Barbara A. Rath, MD PhD is a board-certified pediatric consultant and infectious disease specialist with 20 years experience in clinical trials, public health and virology in the US, Latin America and Europe. Dr. Rath is honorary professor at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine, UK. Dr. Rath received her medical school education in Germany, the United States and Spain, and her doctoral degrees from the University of Basel, Switzerland and the University of Besançon, France. In addition to a post-doctoral fellowship at the Stanford Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases & Geographic Medicine, she has received pediatric residency and infectious disease subspecialty training at Duke and Tulane Universities, USA. Recent research focuses on defining a precision medicine approach to managing pediatric patients with acute viral infections. In collaboration with the Robert Koch Institute she developed innovative real-time surveillance programs for the monitoring of influenza-like illness and the immuno-safety of vaccines and antivirals in infants and children.
Dr. Rath is co-founder and chair of the Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative, an international think tank and non-profit-organization focused on new avenues for the treatment, communication and prevention of infectious diseases. Her team developed and validated clinical and virologic endpoints for clinical trials and observational settings. The goal is to individualize the management of influenza and other respiratory viral infections though integration of infectious disease epidemiology with data standardization, mobile health, biomarker research and advanced diagnostic capabilities. The Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative consults and collaborates on a regular basis with experts in risk communication, global health, population science, health policy, bioethics and regulatory science. The Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative is a founding member of the International Association of Innovation Professionals and an institutional member of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice.