School of Medicine Homepage
Emory University Shield
  • About
    • Our Vision
    • Academic Departments
    • Our Leadership
    • Health Care Partnerships
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Location
    • Supporting Our People
    • Our Faculty
    • History
    • News
    • Events
    • Contact Us
  • Education
    • Degree Programs
    • Academic Departments
    • Residents & Fellows
    • Postdoctoral Training
    • Continuing Medical Education
    • Admissions
    • Cost and Financial Aid
    • Student Resources
  • Research
    • Research Innovation
    • Conducting Research
    • Core Facilities
    • Research Centers
    • Research Training
    • Academic Departments
    • Find a Researcher
    • Research News
  • Clinical Experience
    • Where We Work
    • Caring for a Diverse Population
    • Faculty Clinical Experience
    • Advanced Patient Care
    • Academic Departments
    • Community Learning
  • Giving
  • Directory

EmoryDOCS (Career Advising for Medical Students) section navigation

  • Career Planning
  • Advisors
  • Alumni Advisory
  • Match Results
  • Related Resources

Emory University School of Medicine

  • About
    • Sub link
      Our Vision and Mission
    • Sub link
      Facts and Figures
    • Sub link
      Our Leadership
    • Sub link
      Emory's Health Care Partnerships
    • Sub link
      Diversity and Inclusion
    • Sub link
      Location
    • Sub link
      Supporting Our People
    • Sub link
      Our Faculty
    • Sub link
      History
    • Sub link
      News
    • Sub link
      Events
    • Sub link
      Accreditation
    • Sub link
      Contact Us
  • Education
    • Sub link
      Degree Programs
    • Sub link
      Admissions
    • Sub link
      Cost and Financial Aid
    • Sub link
      Resources
    • Sub link
      Residencies and Fellowships
    • Sub link
      Postdoctoral Training
    • Sub link
      Continuing Medical Education
    • Sub link
      Office of Multicultural Affairs
    • Sub link
      Emory Center for Experiential Learning (ExCEL)
    • Sub link
      EmoryDOCS (Career Advising for Medical Students)
    • Sub link
      Human Simulation Education Center
  • Clinical Experience
    • Sub link
      Where We Work
    • Sub link
      Caring for a Diverse Population
    • Sub link
      Faculty Clinical Experience
    • Sub link
      Community Learning
    • Sub link
      Advanced Patient Care
  • Research
    • Sub link
      Research Innovation
    • Sub link
      Conducting Research
    • Sub link
      Research Centers
    • Sub link
      Training
    • Sub link
      Core Facilities
  • Giving
  • Directory
  • Home School of Medicine Home
  • Education
  • EmoryDOCS (Career Advising for Medical Students)
  • Advisors
  • Joe Hilinski, MD

Joe Hilinski, MD

 

Undergrad Institution; Degree and Major:

University of Pennsylvania, BA in Biology

Medical School:

SUNY-Upstate

In practice since:

2003

Your Specialty:

Pediatric Infectious Diseases

How did you choose your specialty?

I have always loved medical microbiology – and have been fascinated by the stories of infections throughout history, and the microbe hunters who went after them.  I was fortunate to get hooked up with a great mentor very early in my medical school career in Syracuse who was in Peds ID.  I was able to stay in contact with her all during medical school, rounded with her and her team in my spare time, and got to know her and her family, in addition to the other members of their division.  She had probably the biggest impact of anyone in my career on what I chose to go into.  To this day I still stay in touch with her and the rest of the division in my medical school.

I find Peds ID fascinating because we get to see some of the most interesting patients in the hospital.  We get to really sit down and think about our patients and put all of their information together.  Every patient is like a puzzle and it’s often our job to figure it out.  Also, as is the case with most 

What do you like MOST, and like LEAST, about your specialty?

  • MOST:  The interesting and complex cases that require a lot of thought input but are satisfying when you make someone better by figuring out a difficult diagnosis.  I like to think of ID docs as the "Sherlock Holmes" of the specialists.
  • LEAST:  Dealing with postoperative and nosocomial infections.  In those situations no one is happy – not the patient, not the surgeon whose work may now be infected, nor the ICU team who has to deal with a nosocomial infection.  This is a big part of our job, and thankfully we can treat and make most patients better even with bad hospital acquired infections, but it is never enjoyable. 

In your opinion, what attributes are important in anyone choosing this specialty?

Most importantly you have to be a careful thinker who likes details.  Infectious diseases is all about taking the right history, asking the right questions, and finding the detail in the chart that helps figure out what the cause of an infection is.  Another important trait is being able to deal with ambiguity.  Although we often know exactly what we are treating, there are many cases we manage empirically without truly knowing the answer.  If you can’t accept not always knowing, it’s very difficult to be in this field.  I would say our field is great for those who want to have time to sit down, review a patient, and logically figure out what is wrong with them.  For those who want to do procedures, or want a field with more immediate satisfaction, it’s probably not a good choice.

Medical special interests: 

  • Transplant infectious diseases
  • CMV infection
  • Periodic fever syndromes 

Hobbies:

  • Playing with my kids
  • Music (playing [piano and classical organ] and listening)
  • Reading SciFi and Fantasy novels
  • Philadelphia Eagles football
  • Video games
Email Joe Hilinski, MD
EmoryDOCS (Career Advising for Medical Students)
  • Career Planning
  • Advisors
  • Alumni Advisory
  • Match Results
  • Related Resources
Emory University Homepage

Contact & Location

Emory University School of Medicine
100 Woodruff Circle
Atlanta, GA  30322 USA
  • Contact Us
  • Maps & Directions
  • Careers

Information For

  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Patients
  • Residents & Fellows
  • Students
Support the School of Medicine School of Medicine Intranet
facebook facebook twitter twitter linkedin linkedin instagram instagram youtube youtube
© 2018 Emory University
  • Privacy Policy
  • Emergency Information