientist with over 30 years' experience working in diagnostic laboratory medicine at major hospitals in Perth, Sydney and Tasmania. She also lectured in Haematology at Curtin University in the School of Biomedical Sciences. Robyn has previously volunteered and worked in Cambodia for 11 years in various roles as a laboratory advisor and consultant for WHO, URC, USCDC, DMDP and other NGO's. Her work involved improving diagnostic laboratory practice at the Angkor Hospital for Children, National Institute of Public Health Laboratory, National Paediatric Hospital and numerous government hospital in the provinces.
Robyn recently received the inaugural 2018 Medical Scientist of the Year Award, from the Australian Institute of Medical Scientists, for her humanitarian work in Cambodia, including her work in introducing diagnostic testing for haemophilia and other haematological disorders. She worked with her Cambodian colleagues to help set up the Cambodian Haemophilia Association and the Cambodian Thalassaemia Association. Robyn was also involved with several research projects on thalassaemia and anaemia during her time in Cambodia and is a co-author on 6 published papers.
Robyn has recentlhy been volunteering as a consultant in diagnostic laboratory medicine at the Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital, in Kampot, Cambodia.