Paul Farmer, MD, PhD

Educational History

  • 1990: MD Harvard Medical School
  • 1990: PhD Harvard University (anthropology)
  • 1982: AB Duke University

Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer is Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he is also Chair, and a founding director of Partners In Health, an international non-profit organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer’s work draws primarily on active clinical practice and focuses on community-based treatment strategies for infectious diseases in resource-poor settings, health and human rights, and the role of social inequalities in determining disease distribution and outcomes. He is Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston, and served for ten years as medical director of a charity hospital, L’Hôpital Bon Sauveur, in rural Haiti. Along with his colleagues at BWH, in the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change at HMS, and in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi, Dr. Farmer has pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies for AIDS and tuberculosis (including multidrug-resistant tuberculosis). Dr. Farmer and his colleagues have successfully challenged the policymakers and critics who claim that quality health care is impossible to deliver in resource-poor settings.

Dr. Farmer has written extensively about health and human rights, and about the role of social inequalities in the distribution and outcome of infectious diseases. He is the author of Pathologies of Power, Infections and Inequalities, The Uses of Haiti, and AIDS and Accusation. In addition, he is co-editor of Women, Poverty, and AIDS and of The Global Impact of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis. Dr. Farmer is the recipient of the Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, the Salk Institute Medal for Health and Humanity, the Duke University Humanitarian Award, the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the American Medical Association’s Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award, the Heinz Award for the Human Condition, and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 1993, he was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award in recognition of his work. Dr. Farmer is the subject of Pulitzer Prizewinner Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Random House, 2003).

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to Social Medicine
  • Health, Culture, and Community: Case Studies in Global Health (Harvard FAS)

Research Interests

  • Health and human rights
  • Role of social inequalities in the distribution and outcome of disease
  • Treatment of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (including multidrug-resistant tuberculosis) in resource-poor settings

Current Projects

  • Medical work in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi
  • Research and writing on structural violence, health, and human rights
  • Editorship of the open-access journal Health and Human Rights

Select Publications

  • P. Farmer. AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press (1992).
  • P. Farmer. The Uses of Haiti. Monroe (ME): Common Courage Press (1994).
  • P. Farmer, M. Connors, and J. Simmons, editors. Women, Poverty, and AIDS: Sex, Drugs, and Structural Violence. Monroe (ME): Common Courage Press (1996).
  • P. Farmer. Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press (1999).
  • P. Farmer, J. Y. Kim. Community-based Approaches to the Control of Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis: Introducing ‘DOTS-plus,’ ” British Medical Journal 317:671-4 (1998).
  • Harvard Medical School, Open Society Institute. “The Global Impact of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis.” Boston: Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School (1999).
  • P. Farmer, F. Léandre, J. S. Mukherjee, M.S. Claude, P. Nevil, M. C. Smith-Fawzi, S. P. Koenig, A. Castro, M.C. Becerra, J. Sachs, A. Attaran, J. Y. Kim. “Community-based Approaches to HIV Treatment in Resource-poor Settings,” Lancet 358:404-9 (2001).
  • M. C. Smith Fawzi, W. Lambert, J. M. Singler, S. P. Koenig, F. Léandre, P. Nevil, D. Bertrand, M. S. Claude, J. Bertrand, J. J. Salazar, M. Louissaint, L. Joanis, P. E. Farmer. “Prevalence and Risk Factors of STDs in Rural Haiti: Implications for Policy and Programming in Resource-poor Settings,” International Journal of STD & AIDS 14:848-53 (2003).
  • C. Mitnick, J. Bayona, E. Palacios, S. Shin, J. Furin, F. Alcántara, E. Sánchez, M. Sarria, M. Becerra, M.C. Smith Fawzi, S. Kapiga, D. Neuberg, J. H. Maguire, J. Y. Kim, P. Farmer. “Community-based Therapy for Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis in Lima, Peru,” New England Journal of Medicine 348:119-28 (2003).
  • P. Farmer, M. C. Smith Fawzi, P. Nevil. “Unjust Embargo of Aid for Haiti,” Lancet. 361:420-3 (2003).
  • P. Farmer. “Suffering That is ‘Not Appropriate at All,’ ” Revista. 3:42-7 (2003).
  • Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press (2003).
  • H.S. F.Fraser, D. Jazayeri, P. Nevil, Y. Karacaoglu, P. E. Farmer, E. Lyon, M. K. Smith-Fawzi, R. Léandre, S. Choi, J. S. Mukherjee. “An Information System and Medical Record to Support HIV Treatment in Rural Haiti,” British Medical Journal 329:1142-6 (2004).
  • S. Shin, J. Furin, J. Bayona, K. Mate, J. Y. Kim, P. E. Farmer. “Community-based Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Lima, Peru: 7 Years of Experience,” Social Science and Medicine 59:1529-39 (2004).
  • D. A. Walton, P. E. Farmer, W. Lambert, F. Léandre, S. P. Koenig, J. S. Mukherjee. “Integrated HIV Prevention and Care Strengthens Primary Health Care: Lessons from Rural Haiti,” Journal of Public Health Policy 25:137-58 (2004).
  • P. Farmer, N. Gastineau Campos. “Rethinking Medical Ethics: A View from Below,” Developing World Bioethics 4:17-41(2004).
  • H.L. Behforouz, P. E. Farmer, J. S. Mukherjee. “From Directly Observed Therapy to Accompagnateurs: Enhancing AIDS Treatment Outcomes in Haiti and in Boston,” Clinical Infectious Diseases 38:S429-36 (2004).
  • P. Farmer. “Political Violence and Public Health in Haiti.” New England Journal of Medicine 350:1483-6 (2004).
  • A. Castro, P. Farmer. “Understanding and Addressing AIDS-related Stigma: From Anthropological Theory to Clinical Practice in Haiti.” American Journal of Public Health 95:53-9 (2005).
  • D. A. Walton, P. E. Farmer, R. Dillingham. “Social and Cultural Factors in Tropical Medicine: Reframing our Understanding of Disease,” in Tropical Infectious Diseases: Principles, Pathogens, and Practice, 2nd edn., R. L. Guerrant, D. H. Walker, P. F. Weller, editors. New York: Elsevier, pp. 26-35 (2005).
  • S. S. Shin, A. D. Pasechnikov, I. Y. Gelmanova, G. G. Peremitin, A. K. Strelis, Y. G. Andreev, V. T. Golubchikova, T. P. Tonkel, G. V. Yanova, M. Nikiforov, A. Yedilbayev, J. S. Mukherjee, J. J. Furin, D. J. Barry, P. E. Farmer, M. L. Rich, and S. Keshavjee. “Treatment Outcomes in an Integrated Civilian and Prison MDR-TB Treatment Program in Russia.” International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 10:402-8 (2006).
  • P. E. Farmer, B. Nizeye, S. Stulac, S. Keshavjee. “Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine.” PLoS Medicine 3:e449 (2006).
  • J. Y. Kim, P. Farmer. “AIDS in 2006—Moving Toward One World, One Hope?” New England Journal of Medicine 355:645-7 (2006).
  • P. Farmer. “From ‘Marvelous Momentum’ to Health Care for All. ” Response to L. Garrett, “The Challenge of Global Health.” Special feature, “How to Promote Global Health.” Foreign Affairs. 2007 Jan 23, online. (In print, Foreign Affairs. 2007 March-April: 155-9).
  • J. Y. Kim, P. Farmer. “Global Issues in Medicine,” in Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 17th edn., A.S. Fauci, D.L. Kasper, E. Braunwald, S. L. Hauser, D. L. Longo, J. L. Jameson, and J. Loscalzo, editors. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 6-15 (2008).
  • Farmer P, Kim J. “Surgery and Global Health: A View from Beyond the OR.” World Journal of Surgery 32(4):533-536 (2008).
  • Ivers L, Garfein E, Augustin J, Raymonville M, Yang A, Sugarbaker D, Farmer P. “Increasing Access to Surgical Services for the Poor in Rural Haiti: Surgery as a Public Good for Public Health.” World Journal of Surgery 32(4):537-542 (2008).
  • Farmer, P. “Challenging Orthodoxies: The Road Ahead for Health and Human Rights.” Health and Human Rights 10(1):5-19 (2008). Farmer, P. “Mother Courage and the Future of War.” Social Analysis 52(2):165-184 (2008).