Jose Montoya

Jose Gilberto Montoya is an infectious disease doctor. Until May 30, 2019, he was Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine) at Stanford University Medical Center and head of the Stanford ME/CFS Initiative. His special areas of clinical focus include: chronic fatigue syndrome, infectious disease, Toxoplasmosis, infection in the setting of solid organ transplantation, and infection as a trigger of chronic diseases. Considered one of the foremost experts of ME/CFS, Dr. Montoya has served on numerous government and institutional committees on ME/CFS. He is also an ME/CFS researcher and frequent conference speaker.

Education

 * 1985, Medical Education: Universidad Del Valle, Colombia
 * 1988, Internship: Tulane University School of Medicine, Louisiana, US
 * 1990, Residency: Tulane University School of Medicine, Louisiana, US
 * 1994, Fellowship: Stanford University School of Medicine, California, US

Research
Dr. Montoya published a number of seminal studies on ME/CFS. In one study he was able to show elevated, pro-inflammatory cytokines in ME/CFS patients, indicating a likely connection between inflammation, potentially due to immune-system dysfunction, causing some of the symptoms experienced by ME/CFS patients.

Stanford ME/CFS Initiative
Dr. Montoya and his team at the Stanford ME/CFS Initiative had short-term goals of patient care; research and discovery; and education. They also had a long-term goal of establishing an inpatient center, apart from a hospital where patients with chronic conditions could receive long-term treatment.

On May 30, 2019, Stanford University terminated Dr. Montoya from his university positions, after it received "complaints relating to his conduct" and conducted "an investigation led by an outside attorney and Stanford faculty member that found multiple violations of the University’s conduct policies." The university campus newspaper, The Stanford Daily, reported that allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct and assault, brought forward in March by women who had worked for Dr. Montoya, prompted the investigation.

Dr. Montoya responded to the allegations with a statement from his lawyer, saying, “I sincerely apologize to anyone who, in any way, I offended. What has unfolded since March has been a huge surprise[...] It was even more shattering to learn [...] it was members of my Stanford ME/CFS team who experienced some of my behaviors as attempts at unsolicited sexual acts, harassment, and misconduct. It is extremely important that you know I have not been involved in any sexual or romantic relationships with employees, trainees, colleagues, or CFS team members”.

IOM Committee on Diagnostic Criteria for ME/CFS
Dr Montoya was a reviewer for the 2015 report produced by the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Diagnostic Criteria for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Stanford University
Dr. Montoya was a member of the Working Group which offered their expertise and resources to the ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Stanford University.

ME/CFS Common Data Elements (CDE) Project
Dr. Montoya was co-chair with Dr. Anthony Komaroff for the Baseline/Covariate Working Group and co-chair with Kimberly Sullivan, PhD of the Neurologic/Cognitive/CNS Imaging Working Group for the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Common Data Elements (CDE) Project sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Awards

 * 1988, Outstanding Intern Award, Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine
 * 1990, The Owl Club Award for Outstanding Clinical Teaching, Tulane University School of Medicine
 * 1990, The Department of Medicine Outstanding Teaching Award, Tulane University School of Medicine
 * 1990, Outstanding Senior Resident Awar, Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine
 * 1995, The Franklin G. Ebaugh, Jr. Award for Advising Medical Students, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 1995, The Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 1997, The Arthur L. Bloomfield Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Clinical Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 1998, The David A. Rytand Teaching Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 2000, The Kenneth Vosti Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching, Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 2001, The David A. Rytand Teaching Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching., Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 2002, The Kenneth Vosti Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 2003, Chief Residents Teaching Award for exemplary teaching at Stanford Resident's report, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 2011, The Arthur L. Bloomfield Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Clinical Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
 * 2011, Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (FIDSA), Infectious Diseases Society of America
 * 2011, Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), American College of Physicians
 * 2013, Selected as one of the 100 Colombians who have excelled abroad, 2013 Edition., 100 Colombianos en el exterior

Notable studies

 * 2006, Use of valganciclovir in patients with elevated antibody titers against Human Herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) who were experiencing central nervous system dysfunction including long-standing fatigue - (Abstract)
 * 2012, Response to valganciclovir in chronic fatigue syndrome patients with human herpesvirus 6 and Epstein-Barr virus IgG antibody titers
 * 2012, A Multicenter Blinded Analysis Indicates No Association between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and either Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus or Polytropic Murine Leukemia Virus - (Full Text)
 * 2013, Daily cytokine fluctuations, driven by leptin, are associated with fatigue severity in chronic fatigue syndrome: evidence of inflammatory pathology
 * 2013, Randomized Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Valganciclovir in a Subset of Patients With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
 * Mar 2014, Cortical hypoactivation during resting eLORETA suggests central nervous system pathology in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (Conference paper, 2014 Stanford Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symposium: Advances in Clinical Care and Translational Research for health care providers, At Stanford School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA - (Abstract - full text on request)
 * 2015, Distinct plasma immune signatures in ME/CFS are present early in the course of illness - (Full text)
 * 2015, Right Arcuate Fasciculus Abnormality in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - (Full Text)
 * 2017, Cytokine signature associated with disease severity in chronic fatigue syndrome patients - (Full Text)
 * 2017, Patients diagnosed with Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome also fit systemic exertion intolerance disease criteria
 * 2017, Fecal metagenomic profiles in subgroups of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome - (Full Text)
 * 2018 - Cortical hypoactivation during resting EEG suggests central nervous system pathology in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome - (Abstract)
 * 2018, Deconstructing post-exertional malaise in myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome: A patient-centered, cross-sectional survey - (Full Text)
 * 2018, Value of Circulating Cytokine Profiling During Submaximal Exercise Testing in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
 * 2018, KPAX002 as a treatment for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS): A prospective, randomized trial - (Full Text)
 * 2018, Insights into myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome phenotypes through comprehensive metabolomics - (Full Text)
 * 2019, Onset patterns and course of myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2021, Caring for the Patient with Severe or Very Severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - (Full text)

Talks and interviews

 * Mar 2011, Stanford's Dr. Jose Montoya on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
 * Aug 2014, ME/CFS Alert Episode 65: Dr. Jose Montoya Interviewed by Deborah Waroff
 * Jul 26 2016, Stanford leads fight against chronic fatigue
 * 2016, Exercise testing highlights differences in cytokine profile and network between patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy sedentary participants and A profile of circulating cytokines is associated with disease severity in chronic fatigue syndrome patients
 * 2017, The author of Truth to Power interviews the leading Chronic Fatigue Syndrome researcher
 * 2018, Science for ME video Q&A with Dr José G. Montoya, 16th January 2018

Notable quotes
Back in 2005, while attending a conference on toxoplasmosis in Paris, Montoya told his mentor that he wanted to research ME/CFS. His mentor scoffed at the idea, pointing to a homeless person lying in a Parisian gutter. 'That’s going to be you if you go into chronic fatigue research,' the mentor told him.

Online presence

 * Jose G. Montoya Stanford Medicine Profile
 * Stanford ME/CFS Initiative

Learn more

 * 2014, Brains of People With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Offer Clues About Disorder - New York Times: Well (2014)
 * 2016, Stanford lead fight against chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2016, Will 2016 Finally be Montoya's Year? Taking Stock of the Stanford ME/CFS Initiative