Ryan M. Close, MD

Clinical Faculty

Internal Medicine and Pediatrics

Research Interests

  • Public health surveillance and epidemic response
  • Integration of health care and public health services
  • Exploring innovations to improve rural health care services

In this video Dr. Close talks about his work on the re-emerging syphilis epidemic in the United States and Maine.

Dr. Close’s research focuses studying the application of innovative solutions to improve access to diagnostics and therapeutics for under-served populations. This has included studying rapid molecular testing for skin infections in order to optimize antibiotic use among American Indian children and deploying echocardiography in primary care clinics to better understand and triage structural heart disease. The underlying goal is to utilize the best technologies to address care-gaps for marginalized and disparately impacted rural populations.

Additionally, Dr. Close studies methods of integrating public health principles with health care delivery. This work started during the COVID-19 pandemic that included innovative approaches to contact tracing and early administration of therapeutics. He subsequently applied learned lessons to responses to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) outbreaks and currently the re-emerging syphilis epidemic in the United States.

Loizaga, SdL Close, RM, et. al. Deployment of Point‐of‐Care Echocardiography to Improve Cardiac Diagnostic Access Among American Indians. Journal of the American Heart Association 13(2): e031231. January 16, 2024

 Close RM, Palmer AS, McAuley JB. Potential benefits of expanded palivizumab in American Indian children under the age of 2-years. Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Published online ahead of print, 2023 Sep 6. Acceptance Date: August 30, 2023. DOI: 10.1093/jpids/piad063

Close, RM, et al. (2022). Point-of-care molecular diagnostics for the detection of group A Streptococcus in non-invasive skin and soft tissue infections: a validation study. Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease: 115729.

Close RM, Coles K, Enos LA, Nashio JT, McAuley JB. Innovative and Integrated Contact Tracing: Indian Health Service, Arizona, December 2020-January 2021. Public Health Reports. 2022 Feb. doi: 10.1177/00333549221074388. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35189766.

Stone, M. J., Close, RM, et al. (2021). High-Risk Outreach for COVID-19 Mortality Reduction in an Indigenous Community. American journal of public health 111(11): 1939-1941. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306472

Close RM, Jones TS, Jentoft C, McAuley JB. Outcome Comparison of High Risk Native American Patients Who Did or Did Not Receive Monoclonal Antibody Treatment for COVID-19. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(9):e2125866. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.25866

 Close RM, McAuley JB. Disparate Effects of Invasive Group A Streptococcus on Native Americans. Emerging infectious diseases. 2020 Sep;26(9):1971-7.

 Close RM, Close LM, Galdun P, Gerstberger S, Rydberg M, Christopher-Stine L. Potential implications of six American Indian patients with myopathy, statin exposure and anti-HMGCR antibodies. Rheumatology. 2020 Aug 13.

 Close RM, Stone MJ. Contact Tracing for Native Americans in Rural Arizona. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020 Jul 16;383(3):e15

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) – Fellow

American College of Physicians (ACP) – Fellow