PROVIDENCE – Dr. Erica Hardy of Pawtucket has been named director of the Women’s Infectious Disease Consult Service at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island.
The service is a collaborative effort of the hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Medicine, as well as the Integrated Program for High-Risk Pregnancy. It provides inpatient infectious-disease consultation to all providers at Women & Infants Hospital in both obstetrics and gynecology, and their respective subspecialties. Outpatient consultations are available to referring providers from throughout southern New England.
Dr. Raymond O. Powrie, chief of medicine at Women & Infants Hospital and executive chief of medicine at Care New England, said, “Since joining Women & Infants in 2010, Dr. Hardy has helped build a robust women’s infectious disease program here in collaboration with our Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. With this new title and role, we recognize and support Dr. Hardy as she further develops our clinical, teaching and research program in women’s infectious disease.”
Hardy, an assistant professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, completed a residency in medicine and pediatrics at Brown University in the Rhode Island Hospital/Hasbro Children’s Hospital program. She went on to complete an infectious-disease fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. During her fellowship, she completed a master’s of medical science at Harvard Medical School. She also holds a master’s degree in philosophy with a concentration in medical ethics from the University of Maryland.
Hardy’s clinical and research interests include infectious-disease issues in women, including congenital infection, complex sexually transmitted infections, as well as the medical care and follow-up of survivors of sexual assault. She has grant funding from the Center for AIDS Research to explore the female genital tract immunology after sexual assault, as well as vaginal microbiome in women initiating long-acting contraception.
Hardy is also the co-director of the Women & Infants Hospital Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee. She sees inpatient and outpatient infectious-disease consults and is involved in medical education. She has been presented with several teaching awards from medical students while on their OB-GYN and obstetric-medicine rotation, and from OB-GYN residents.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
