Joseph G. Jemsek, MD, FACP, AAHIVS
Infectious Disease Specialist; Lyme Borreliosis and Tick-Borne infection; HIV/AIDS
Joseph G. Jemsek, MD is the namesake and founder of the Jemsek Specialty Clinic of South Carolina. After practicing medicine in Charlotte, North Carolina for over 20 years with the Nalle Clinic, Dr. Jemsek created a specialty infectious disease practice in the year 2000 with the goal of serving individuals with HIV/AIDS as he had done since 1983, in addition to pursuing the practice of general infectious disease.
Over the past 8 years, Dr. Jemsek has also cultivated clinical and research interest in Lyme Borreliosis, commonly referred to as Lyme Disease. Dr. Jemsek prefers the term Lyme Borreliosis Complex (LBC), which he feels better reflects an immune-compromising syndrome affecting multiple organ systems and caused by multiple coexisting infections. In spite of the political barriers which exist in this time, he continues to create and evolve innovative approaches in the treatment of LBC and is in the process of collaborating with other researchers in the development of credentialed treatment protocols. The new Fort Mill, SC practice is principally devoted to the care of patients with LBC; future goals include, with the benefit of collaboration with like minded physicians, additional clinic locations in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern US regions.
The opening of Jemsek Specialty Clinic of South Carolina was on January 2, 2008.
Dr. Jemsek's credentials in brief:
- Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois, Medical Center of Chicago
- Internship and residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston
- Postgraduate fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine at the Texas Medical Center in Houston
Presentations and Lectures:
Numerous ... the most recent and most relevant are:
- 2008: Similarities and Paradoxes in Chronic Illness at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida
- 2006: Hope to Heal Lyme Conference, Washington DC
- 2005: 4th Annual UK Conference on Tick-Borne Diseases….Keynote speaker, Sheffield, England
- 2004: ILADS Rye Town, NY
- 2004: Grand Rounds Presentation to the Duke University Infectious Disease Department in Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Jemsek's work in HIV/AIDS
In early 1983 Dr. Jemsek quite likely diagnosed the first case of HIV/AIDS in the Carolinas when he was requested to provide an infectious disease consultation on a young male dying with atypical pneumonia at Mercy Hospital in Charlotte. Subsequently he personally provided care for over 2000 individuals with HIV/AIDS through early 2006 ... naturally almost all individuals with this disease passed away until life prolonging changes in therapy became available in 1996, and this experience with the medical and social aspects of this epidemic have profoundly impacted his view of medicine in current times.
In over 20 years of work in the field of HIV/AIDS, Dr. Jemsek participated in many pharmaceutical-sponsored trials for HIV medications, including some of the earliest clinical trials on record. In his career, he and his staff have participated in over 100 clinical research studies for HIV/AIDS treatment, of which 22 became established protocols, In these and other academic pursuits in the area of Infectious Diseases, he has generated over 40 peer reviewed publications.
In early 2006, political and legal circumstances resulted in the abrupt elimination of insurance benefits for Dr. Jemsek’s HIV/AIDS patients, who were accruing at a rate of 200 new patients per year and who numbered over 1000 individuals, by far the largest practice population in the Carolinas. Efforts by the Jemsek clinic to react to these tumultuous changes resulted in various strategies designed to salvage the capacity to continue to serve this patient group. Regrettably these efforts failed, as it soon became painfully apparent that most of those HIV/AIDS patients with traditional insurance depended categorically on those insurance benefits which had been abruptly terminated. As a result, after a several month struggle in 2006, Dr. Jemsek decided he had no choice other than to bring his career in HIV/AIDS to a close because of the non-medical issues facing his patients and facing him personally.
These forces persist today even as the focus of the practice changes. The current clinic, now known as Jemsek Specialty Clinic of South Carolina, is totally committed to the goal of patient rights, including all aspects of patient choice and access to care, as it continues to work through the legal process. Dr. Jemsek will always consider that the separation and fracturing of long term provider and patient relationships represents unspeakable injustice and a contemptible affront to human values. It is a part of history now; that these consequences occurred as a result of the dispassionate and bureaucratic control of his practice of medicine in North Carolina, and that these actions specifically brought about unconscionable and adverse consequences to his HIV/AIDS patients and others to whom he devoted his energies for these many years. We can only hope and pray that justice is served in the end for the good of all concerned.
Awards and Recognition:
For his work in the field of HIV/AIDS and his commitment to the citizens of North Carolina, Dr. Jemsek has been the recipient of two prestigious awards:
- 1998: Governor's Award - Certificate of Appreciation, presented by Governor James Hunt, North Carolina
- 2004: Governor's World AIDS Day - Volunteer Service Award
National Media Coverage:
- 1998: Interview on 60 Minutes
- 1999: interview on 20/20
- 2001: Interview on Good Morning America
Philanthropic Work:
- 2003: Founded The Jemsek Project which assists people with HIV/AIDS access support services to improve their health and quality of life and to prevent the spread of HIV. This organization remains viable due to the devotion of many, and has the proud distinction of having served hundreds of Metrolina area patients with or at risk for HIV/AIDS.