Alison Rebman, MPH earned her graduate degree from Columbia University in Sociomedical Sciences. She is currently an assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology within the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. She is also the Co-Director for Clinical and Epidemiological Research at the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center. Alison has specific research interests in chronic and infectious diseases, and sex and gender-based differences in health, with a focus on underserved populations and/or medically contested conditions. She began working in the Lyme disease field in 2008 when she helped launch the SLICE studies with Dr. John Aucott. She has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters across a variety of disciplines within the field of Lyme disease and Lyme infection-associated illnesses.

Illness invalidation, by medical professionals or others, is a common experience for patients with Lyme disease. This talk will discuss recent scientific articles in Lyme and other illnesses about the patient effects of invalidation. It will also discuss the gendered history of invalidation and how it influences the medical encounter today.