The 2023 Telehealth Pioneer award was presented to Dr. Divya Ahuja during the 11th Annual Telehealth Summit of South Carolina held this month in Greenville. The award recognizes an individual champion in the areas of clinical care, education, or policy who implemented telehealth with a practice, health center, school-based or administrative setting.
Dr. Ahuja is an infectious disease physician at Prisma Health in Columbia and an associate professor of clinical internal medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia. He is the principal investigator for the SC HIV/HCV Clinical Training Center and the Southeast HCV Telehealth Initiative.
As a leading expert on HIV and Hepatitis C in South Carolina, Dr. Ahuja’s contributions have been significant in increasing access to care not just in South Carolina but in the entire southeast region, according to Dr.Jonathan Gleason, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Prisma Health. Dr. Ahuja earned the designation as pioneer in the field of infectious disease and telemedicine during the Covid-19 pandemic when he served as a valued leader in training and assisting healthcare providers in rapid development and expansion of telehealth opportunities.
“His work as a telehealth pioneer in this space has resulted in compassionate quality care to the citizens of our great state as well as resulted in enormous cost savings,” said Dr. Meera Narasimhan, Professor and Chair for the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at Prisma Health.