Carlos Camargo

In 1982, while an undergraduate, Dr Camargo started the first of several studies on the health effects of moderate alcohol consumption. The focus of this research, including his doctoral thesis at Harvard School of Public Health, was the relation between moderate drinking and cardiovascular disease. Dr Camargo’s expertise in nutritional epidemiology led to his service on the 2005 US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.

Since 1996, Dr Camargo’s primary area of research has been respiratory/allergy diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and food allergy. He is studying the etiology and management of these diseases in several large cohorts. In 1998, his team described a strong association between obesity and risk of developing asthma. In 2006, they described a strong inverse association between maternal intake of vitamin D during pregnancy and childhood wheezing. In 2007, they reported a north-south gradient in epinephrine autoinjector prescriptions and proposed an etiologic role for vitamin D. Subsequent randomized trials showed beneficial effects of vitamin D supplementation on winter-related atopic dermatitis (2008) and acute respiratory infections (2012) in children. These novel findings suggested new avenues for the prevention and management of several respiratory/allergy disorders.

Dr Camargo is the Conn Chair in Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He chairs the Steering Committee of the Emergency Medicine Network (EMNet), a clinical research network involving >220 emergency departments. He founded the network in 1996 and, to date, the group has completed numerous observational studies and randomized trials. Most of these studies focus on respiratory/allergy emergencies, health policy issues in emergency care, and mental health (e.g., suicide prevention). As Director of the EMNet Coordinating Center at MGH, he is actively involved in all of these multicenter projects.

Dr Camargo is past president of the American College of Epidemiology. He also has served on many national committees related to nutrition, respiratory/allergy diseases, emergency medicine, and public health.