Dr. Roger Detels is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Dr. Detels received his M.S. in Preventive Medicine from the University of Washington and his M.D. from New York University. Dr. Detels currently serves as the Principal Investigator of the Los Angeles Center of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. In the past, Dr. Detels has assisted countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia in the development of HIV/AIDS surveillance systems. His research focuses on the control of HIV infection in Southeast Asia and China.

When did you begin your career in global health?

I began my career in global health in 1960. I was a medical student and I had one elective so I decided to take my elective working at the Naval Medical Research Center in Taipei, Taiwan. As a student, I worked on examining trichoma which at that time, was the leading eye disease. I also did work on cholera in the Philippines where I served as a Senior Investigator to combat the cholera epidemic. Additionally, I would train health professionals from China, Southeast Asia, and India on HIV/AIDS.

What do you find most interesting in the global health field?

It’s the people I’ve worked with. I’ve met a lot of extraordinary people working in developing countries both collaborating and training them. It’s been very rewarding.

What classes do you currently teach?

I teach an undergraduate course in Introduction to Public Health 150. I have anywhere between 150-260 students. In the Fielding School of Public Health, I teach a class on HIV/AIDS, Infectious Disease (Epidemiology 220) and Epidemiology 293. The course that I teach in the fall (Epidemiology 273) entails how to evaluate and critique current HIV/AIDS literature (i.e: research articles). The course that I teach in the spring is primarily a discussion of AIDS control programs in various countries such as in Southeast Asia and China.

What are your current research projects both domestically and internationally?

Domestic projects: I started a cohort study in MSM in 1981 primarily among students here at UCLA and later on, I received a grant thus the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study was created. It is the longest and largest running study that ask for history of HIV in MSM,
International projects: Most of my international projects are related to studies that my Ph.D. students are conducting for their dissertation. Their research projects require them to go back to their home country to do fieldwork for their Ph.D. We usually pick some topic that has to do with health policy development centered around risk groups for HIV or STDs. Some of the students are working on these topics in India and China. Aside from my projects with my Ph.D. students, I am currently conducting research on examining what is the best drug replacement therapy for drug users by evaluating a computerized rapid testing strategy using cell phone technology in China.

What research opportunities that you focus on are available?

Students who are interested in international work should check out my training program for public health professionals. We have over 100 graduates of this program who are from all over the world. This provides a network of UCLA graduates that students can contact if they want to get involved in research in international settings. In regards to volunteer opportunities for students, there is the possibility for students to rotate through the AIDS Cohort Study laboratory. This type of experience is essential for epidemiology students to be able to understand how a lab operates.

Do you have any advice for current UCLA MPH candidates who are interested in pursuing a career in global health?

I would do what I did– look around for the person doing the most work and attach yourself to them. In the end, my philosophy when I was a medical student in Taiwan was I would alway ask myself “Am I going to attach myself to the guy who can only give me 10 minutes a day but is doing great work or am I going to attach myself to the guy who can give me 5 hours a day but isn’t doing so much?” I always picked the guy who was busy! In addition, students should understand how to reach public health literature. In your professional career, you are going to have to read research papers to determine where the field is at and what needs to be done and you got to be able to assess whether a paper is actually valid and that and so you really need to be able to analyze the methodology terms are, the biases, the confounding factors and looking at how do you interpret these results.