Dr. Cristina Vazquez Gilliamet joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases as an Assistant Professor on July 1, 2019.
Clinical practice: After finishing her training in critical care medicine (CCM) and Infectious Diseases (ID), Dr. Vazquez Gilliamet started her waiver position at University of New Mexico where her clinical practice encompassed taking care of critically ill patients in the medical intensive care unit and also doing ID consults and weekly outpatient parenteral antibiotic clinics. The MICU also covered the cardiac critically ill patients. For the infectious diseases part, she started the Bone and Joint service line which greatly improved diagnostic and treatment algorithms for patients with prosthetic joint infections, osteomyelitis, and diabetic foot infections. Dr. Vazquez Gilliamet attends on the general ID consult along with residents and medical students.The OPAT clinic was initiated in collaboration with the orthopedic clinic as part of a multidisciplinary endeavor in which patients would see her and the orthopedic surgeon during the same visit.
Dr. Vazquez Gilliamet organized the journal club and gave core lectures for the PCCM and ID fellows on antimicrobial resistance, antifungals, infections in critically ill and immunocompromised patients. She was a core facilitator for the ID block for the 2nd year medical students and also gave a lecture on infections in immunocompromised hosts.
Dr. Vazquez Gilliamet’s research focuses on classifying patients at risk for infections caused by multidrug resistant pathogens. She aims to apply new mathematical methods/ models to the study of infected critically ill patients. As a result, several manuscripts have been published in high impact journals. Also in research she has mentored internal medicine residents along with pulmonary critical care and infectious disease fellows who went on to win the state ACP competition and publish original research.