Arthur Fournier

Arthur Michael Fournier, M.D. has been the standard of excellence in health care education and community service for the past three decades. Currently a professor and vice chairman of the Family Medicine & Community Health Department and the associate dean for Community Health Affairs, Dr. Fournier has been sharing his expertise in family medicine, internal medicine, HIV/AIDS, nursing and community health affairs with students at the University of Miami School of Medicine since 1978.

One of the world’s top authorities on HIV/AIDS, Dr. Fournier was one of the original doctors who battled the disease when it first surfaced in the early 1980s. A published author, he recently completed his fourth book, “The Zombie Curse,” a memoir that details his experiences treating the original HIV/AIDS patients and his work fighting the disease in Haiti. A renowned media expert, Dr. Fournier has appeared on such national outlets as Bloomberg News, ABC Morning Radio Network and “The Power” on XM Satellite Radio.

A frequently published academic, Dr. Fournier has written four books, including his recently published memoir The Zombie Curse, detailing his work with HIV/AIDS patients in Haiti as well as monographs and 35 journal articles. His numerous publications have covered subjects such as arthritis, drowning, coronary artery disease, orthopedics, nursing, internists, internal medicine and community health care. He has served as an editing reviewer for Chest and the Journal of General Internal Medicine since 1989 and more recently became an editing reviewer for American Journal of Preventive Medicine and Academic Medicine.

Over the past ten years, Dr. Fournier has conducted significant research on behalf of the State of Florida’s Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and the State of Florida’s Area Health Education Center. In 2000, he received a patent on a cervical self-sampling device that he conceived.

He is a regular speaker at exhibitions and conferences, most recently, at “Financing Community-Based Health Professions Education Through an Area Health Education Center Mechanism” in Washington, DC and “A Community Service Tobacco Awareness Curriculum in Medicine School” in Chicago, IL.

Dr. Fournier’s tireless efforts in community health care have been recognized on numerous occasions, particularly for his work involving the Haitian-American Community. He has coordinated and led students and faculty teams providing humanitarian health care services in Haiti. He founded a medical exchange program with the teaching hospital and medical school of Haiti with several schools in the United States. In 1997, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Transcultural Medicine Award by the International Institute of Human Understanding. In 2001, he was profiled in Marquis Who’s Who in America and was a finalist for the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce’s Health Care Heroes Award.

In 1994, Dr. Fournier co-founded Project Medishare, a group of physicians and health care professionals committed to rebuilding the medical infrastructure of Haiti. He conceived, implemented and supervised the Jackson Memorial Hospital and University of Miami Employee Health Plans and has also served as a consultant for peer review for the Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions, Learn and Serve America and the Corporation for National Service. He has served as a consultant to the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in establishing area health education centers.

His professional memberships include the Society of General Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and the American College of Preventive Medicine.

A South Florida resident for 25 years, Dr. Fournier earned a Bachelor’s of arts degree from Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts in 1969 and a medical degree from the Tufts University School of Medicine in 1973. After completing his residency, he practiced with the National Health Service Corps in Virginia for two years before joining the University of Miami School of Medicine.