Robert G. Gish, MD, is a world-renowned hepatologist, an advisor of the National Task Force, Consultant Professor at Stanford University Hospitals, Medical Director of Hepatitis B Foundation, and Steering Committee member of the National Viral Hepatitis Routable.
Gish has published more than 500 original articles, reviews, abstracts, and book chapters with great focus on hepatitis B. He has been at the forefront of hepatitis B advocacy/policy effort and clinical trials. He frequently attends the Task Force’s monthly call and provides insightful and useful comments.
Dr. Gish received his medical degree from the University of Kansas in Kansas City. After graduation, he went on to complete his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and a fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and has the advance Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Liver Transplantation and is a UNOS certified Liver Transplant Physician.
He is a member of the American Association for the Study of the Liver, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society of Transplant Physicians, and the International Liver Transplant Society, among others. He is fluent in Spanish and Vietnamese.
Moon S. Chen, PhD, MPH is a co-founder of the National Task Force with Dr. Gary Euler of CDC and a nationally renowned expert in cancer health disparities, particularly as they affect Asian-American populations. When Dr. Chen was professionally challenged with the task to “eliminate health disparities”, he could think of only one example where health disparities have ever been eliminated…and that was the historical example of smallpox eradication. Today because of smallpox eradication, there are no disparities between any people groups as smallpox has been eliminated from the face of the globe. At the 2008 NIH Conference on the Science of Health Disparities, he proposed that hepatitis B viral infections offers the world’s next best candidate for elimination…and that HBV could be eliminated through the same approach as smallpox. This would be through “case finding”, i.e., screening to identify any “positives” and referring them to appropriate treatment and for those who lack natural immunity, to vaccination. Concurrently, completing the birth-dose of HBV and the continuation of HBV vaccinations for youth could spare future generations from HBV. This vision drives his passion for the Task Force’s work and the potential for seeing a world free of HBV-linked infections. Currently he is UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Associate Director for Cancer Control and Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at UC Davis, continuing to be engaged in HBV control and also leads a portfolio of research that addresses determinants of cancer risk and their mitigation in human populations.