Dima Dandachi, MD, MPH

Dima Dandachi, M.D., M.P.H. is an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri- Columbia in the Department of Medicine and the Medical Director of the HIV treatment and prevention program at the University of Missouri Health Care. She received her master’s in public health at the University of Texas-Houston and completed her fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Dandachi is a clinician-researcher. Her clinical practice and research are focused on HIV prevention and treatment. As the Medical Director of the HIV program at MU, she devotes a significant amount of time to increasing awareness of HIV prevention and improving the quality of care for patients with HIV. She has been involved in many community outreach programs and implemented several quality improvement projects in ambulatory care to achieve a more patient-centered approach including increasing the rapid start of HIV treatment.  In recognition of this work, she was nominated as MU Presidential Engagement Fellow to represent the University of Missouri System by a systemwide committee of peers because of demonstrated excellence as well as the ability to communicate that work and research to public audiences across the state and to help fulfill the mission to disseminate and apply knowledge for the benefit of all Missourians. 

As a faculty, she has been involved in many research projects as PI or Co-PI. Because of the critical need to understand, control, and treat COVID-19 infection, and motivated by the importance of the wellbeing of the community, some of this research focus has shifted to COVID-19. She was the PI and co-PI on many federally funded research including a study to prevent COVID-19 among healthcare workers funded by PCORI, COVID-19 vaccine research funded by NIH, with a historical fast enrollment that has been recognized at the University of Missouri, which helped strengthen the research infrastructure to accommodate large volume enrollment in a short time. She was the lead PI on a multicenter international study about people with HIV who have been infected with COVID-19. She is particularly interested in the impact of social determinants of health on HIV testing, treatment, and retention in care. Including a study highlighting the stigma and criminalization of men who have sex with men in Lebanon, the role of unmet subsistence needs (eg, housing, transportation, and food) as barriers to retention in HIV care in the US, and the use of telehealth to improve retention in care.