Stephen Follansbee, MD
“It’s very gratifying to be able to sit with a patient and discuss options — to give them hope, where before there was none.”
In the late 1970s when Stephen Follansbee, MD began seeing patients hospitalized with unexplained fever and swollen lymph nodes, he, like other physicians, was puzzled. “In retrospect, these patients had acute HIV infection,” he says. “That early experience prompted me to look for answers.”
Dr. Follansbee has been looking for answers to the HIV/AIDS puzzle ever since; and helping to find many of them. For more than three decades, he has been involved in virtually every aspect of research to improve the quality and duration of life for HIV/AIDS patients. He has participated in Phase II and Phase III drug development studies, vaccine research, diagnostic test development and is currently working to improve screening tests for anal cancer. His research has resulted in new treatment protocols for various infectious complications associated with AIDS.
From the beginning, he has been inspired by the courage of his patients and their eagerness to participate in these research endeavors, even now, when there are so many more options.
“When I started, the average life expectancy of an AIDS patient was about nine months. Today, the outlook for a normal life expectancy is very good,” he says. “It’s very gratifying to be able to sit with a patient and discuss options — to give them hope, where before there was none.”