Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

Jeffrey Ecker, MD

Contributing Editor

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

Nolan Edwards, DPT, CSCS

Contributor

Nolan Edwards is an outpatient physical therapist with Mass General Brigham Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and a group fitness coach at Life Time. With a clinical focus in orthopedics, Nolan is passionate about helping individuals move and exercise safely to build strength, prevent injury, and maintain active, healthy lifestyles. He combines evidence-based rehabilitation techniques with practical fitness coaching to support clients at every stage of their wellness journey. Outside of work, Nolan enjoys spending time with his family, golfing with friends, and cheering on all the Boston sports teams.

Robert R. Edwards, Ph.D.

Contributing Editor

Dr. Edwards is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Pain Management Center at Brigham & Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School. He attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham, completing a Ph.D. in Medical Psychology and a Master’s in Public Health. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pain Psychology at Johns Hopkins, before joining the faculty in Psychiatry there. He moved to Brigham & Women’s Hospital in 2008. Dr. Edwards functions in a clinical capacity as a psychologist at the BWH Pain Management Center, where his responsibilities include assessment and treatment of chronic pain patients referred to the Pain Center. He screens for candidacy for opioid therapy and implantable devices and offers behavioral medicine services such as biofeedback for pain management. He mentors junior faculty members in several Departments and institutions, he has published numerous scientific articles, reviews, and book chapters on pain, and he serves on the editorial boards of several pain and psychology journals. Dr. Edwards’ research focuses on biobehavioral aspects of acute and chronic pain. Specifically, he studies individual differences in pain responses, and the neurobiological mechanisms by which psychosocial processes shape those individual differences. Some of his current NIH-funded work focuses on the impact of pain-related catastrophizing on neuroendocrine and inflammatory responses to pain, as well as individual differences in central nervous system pain processing, and their implications for long-term pain-related outcomes. He is involved in several studies that use functional neuroimaging techniques to assess the neurobiology of pain-related thoughts and emotions. In addition, his research group is working in the area of predicting and preventing misuse of opioids by patients with persistent pain.

Andrew Eidelberg, MD

Contributor

Dr. Andrew Eidelberg is a third-year internal medicine resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. After graduating from the University of Miami and Weill Cornell Medical College, he decided to pursue a career in gastroenterology, specifically inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He is passionate about the intersection of LGBTQ+ sexual health and how it relates to gastrointestinal conditions to provide holistic and affirming care to all patients.

David J. Einstein, MD

Contributor

Dr. David J. Einstein is a genitourinary medical oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. In addition to patient care, he leads clinical/translational research in immunotherapy and targeted approaches to prostate, kidney, and bladder cancers. He is a medical advisor to the Boston Prostate Cancer Support Group and the Massachusetts Prostate Cancer Coalition.

Todd Ellerin, MD

Contributor

Dr. Todd Ellerin has been director of infectious diseases and vice chairman of the department of medicine at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, MA for 17 years. He is an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. Additionally, he serves as medical director of the Weymouth Department of Public Health, and was the medical technical specialist for SARS, H1NI, Ebola, and now 2019-nCoronavirus at South Shore Health.

Lisa Ellis

Executive Editor, Online Special Health Reports

Lisa Ellis has been Executive Editor of Harvard Health Publishing’s short-form, online-only Special Health Reports since 2018. She previously was a writer and editor with two award-winning consumer health information websites, InteliHealth (with medical review by Harvard Medical School) and Simple Steps to Better Dental Health. She began her career as a journalist, writing and editing for daily newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Rachel Reiff Ellis

Health Writer

Rachel Reiff Ellis has been a freelance health writer and editor for over a decade. She is a regular contributor to WebMD and Fortune Well, with additional work appearing in Medscape, Prevention, O Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Health, and Women’s Day. Previously, Ellis was a contributor to the nonprofit health organization Global Healthy Living Foundation, worked full-time in communications at Emory University, and was on the editorial staff of Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine.

Lauren Elson, MD

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Lauren Elson is board certified in sports medicine and physical medicine and rehabilitation. She attended Tufts University School of Medicine, did her residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia/Cornell, and completed a fellowship in sports medicine at Stanford University. A former professional dancer and instructor of jazz, ballet, tap, hip-hop, African, swing, and salsa, she understands the goals and challenges of the physically active patient. She is a board member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, the Boston Dance Alliance, and Abilities Dance Company. Dr. Elson is the chair of the Freelance Dancer/Independent Dance Committee for the Dance USA Taskforce on Dance Health, and is on the programming committee for the Performing Arts Medical Association. She has lectured nationally and internationally on dance health and injury prevention to dancers and professional organizations.

Lawrence Epstein, MD

Contributor

Lawrence Epstein, MD is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the Assistant Medical Director of the Sleep Disorders Service and Program Director for the sleep medicine fellowship program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care Medicine and Sleep Medicine. He is a Past President of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Medical Editor of the Harvard Medical School Special Health Report: Improving Sleep.

Katharine Esselen, MD

Contributor

Dr. Kate Esselen is a gynecologic oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. She earned a biology degree with honors from Brown University, then a combined M.D. and M.B.A. from Tufts University School of Medicine. She completed her obstetrics and gynecology residency at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals, and a gynecologic oncology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Christopher Estiverne, MD

Contributor

Originally from New Jersey, Dr. Christopher Estiverne is currently a staff nephrologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he specializes in care of patients with chronic kidney disease. He completed his medical degree and Internal Medicine training at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and is a recent graduate from the combined Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital nephrology fellowship program. His other interests include studying health care inequities and medical education.

Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

List of Experts

Jeffrey Ecker, MD

Nolan Edwards, DPT, CSCS

Robert R. Edwards, Ph.D.

Andrew Eidelberg, MD

David J. Einstein, MD

Todd Ellerin, MD

Lisa Ellis

Rachel Reiff Ellis

Lauren Elson, MD

Lawrence Epstein, MD

Katharine Esselen, MD

Christopher Estiverne, MD