Igor H. Email & Phone Number

Dedicated to a career in medicine, I obtained my Doctor of Medicine degree with honors in 1997 from Charles University's First Faculty of Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic. My early interest in immune response as a crucial factor in maintaining health and influencing disease progression led to research positions at the Department of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Bulovka in Prague (1995-1997), the Department of Immunology at Oxford University, UK, under Dr. Helen Chapel in 1996, and a clinical research role at the Department of Clinical Immunology of the Institute of Preventive and Clinical Medicine in Bratislava, Slovakia (1997-1999).Studying HIV, where an abnormal immune response to the virus leads to profound immunodeficiency, culminated in my seminal paper in the Medical Hypotheses [1999; vol 52(3): 247-257] in which I suggested that ‘immune system reset’ by transplantation of allogeneic bone marrow protected against viral attack by antiretroviral therapy could wipe out residual virus and cure chronic HIV infection/AIDS.Seeking to expand my clinical experience, I relocated to the United States in 1999 to complete an Internal Medicine Residency at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. I then pursued a clinical fellowship and research training in Allergy & Immunology at Weill-Cornell Medical College and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital under Professor Kendall Smith. As I managed Phase II clinical trials of immunotherapy for chronic HIV infection and chronic hepatitis C, I gained expertise in clinical research and the treatment of complex medical patients.In time, I realized that immunology was too narrow a focus for me, and I decided to return to clinical practice in Internal Medicine. In 2008, I founded my private practice clinic, First Internal Medicine. Throughout the 2010s, the clinic evolved into a leading concierge medicine private practice in Denver, Colorado, garnering numerous accolades from both peers and patients.After a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic to work in Vail Valley, I accepted a position as a Diagnostic & Concierge Medicine Specialist at the Metrodora Institute. Here, I can fulfill my vision of partnering with patients who have complex medical needs, providing second opinions for the diagnosis of intricate, rare, or 'medically unexplained' issues, and employing preventive, functional, and integrative medicine approaches to care.