We are pleased to announce that Ricardo D. Arbulu, MD, was recently promoted to the rank of Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, retroactive to July 1, 2024. Dr. Arbulu joined UPMC and the Division of Infectious Diseases in 2018 at the rank of Clinical Assistant Professor. Since joining the Division, Dr. Arbulu has held several key leadership roles at UPMC Mercy, including serving as the Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, Director of Education for Infectious Diseases since 2019, and Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program from 2019 through 2023. Dr. Arbulu is an outstanding clinician-educator who provides most of his care and supervision of residents and students through the UPMC Mercy inpatient service

and at the UPMC Mercy Health Center Infectious Diseases Clinic. He also rounds at the General and Surgical Infectious Diseases services at UPMC Presbyterian where he supervises residents and fellows, and at Magee Women’s Hospital. Dr. Arbulu has championed the educational outreach of our Division, developing and maintaining the current curriculums for the ID noon conferences, ID rotation, and Research Series conferences for the UPMC Mercy Internal Medicine Residency Program. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he participated on several discussion panels for the Hispanic community of Pittsburgh and the general public in Lima, Peru.

Dr. Arbulu has significantly expanded and innovated the services of the ID Division at UPMC Mercy. He has devoted great effort to addressing inaccurate penicillin allergies in the electronic medical record, a strategic target for antimicrobial stewardship. In 2022, he co-led the integration of systematic penicillin allergy assessments in an internal medicine clinic; this work received the American College of Physicians local chapter best abstract award for a Quality Improvement Project that year. Additionally, addressing the lack of an outpatient infusion center, Dr. Arbulu led the implementation of a process for dalbavancin infusions to facilitate continuation of treatment at discharge for patients who inject drugs. He has also improved access to cardiac surgery for patients with endocarditis at UPMC Mercy by liaising their care with the Multidisciplinary Endovascular Infections group at UPMC Presbyterian.

Dr. Arbulu is an integral part of the ID Division. His accomplishments and experience as Antimicrobial Stewardship Director at UPMC Mercy and his devotion to educating the next generations of Infectious Diseases physicians are praiseworthy.

Please join us in congratulating Ricardo!