Member Spotlight: Michael J. Smith

Michael J. Smith, MD, MSCE, FPIDS is a Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Duke University School of Medicine.   

Dr. Smith earned his medical degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his pediatric residency at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence.

He went on to fellowship training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he also earned a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology. His research focuses on pediatric antibiotic use, particularly in the outpatient setting, as well as vaccines and vaccine safety.

After fellowship he joined the faculty of the University of Louisville where he developed an antimicrobial stewardship program and became involved with multiple antibiotic and vaccine clinical trials. He was recruited to Duke in 2017 to establish a pediatric antimicrobial stewardship program. During the pandemic Dr. Smith has been an investigator for multiple COVID vaccine clinical trials in adults and children and serves as the Duke Principal Investigator for the CDC’s Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment COVIDVax project.

Dr. Smith is a member of the PIDS Vaccine Advocacy Committee and a past member of the Pediatric Committee on Antimicrobial Stewardship. He is the current chair of the AAP Section on Epidemiology, Public Health and Evidence.