Washington Works

Meet Dr. Romesh Gautom from the Department of Health

Perhaps Dr. Romesh Gautom’s goal in life is what a lot of people strive for: making a positive impact on others’ lives. But his accomplishments in reaching this goal are not so ordinary.

“I want to make a significant improvement in people’s lives by developing methods to lessen the burden of disease in our world,” said Dr. Gautom.

Dr. Gautom has worked for the Department of Health for eight years. In this time his work has had a considerable impact on people’s health. One year after joining the Public Health Laboratories in 1996, Dr. Gautom developed a procedure that was implemented nationwide and changed the way a DNA-based E. coli test is performed. His development allowed public health officials to use DNA fingerprints of E. coli and other foodborne bacteria to identify and control disease outbreaks. This also reduced the three-to-five day turn-around time to just 24 hours. The procedure formed the backbone of the national PulseNet system, operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to track national foodborne disease outbreaks.

Dr. Gautom graduated with a M.S. and Ph.D. from India and completed his post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Washington Medical Center. As the Director of the Washington State Public Health Laboratories, he coordinates the laboratory functions between various offices within the lab, Department of Health programs, local health departments and others. He works very closely with the CDC on many health issues and serves on several national committees.

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