Lo Re Research Group

Lo Re Research Group

Dr. Lo Re is an Infectious Diseases physician and clinical epidemiologist. His areas of interest include epidemiology of hepatitis B and C virus infections, HIV-viral hepatitis coinfection, drug-induced liver disease, and COVID-19. Dr. Lo Re’s research has evaluated clinical outcomes of chronic viral hepatitis infection and treatment, particularly in the HIV population. He is currently examining risk factors and predictors of hepatic decompensation among HIV/hepatitis-coinfected patients in the Veterans Aging Cohort Study. He has examined extra-hepatic effects of chronic hepatitis infection, including cardiovascular disease and metabolic bone disease, in chronic hepatitis patients. Dr. Lo Re has also conducted research examining adherence to combination pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy in both hepatitis C-monoinfected and HIV/hepatitis C-coinfected patients, specifically examining the levels of adherence required for maximal hepatitis C suppression, virologic response, changes in adherence over time, and risk factors for poor adherence to antiviral therapy. His ongoing work in the area of drug-induced liver disease focuses on identifying predictors of acute liver failure among patients with diagnoses of drug-induced hepatitis and evaluating the risk posed by medications within important drug classes of acute liver failure as well.

Dr. Lo Re is also interested in HIV/hepatitis B virus coinfection. His recent work in this area has focused on the prevalence, risk factors, and clinical significance of occult hepatitis B virus infection in HIV-infected patients. 

From a methodologic standpoint, Dr. Lo Re’s research has also focused on developing methods to identify hepatic decompensation and acute liver failure events within population-based and administrative data sources. He is also the Workgroup leader for the Mini-Sentinel initiative to develop algorithms to identify severe acute liver injury among patients without pre-existing liver disease and with chronic hepatitis B and C within existing administrative databases. Dr. Lo Re is also developing methods to evaluate the safety of medications following market release.

Congratulations to Dr. Jessie Torgersen for winning the 2024 Penn Medicine Advocacy Award! Dr. Torgersen has been a critical partner and now serves as the champion of the Penn Medicine hepatitis C (HCV) viral screening and care linkage program. It started as a collaboration between the Penn Medicine Clinical Decision Support Team and the Nudge Unit to demonstrate the efficacy of a streamlined approach to HCV screening. Dr. Torgersen created and directed Penn Medicine’s first HCV linkage team at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in 2020, one that would link patients who screen positive to life saving care. The success of the program and her advocacy has spurred Penn Medicine leadership to implement the linkage program across the entire health system. Today, she is the public face of Penn Medicine’s successful and pioneering HCV screening program. The HCV program demonstrates Dr. Torgersen’s cultural humility in that it advances care for patients who may have never been screened for HCV before. It offers patients who screen positive an opportunity to achieve cure and to avoid the life-threatening consequences of unrecognized HCV. By screening all eligible patients at hospital admission, the program promotes health equity and eliminates any stigma that may come from being screened. The program demonstrates Dr. Torgersen and the team’s commitment to empowerment not only by improving care for Penn Medicine patients, but by also building an evidence base that can serve as a model for the nation. Importantly, because the new approach to HCV screening employs a dynamic order that only appears for eligible patients, it eliminates EHR tasks and burdensome cognitive load for providers. At every stage of the project, Dr. Torgersen has prioritized collaboration with her partners and with patients. Today, more Penn Medicine patients are being screened than ever before and nearly 85% of eligible patients were successfully scheduled with an HCV provider by the linkage team. Patients routinely express gratitude for the opportunity to be screened and for the care that can result in HCV cure. Moreover, timely care linkage allows for the identification of additional urgent care needs for some patients beyond HCV, including hepatocellular carcinoma and new onset heart failure, thus magnifying the positive impact of the program well beyond HCV. Dr. Torgersen, through her sustained leadership and collaboration and caring for patients with HCV, exemplifies the qualities that the Penn Medicine Advocacy Award seeks to recognize.