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Hill
Joshua A. Hill, MD, FIDSA

Joshua A. Hill, MD, FIDSA

Infectious Disease

  • Physician, Fred Hutch
  • Associate Professor, Infectious Disease Sciences Program, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutch
  • Associate Professor, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutch
  • Member, Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC), Fred Hutch
  • Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch
  • Associate Professor, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine
Joshua Hill Group ImmunOptimize Network

About

Dr. Joshua A. Hill is a board-certified infectious disease physician and researcher at Fred Hutch. He cares for people with cancer or weakened immune systems and leads research to improve prevention and treatment of infections, including those related to CAR T-cell therapy.

Background

Dr. Hill provides care through the Infectious Diseases Consult Service for immunocompromised patients, including those undergoing blood and marrow transplant or advanced cancer therapies.

In addition to patient care, Dr. Hill leads a translational research group focused on improving strategies to prevent and treat infections in people with compromised immune systems. His team designs and conducts clinical trials and collaborates with researchers across multiple disciplines. A key area of focus is infection prevention for patients receiving CAR T-cell therapy, an immune-based cancer treatment that engineers a patient’s own immune cells to attack tumors but can also increase the risk of infection. In 2020, his team received a $3.3 million National Cancer Institute Cancer Moonshot grant to better understand how CAR T-cell therapy affects immune function and how to treat patients safely and effectively.

Dr. Hill has published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers and is internationally recognized for his work on viral infections, vaccines and infectious complications of immunotherapies. His research has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health, foundations and industry partners. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the International Immunocompromised Society award for excellence in research to improve patient outcomes.

He is a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and the American Society of Transplantation. Dr. Hill serves on numerous local, national and international committees and expert guideline panels, and he is frequently invited as a keynote lecturer or educator at events around the world.

Area of Clinical Practice
Infectious diseases

Follow Joshua Hill

“Infections can be scary, particularly in the context of cancer, but my hope is that you’ll pass some of that burden on to me and the other members of your health care team. Our goal is to help you be cancer-free and infection-free.”

— Dr. Hill

What drew you to you to the cross-section of infectious disease and cancer care?

I did my training in general internal medicine in Boston, and the hospital where I worked was affiliated with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. During my rotations, I met many patients who had undergone blood or bone marrow transplants. Because their immune systems had been wiped out during the transplant process, many of them had contracted a serious viral infection in their brains. At that point, it wasn’t really known how to best treat infections for people who had cancer. If a person’s malignancy is cured, but then they die of an infection, we haven’t really helped them. I realized that there was a tremendous opportunity to improve the way we approach infectious disease in patients with cancer. It was a whole new area of medicine, rapidly evolving alongside oncology, where I felt I could make a lasting impact.

How do you help patients?

As an infectious disease doctor, I’m like a detective. I have to sort through all the clues about a person’s life to make sense of what’s going on — not only how someone is feeling but what they do for a living, where they’ve traveled and what their family situation is like, for example. This information enables me to make a diagnosis, and it also puts me in a position to help patients understand how an infection fits into the broader picture and what the path forward looks like. Infections can be scary, particularly in the context of cancer, but my hope is that you’ll pass some of that burden on to me and the other members of your health care team. Our goal is to help you be cancer-free and infection-free. 

Research Interests

Clinical trials of new therapies to prevent or treat infections in immunocompromised patients

Viral infections, such as human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), and infections in patients receiving immunotherapies such as CAR-T cells

Languages

English
Spanish

Education and Experience

Fellowship, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, 2012-2015

Fellowship, Harvard School of Public Health, 2013

Residency, Internal Medicine Residency, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard, 2009-2012

MD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 2009

BA, Liberal Arts Plan II Honors Program and Natural Sciences, Dean’s Scholars Program, University of Texas at Austin, 2005

Board Certification

Infectious Disease, 2015; Internal Medicine 2012, American Board of Internal Medicine

Awards

Fellow, Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2021

Fialkow Scholar Award, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, 2021

Amy Strelzer Manasevit Research Program Scholar Award, NMDP/ASBMT, 2018
Dr. Hill received this grant to support his research in diagnosing infectious lung diseases in patients who have received stem cell transplants.

Caroline B. Hall Young Investigator Award, 9th International HHV-6 & 7 Conference, 2015
Dr. Hill received this award for his research on human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and its association with pneumonia in patients who have received stem cell transplants.

NIH/NIAID K23 Career Development Award, 2015

NIH Clinical Loan Repayment Program Award, 2015

Joel Meyers Infectious Diseases Scholar, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, 2014

Robert A. Good New Investigator Award, American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, 2014

George Santos Award for best clinical science article by a new investigator, American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, 2012

Clinical Trials

We make promising new treatments available to you through studies called clinical trials led by Fred Hutch physicians and researchers. Many of these trials at Fred Hutch have led to FDA-approved treatments and have improved standards of care globally. Together, you and your physician can decide if a study is right for you.

Find a Clinical Trial Led by Dr. Hill

Publications

Many of our Fred Hutch physicians and researchers conduct ongoing research to improve standards of patient care. Their work is evaluated by others in their field and selected for publication to the United States National Library of Medicine, the largest medical library in the world. See scientific papers this Fred Hutch physician has written.

View Dr. Hill's Publications

Your Care Team

At Fred Hutch, you receive care from a team of providers with extensive experience in your disease. Your team includes physicians, a patient care coordinator, a registered nurse, an advanced practice provider and others, based on your needs. You also have access to experts like registered dietitians, social workers, acupuncturists, psychiatrists and more who specialize in supporting people with cancer or blood disorders. 

Meet Other Providers

Insurance

Fred Hutch accepts most national private health insurance plans as well as Medicare. We also accept Medicaid for people from Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. We are working to ensure that everyone, no matter what their financial situation, has access to the care they need.

More About Insurance

Stories

All news
New horizons in infectious disease treatment and prevention in immunocompromised patients
New horizons in infectious disease treatment and prevention in immunocompromised patients The 5th Symposium on Infectious Disease in the Immunocompromised Host emphasized new opportunities, next generation June 23, 2025
Starting the year smarter
Starting the year smarter How patients, providers, researchers and others stay informed amid a deluge of data and information January 8, 2025
Infectious disease experts propose trials network dedicated to immunocompromised patients
Infectious disease experts propose trials network dedicated to immunocompromised patients ImmunOptimize workshop convened stakeholders across disciplines to brainstorm infectious disease clinical trials network designed to serve people with weakened immune systems October 21, 2024

Contact Information

206.667.6504

206.667.4411