Dr. Gail Demmler-Harrison is Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, and an Attending Physician with the Infectious Diseases Service and CMV Congenital Infections Clinic at Texas Children’s Hospital in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. She is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, a member of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, as well as member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society.
Dr. Demmler-Harrison’s career in pediatric infectious diseases has focused on the biology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, laboratory diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of viral diseases in children, including respiratory viral infections and congenital and neonatal infections. Her research, clinical experience, and expertise has focused on the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and long term outcomes of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections in pregnant women and their newborns. She follows hundreds of children and their families who have been affected by congenital CMV in her research programs and her CMV clinical programs. Her research in this area has defined congenital CMV as a life long condition and helped change the standard of care for these children. She also tirelessly supports efforts to educate public health agencies, as well as the medical and lay communities, about the importance of congenital CMV infection. She also developed diagnostic laboratory procedures for congenital CMV infection and many other viruses of importance to children, as well as participated in antiviral treatment trials for congenital CMV. She has trained many post doctoral fellows in pediatric infectious diseases and clinical virology.
She is the author or co-author of hundreds of scientific and educational publications, book chapters, and is co-editor the Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (eds. Feigin, Cherry, Demmler-Harrison, Kaplan, Steinbach, Williams, and Hotez), now in its 9th edition. She also has presented hundreds of invited lectures and original science presentations, and she maintains a medical school-based website (www.bcm.edu/pediatric/cmvregistry) and a hospital-based BLOG(www.texaschildrensblog.org/author/gdemmler/) and social media presence on Facebook and Twitter X (@CongenitalCMV), as well as appearances on WEBMED Medscape, radio interviews, and video presentations on YouTube and other media, and podcasts that educate the medical and public community on congenital infections with CMV. She also has received numerous awards for her research, clinical care, and advocacy on behalf of children, especially those affected by congenital CMV. Some of these awards include Research Alumni Award of the Year from Texas Tech University School of Medicine 2009, The Society of Pediatric Research Tom Hazinski Distinguished Service Award in 2009, Award for Excellence for Teaching and Mentorship in Clinical and Translational Research from Baylor College of Medicine in 2010, CMV Champion Award from the National CMV Foundation in 2020, Master Clinician Lifetime Achievement Award from Baylor College of Medicine in 2022, Caroline B Hall Lecture Award for Clinical and Translational Research awarded by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society in 2024. She also has served in leadership positions in national committees and societies that promote the welfare of and care for children, including having served as Secretary –Treasurer, Council Member, and President of the Society for Pediatric Research, and Program Chair for the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting. Currently she serves as the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society liason and Vice Chair to the Pediatric Academic Societies Program Committee Meeting.
Specialty : Pediatric ID
Full Member