Melanie A. Thompson, MD

Dr. Melanie Thompson has conducted over 400 studies in the areas of HIV treatment, prevention and diagnostics; viral hepatitis treatment and diagnostics; sexually transmitted infection diagnostics, and epidemiology as Principal Investigator of the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta (ARCA). As an HIV clinician, she has cared for thousands of people with HIV in Atlanta since seeing her first patient in with HIV in 1982.

She currently co-chairs the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) HIV Primary Care Guidance Panel that recently published its 2020 recommendations for the clinical care of people with HIV in Clinical Infectious Diseases in November. She also serves on the US Department of Health and Human Services Antiretroviral Guidelines Panel and the IAS-USA (International Antiviral Society-USA) Antiretroviral Therapy Guidelines Panel, which she chaired in 2010 and 2012. She is a past chair of HIVMA and serves on the Ryan White Medical Coalition Steering Committee. At the state level, she is a member of the Georgia Department of Public Health’s HIV Medical Advisory Committee and its Legal and Ethical Committee. She served as Executive Editor of the “Strategy to End AIDS in Fulton County” created by the Fulton County Task Force on HIV/AIDS (2015-2017), and as Interim Chair of the Fulton County Prevention, Care, and Policy Advisory Committee (2019-2020).

Dr. Thompson’s passion is to contribute to an end to the HIV epidemic through patient-centered medical care, prevention and treatment research, and evidence-based guidelines and policy with a focus on health inequities.