Colleen Kraft

Career

Kraft became an assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine in 2010 and was promoted to associate professor in 2016. She became the Associate Chief Medical Officer of Emory University Hospital in January 2020. Her research interests include fecal microbiota transplants, building a large solid organ transplant population at Emory University Hospital to treat antibiotic resistant and hospital-acquired infections of Clostridioides difficile. In addition, she has both studied and advanced clinical care of Ebola virus disease and COVID-19 disease 2019.

Ebola response

Emory University Hospital received the first patient with Ebola virus disease, a missionary and physician named Kent Brantly, on August 2, 2014, followed by three patients with the disease, including the physician Ian Crozier. During that time, she worked on developing a protocol for the first known successful delivery of renal replacement therapy to treat kidney failure in Ebola patients. Kraft is a co-PI for the National Ebola Training and Education Center, a federally funded collaborative between Emory University, Nebraska Medicine, and New York Health and Hospital-Bellevue that is working to address gaps in outbreak preparedness. As a result, Emory's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit remains prepared to treat Ebola patients.

COVID-19 response

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kraft was appointed to the 18-member task force of health, airport, school and emergency preparedness officials to address and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Georgia, advising Governor Brian Kemp. As Associate Chief Medical Officer, she is also coordinating the response to the pandemic across Emory University's healthcare system, working to ensure that healthcare workers on the frontlines do not contract the disease and avoid burnout. They have already launched three in-house testing platforms that can provide COVID-19 testing results in 24 hours, as opposed to commercial labs that were taking 7–10 days.

Kraft was part of a research team that found that reusable respirators, which are typically used by construction or factory workers, could be a suitable alternative to the disposable N95 masks currently used by physicians treating COVID-19 patients. Healthcare workers can be rapidly fit tested and trained on how to use the reusable masks, and use of such masks can address the current shortage of N95 masks. There is currently no stockpile of reusable respirators, however, construction workers have begun donating them to local hospitals. Kraft is also working with researchers at Georgia Tech to supply the medical community with 3D printers and laser-cutting machines to make protective gear.