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 (center in photo at left) for winning the 2023 Penn Medicine Quality & Patient Safety Award for her project, "Improving Hepatitis C Screening and Linkage to Care During Hospitalization," which implemented default electronic health record-based hepatitis C virus screening with systematic linkage to care. This award recognizes departments and/or teams who have exhibited leadership and innovation to ensure high-quality clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, patient safety, or operational improvement.