For our penultimate #tbt, we bring you John M. Leedom, MD (1933-2008), an infectious disease expert who served as Division Chief of ID here at LAC+USC from 1975-2002. Much of his work was focused on stopping the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and, when the AIDS epidemic hit in the early 1980s, battling the spread of HIV. He founded the Multidisciplinary AIDS Clinic and the AIDS service in 1985 and was pivotal in testing many of the drugs used to treat HIV. Dr. Leedom was a PI in the AIDS Clinical Trial Group grant at USC and helped make HIV a survivable infection today. He established the Rand Schrader HIV Clinic, a national university-based flagship and AIDS ward at LAC+USC at the height of the epidemic. The Rand Schrader clinic, through which our residents rotate, is still fully functioning to this day and is truly a multidisciplinary hub for patients with HIV.
