Trish Perl-DeLisle, M.D.
Professor

Trish M. Perl, M.D., M.Sc., is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of its Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine. She specializes in general infectious diseases and is an internationally recognized expert in infections acquired in health care, antimicrobial-resistant infections, respiratory infections, and endocarditis.

She holds the H. Ben and Isabelle T. Decherd Chair in Internal Medicine, in Honor of Henry M. Winans, Sr., M.D.

Dr. Perl earned her medical degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After completing a residency and a fellowship in internal medicine at McGill University’s Royal Victoria Hospital, she received advanced training in infectious diseases and clinical epidemiology through fellowship training at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

She also holds a Master of Science in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in infectious diseases, Dr. Perl joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2016. In addition to being the Chief of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at UTSW, she serves on numerous committees on the state and national level, including the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Ad-Hoc IPC Experts Panel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Team B Advisory Committee, the Texas Medical Association’s Committee on Infectious Diseases, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (MIDB) study section.

She is a member of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology, and the Dallas County Medical Society, and she serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Health and Infection Control.

Dr. Perl’s research interests include antimicrobial resistance, C. difficile, respiratory infections and their prevention, and health care-associated infections, and she has received significant grant support for her work. She has delivered scores of international, national, and regional lectures; contributed to numerous books, including Practical Healthcare Epidemiology; and published a number of academic articles.

Among many other honors, in 2020 Dr. Perl received the Senior Scholar Award from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

Medical School

University of North Carolina School of Medicine (1983)

Residency

McGill University Faculty of Medicine (1987), Internal Medicine

Fellowship

University of Iowa Medical Center (1992), Infectious Diseases

• antimicrobial resistance
• C. difficile
• healthcare associated infections
• infection prevention and control
• resistant gram negative infections
• S. aureus infections
• surgical site infections

Featured Publications

The Respiratory Protection Effectiveness Clinical Trial (ResPECT): a cluster-randomized comparison of respirator and medical mask effectiveness against respiratory infections in healthcare personnel.

Radonovich LJ, Bessesen MT, Cummings DA, Eagan A, Gaydos C, Gibert C, Gorse GJ, Nyquist AC, Reich NG, Rodrigues-Barradas M, Savor-Price C, Shaffer RE, Simberkoff MS, Perl TM BMC Infect. Dis. 2016 Jun 16 243

Triggering interventions for influenza: the ALERT algorithm.

Reich NG, Cummings DA, Lauer SA, Zorn M, Robinson C, Nyquist AC, Price CS, Simberkoff M, Radonovich LJ, Perl TM Clin. Infect. Dis. 2015 Feb 60 4 499-504

Combating the spread of carbapenemases in Enterobacteriaceae: a battle that infection prevention should not lose.

Savard P, Perl TM Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 2014 Sep 20 9 854-61

A compendium of strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections in acute care hospitals: 2014 updates.

Yokoe DS, Anderson DJ, Berenholtz SM, Calfee DP, Dubberke ER, Ellingson KD, Gerding DN, Haas JP, Kaye KS, Klompas M, Lo E, Marschall J, Mermel LA, Nicolle LE, Salgado CD, Bryant K, Classen D, Crist K, Deloney VM, Fishman NO, Foster N, Goldmann DA, Humphreys E, Jernigan JA, Padberg J, Perl TM, Podgorny K, Septimus EJ, VanAmringe M, Weaver T, Weinstein RA, Wise R, Maragakis LL Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014 Aug 35 8 967-77

Hospital outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus.

Assiri A, McGeer A, Perl TM, Price CS, Al Rabeeah AA, Cummings DA, Alabdullatif ZN, Assad M, Almulhim A, Makhdoom H, Madani H, Alhakeem R, Al-Tawfiq JA, Cotten M, Watson SJ, Kellam P, Zumla AI, Memish ZA N. Engl. J. Med. 2013 Aug 369 5 407-16

To Test or Not to Test: COVID-19 Prevention Strategies to Keep Large Gatherings Safe.

Estelle CD, Perl TM, Ann Intern Med 2021 Jul

Take-home kits to detect respiratory viruses among healthcare personnel: Lessons learned from a cluster randomized clinical trial.

Los J, Gaydos CA, Gibert CL, Gorse GJ, Lykken J, Nyquist AC, Price CS, Radonovich LJ, Rattigan S, Reich N, Rodriguez-Barradas M, Simberkoff M, Bessesen M, Brown A, Cummings DAT, Perl TM, Am J Infect Control 2021 07 49 7 893-899

Deja Vu: Coronaviruses and Transmission in Health Care Settings.

Kang M, Perl TM, Ann Intern Med 2021 06 174 6 864-865

Expanding mandatory healthcare personnel immunization beyond influenza: Impact of a broad immunization program with enhanced accountability.

Talbot TR, Schimmel R, Swift MD, Rolando LA, Johnson RT, Muscato J, Sternberg P, Dubree M, McGown PW, Yarbrough MI, Hickson GB, Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2021 May 42 5 513-518

A Silver Lining? Fewer non-SARS-CoV-2 Respiratory Viruses during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Most ZM, Holcomb M, Jamieson AR, Perl TM, J Infect Dis 2021 Apr

• Professor and Chief of Infectious Diseases, UT Southwestern (2016)
• Assistant Professor to Professor, Johns Hopkins University (1996-2016)
• Assistant Professor, University of Iowa (1991-1995)
• Fellow–Infectious Diseases and Clinical Epidemiology, University of Iowa (1988-1991)