Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

Stephanie Watson was the Executive Editor of the Harvard Women’s Health Watch from June 2012 to August 2014. Prior to that, she has worked as a writer and editor for several leading consumer health publications, including WebMD, A.D.A.M. (MedlinePlus), BabyCenter, Momentum magazine, and Lupus Now magazine. She also served as executive editor for Focus on Healthy Aging, a publication of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Stephanie has written and edited more than two dozen books, including Understanding Obesity: The Genetics of Obesity and Scientific American Critical Perspectives on Pollution. She is a graduate of Boston University, with a degree in Mass Communications and English. Before embarking on her medical writing career, she was a writer/producer for The Travel Channel and Weather.com.

Heidi Godman is the executive editor of the Harvard Health Letter. Before coming to the Health Letter, she was an award-winning television news anchor and medical reporter for 25 years. Heidi was named a journalism fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, and has been honored by the Associated Press, the American Heart Association, the Wellness Community, and other organizations for outstanding medical reporting. Heidi holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism from West Virginia University.

Dr. Reena Pande is a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the mechanisms by which exercise benefits people with cardiovascular disease.

Anne Densmore, Ed.D., is a certified speech pathologist as well as a speech and play therapist. She as also the author of Your Successful Preschooler, a Harvard Health Publishing book published by Jossey-Bass (2011).

Nancy L. Keating, MD, MPH, is a professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Keating’s research examines provider, patient, and health system factors that influence the delivery of high-quality care for individuals with cancer.  

Dr. Edward M. Phillips is an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, and the founder and director of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. He’d like to see you end your war with food by tuning into the new WBUR podcast “Food, We Need to Talk,” an Apple Podcasts favorite. He is also co-host of the award-winning WBUR podcast “The Magic Pill.” Connect with him on Twitter @EddiePhillipsMD.

Dennis Rosen, M.D. is a pediatric pulmonologist and sleep specialist at at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he is the associate medical director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders. He is also an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rosen is author of Successful Sleep Strategies for Kids (Harvard Medical School Guide) and Vital Conversations: Improving Communication Between Doctors and Patients

Beverly Merz is Executive Editor of Harvard Women’s Health Watch, a publication she helped start in 1993. Before coming to Harvard she was an Associate Editor of JAMA, Managing Editor with the Union of Concerned Scientists, and held editorial positions at Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia. She was also a founding editor of Cardio, a newsmagazine for cardiologists and SusanLoveMD.org. Beverly has contributed to a variety of general and health publications including The New England Journal of Medicine, Good Housekeeping, and The Chicago Tribune. She is a graduate of The University of Colorado.

Dr. Gregory Curfman is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of Harvard Health Publishing. He is also on the affiliated faculty of Harvard Law School. Before joining Harvard Health Publishing, Dr. Curfman was the Executive Editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, which has the highest impact factor of any medical journal. Dr. Curfman is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and trained in internal medicine and cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He directed the Coronary Care Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Cardiovascular Health Center, a heart disease prevention program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Claire McCarthy, MD, is a primary care pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. In addition to being a senior faculty editor for Harvard Health Publishing, Dr. McCarthy writes about health and parenting for Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston.com, and the Huffington Post.

Hope A. Ricciotti, MD, is Editor in Chief of the Harvard Women’s Health Watch. She is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School and leads the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Dr. Anant Mandawat has been a medical columnist for several years translating scientific papers for the public. He graduated with a MD with honors from Yale. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, and is currently a cardiology fellow at Duke. His research interests are in clinical and economic outcomes for the elderly using large datasets. He has multiple publications in the field and has received the Marvin Moser Award and Bechtel Award for his research.

Dr. Deepak Bhatt is a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He serves as the Chief of Cardiology at VA Boston Healthcare and is the Director of the Integrated Interventional Cardiovascular Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare. Dr. Bhatt’s research focuses on preventive cardiology and best practices for managing heart attack and other acute coronary syndromes. He is the author or coauthor of more than 500 publications. Dr. Bhatt earned his medical degree from Cornell University and a masters of public health from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and was a fellow in interventional cardiology and cerebral and peripheral vascular intervention at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. John Ross is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, and practices hospital medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is the author of Shakespeare’s Tremor and Orwell’s Cough: Diagnosing the Medical Groans and Last Gasps of Ten Great Writers, and is one of the editors of the textbook Principles and Practice of Hospital Medicine.

Dr. Quan is a graduate of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He did residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, and fellowships in Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and University of Arizona respectively. He moved to Havard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2007 where he currently is the Gerald E. McGinnis Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Senior Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In addition, he is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Arizona where he was Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Associate Head of the Department of Medicine, Program Director of the GCRC and Director of the Sleep Disorders Center. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2004-2014) and is the initial recipient of an award for editorial excellence named in his honor. Dr. Quan also has served as the president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (1999-2000), been on the board of directors of the American Board of Sleep Medicine (1990-1996). a member of the Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education; and chair of the Sleep Medicine examination committee for the American Board of Internal Medicine. Recently, he was a member of the Steering Committee that developed the new sleep scoring manual for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and is currently the Editor of the Sleep and Health Education Program at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine, Associate Editor of the Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care and Deputy Editor of Sleep. He also is the Clinical Director of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is the recipient of the Nathaniel Kleitman Distinguished Service and William C. Dement Academic Achievement Awards, both conferred by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Dr. Quan’s current research activities focus on the epidemiology of sleep and sleep disorders, particularly sleep disordered breathing.

MD practices General Internal Medicine at the BIDMC, and is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. She received her undergraduate and medical degree from Brown University. After completing her internal medicine training at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, she was a chief resident at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and subsequently completed a Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education. She is the chair of the Board of Directors for the Alliance in Academic Internal Medicine. At Harvard, she is the Master of the Walter Bradford Cannon Society and the Associate Director of Innovation in Medical Education at the HMS Center for Primary Care. She directed the BIDMC Internal Medicine clerkship from 1999-2015 and was the CME Editor for the New England Journal of Medicine from 2011-2014. Dr. Fazio served as the SGIM (Society of General Internal Medicine) editor of the national CDIM (Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine)-SGIM Curriculum in Internal Medicine. She has received numerous teaching awards, including the Best Clinical Teacher Award from the classes of 2003, 2005 and 2007 at Harvard Medical School, the Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching, the Louis Pangaro Educational Program Development Award from CDIM, the S. Robert Stone Award for Excellence in Teaching at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the SGIM National Award for Scholarship in Medical Education. Dr. Fazio is among a team of educators who were recently named winners of the second annual Costs of Care and American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Challenge.

Amy N. Ship, MD is an internist and educator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received a B.A.with Honors in English Literature from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in Art History from Columbia University, and her M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Before becoming a doctor, she did curatorial work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum in NY, and was a reporter for a national newspaper. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and served as Chief Resident in Primary Care. She has completed two fellowships in medical education at the Shapiro Institute for Medical Education at BIDMC. She has taught at Harvard Medical School for over 20 years, including directing Patient-Doctor II, precepting in the Primary Care Clerkship, and tutoring and directing Patient-Doctor III. She directs The Developing Physician curriculum at BIDMC currently. Dr. Ship served as an Editor of the Clinical Crossroads conference series, published monthly in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) for over decade. Dr. Ship’s current focuses include humanism in medicine, teaching communication skills, and using arts and literature to enhance empathy. She facilitated the Literature and Medicine program sponsored by the Massachusetts Council for the Humanities at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Ship has received numerous awards for teaching, mentoring, and humanism, and was the recipient of the Kenneth Schwartz Compassionate Caregiver of the Year Award in 2009 and the prestigious S. Robert Stone Award for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 2010.

is a maternal-fetal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital where he leads his department’s efforts in quality and safety and is a professor at Harvard Medical School. He is the current chair of the Committee on Obstetric Practice for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Dr. Nandini Mani is a Hospitalist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mani is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. Her clinical interests include Hospital Quality Improvement, Healthcare Disparities, and International Health. She is dedicated to teaching both medical students and resident physicians in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, and has received an Ambulatory Teaching Award from the MGH Med-Peds residents. She earned her medical degree from the Penn State College of Medicine, and completed her Med-Peds residency at the University of Rochester.

Dr. Ronald D. Siegel is Assistant Professor of Psychology, part time, Harvard Medical School; serves on the Board of Directors and faculty, Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy; is author of The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems, coauthor of Back Sense: A Revolutionary Approach to Halting the Cycle of Chronic Back Pain and Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy; and coeditor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, 2nd Edition.

Dr. Bonnie L. Bermas, is an associate rheumatologist at Robert Breck Brigham Arthritis Center, and an associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Susan Farrell is the Director of the comprehensive clinical skills OSCE examination at Harvard Medical School, and worked as an educator in the Partners Healthcare Office for Graduate Medical Education, before taking her current position as a Program Director at Partners Healthcare International in 2011. Dr. Farrell graduated from Syracuse University with a BS in engineering, and earned her M.D. at Tufts University School of Medicine in 1990. Her clinical training was in emergency medicine and medical toxicology, both at The Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Ameet Sarpatwari is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital based in the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) within the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics. His research draws upon his interdisciplinary training as an epidemiologist and lawyer and focuses on the effects of laws and regulations on therapeutic development, approval, use, and related public health outcomes. Among other projects, he is currently examining the public health implications of variation in state drug product selection laws, the risk of re-identification under HIPAA pathways for data sharing for post-approval drug research, and the comparative safety and effectiveness of biosimilars.

Dr. Cartreine is a clinical psychologist, interactive media producer, and researcher. He is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and teaches CBT to psychiatry residents. Dr. Cartreine is affiliated with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Boston VA Medical Center, and is a co-founder of The EverMind Group, LLC.

Sigmund Hough, Ph.D., ABPP/rp received his A.B. from Columbia College, Columbia University, M.A. in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University, and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Boston University. Dr. Hough holds ABPP board specialization in Rehabilitation Psychology. He is a Fellow in the National Academy of Neuropsychology, registered as a National Health Care Provider in Psychology, licensed in Massachusetts and Maine. He is a clinical rehabilitation neuropsychologist; Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. He has served in the capacity of Clinical Director and Director of Psychological services at private rehabilitation facilities, case reviewer for a nationwide managed care company, and as a clinical service provider in both the public, federal, state and private sector. He has served as Director, Postdoctoral Fellowship Training Program-Boston Consortium in Clinical Psychology. He has conducted nationwide Internship and Postdoctoral Training Site Reviews for the American Psychological Association. He conducts medical facility accreditation site surveys nationwide and internationally for the division of Medical Rehabilitation, CARF. He is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Sexuality and Disability. Recipient of the 2004 Clinical Performance Award from The American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers and the 2005 Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Training from The Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). As the Past Vice President of the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals, he currently serves on the Board of Directors.