Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

Elizabeth Hohmann, MD

Contributor

Dr. Elizabeth Hohmann is an infectious disease specialist, clinical researcher, and director of the fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) core lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hohmann earned her MD from Harvard Medical School, completed a residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and went on to a fellowship in infectious disease medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Primary research interests for Dr. Hohmann include intestinal infections and gut microbiome health, with special interests in salmonellosis, listeriosis, and C. difficile colitis. Dr. Hohmann’s current research focuses on improving the gut microbiome. She marvels at how far this field of medicine has advanced. “When I was in medical school, we did not even know there was a gut microbiome to preserve,” she says. “Now we appreciate how important this can be for many aspects of health.”

Eric Holbrook, MD

Contributor

Eric H. Holbrook, M.D. graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors in Science and from the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse with a Masters in Science and a Degree in Medicine. He completed a National Institutes of Health post-doctoral fellowship and residency in otolaryngology at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University. He completed further training with a fellowship in Rhinology and Sinus Surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center under Dr. Donald Leopold. He has been a member of the full time faculty at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) since 2003, is an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at the Harvard Medical School, and serves as the Chief of the Rhinology Division at MEEI. His principal clinical interests are diseases of the nose and sinuses, chronic rhinosinusitis, endoscopic skull base surgery, and olfactory disorders. His research interests include immunohistochemical characterization of human olfactory tissue, effects of odor exposure on olfactory regeneration, and manipulating human olfactory stem cells for potential restoration of function.

Sigmund Hough, PhD, ABPP/rp

Contributing Editor

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.

Michael Hsu, MD

Guest Contributor

Dr. Michael Hsu is a resident psychiatrist and is currently the chief resident of outpatient psychiatry at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in business and computational biology, he worked at a global health care consulting firm before completing his medical degree at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was awarded the 2021–2022 American Psychiatric Association/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration Substance Abuse Minority Fellowship, and the 2020 John Renner Travel Award by the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. He is passionate about healthcare equity and holistic/integrative approaches to mental health care, and has written and presented about internet gaming disorder, healthcare equity in addiction treatment, cannabis, and digital psychiatry. Following residency, he will pursue a one-year fellowship in addiction psychiatry at Emory University.

Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD

Contributor

Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD, is the Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology and chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His major research interests include epidemiology and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle; gene-environment interactions and risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes; nutritional metabolomics in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease; and nutrition transition, metabolic phenotypes, and cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Hu serves as director of the Dietary Biomarker Development Center at Harvard University. He has published a textbook, Obesity Epidemiology (Oxford University Press), and more than 1,500 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Hu served on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. He has served on the editorial/advisory board of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Diabetes Care, and Clinical Chemistry. Dr. Hu was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.

Thomas Hübl

Guest Contributor

Thomas Hübl is a renowned teacher, and author of Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. Since 2002, he has led dialogue and restoration processes around collective trauma with more than 100,000 people worldwide. He has been teaching workshops on trauma-informed approaches, resilience, and mindfulness at Harvard since 2019.

Jeffery Huffman, MD

Contributor

Dr. Jeffery Huffman is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research focuses on the connections between mental health, healthy behavior, and medical outcomes in patients with heart disease and other chronic conditions. He received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and did his residency and fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Jun Huh, PhD

Contributor

Jun Huh is an associate professor of microbiology and immunobiology at Harvard Medical School. Huh received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and completed postdoctoral training at NYU School of Medicine as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow. He has received the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the Smith Family Award, and was named a Searle and Pew Scholar. His laboratory investigates how the immune system influences the central nervous system by dissecting cytokine and cytokine‑receptor pathways. He also studies host- and bacteria-derived factors that regulate gut inflammation, and aims to develop therapeutics that modulate immune receptors to treat inflammatory and neurological disorders.

Kimberly Humphrey, MD, MPH

Contributor

Dr. Kimberly Humphrey is an emergency physician, a current Fellow in Climate Change and Human Health at Harvard C-CHANGE at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a visiting scholar at the Harvard FXB Center. Her research focuses on the intersection between climate change and health, particularly community and health system adaptation to climate change impacts, and she is passionately involved with advocacy, education, and policy development through NGOs and government-based roles focused on climate change and health.

Kristin Hung, MD

Contributor

Dr. Kristin Hung is board-certified in urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery (URPS). She is an attending urogynecologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and serves as division director of quality and clinical operations and instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hung treats patients with pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence. She specializes in minimally invasive surgical approaches, including vaginal surgery, traditional laparoscopy, and robotic surgeries. Dr. Hung completed her fellowship in URPS at Massachusetts General Hospital and her residency in OB/GYN at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, both in Boston. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Michigan and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor's in history and science. Dr. Hung is a member of the American Urogynecologic Society and serves on its diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. Her research focuses on shared decision-making tools to improve patient care and outcomes, and health disparities in the treatment of pelvic floor conditions.

Nasrien Ibrahim, MD

Contributor

Nasrien Ibrahim, MD, is a board certified cardiologist in the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Section within the Division of Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also Associate Director of the Resynchronization & Cardiac Therapeutics Program at MGH. Dr. Ibrahim takes care of patients with advanced heart failure, left ventricular assist devices, and heart transplants. She completed her internal medicine residency and general cardiology fellowship at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Cincinnati, OH. Next, she completed a fellowship in advanced heart failure and cardiac transplant at the University of Colorado in Denver, CO. Following that, Dr. Ibrahim completed a fellowship in clinical research at MGH. She is involved in several research studies in heart failure involving biomarkers and participate in several clinical trials all aimed at improving the management and outcomes of patients with heart failure.

Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc

Contributor

Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc, is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and is based at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Iezzoni studies health care experiences of persons with disability. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the author of Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Supporting People with Disabilities Living in Their Homes and Communities.

James P. Ioli, DPM

Contributor

James P. Ioli, DPM, is Chief of Podiatry at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School and has been a practicing podiatrist for over 30 years.

Eric Isselbacher, MD, MSc

Contributor

Dr. Eric Isselbacher is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and holds the Edmund N. Ansin Endowed Chair in Healthcare Transformation. He is also senior director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab and co-director of the Thoracic Aortic Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Dr. Isselbacher is the co-founder and co-principal investigator of the International Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection, the world's largest registry of patients with aortic dissection. Dr. Isselbacher received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed both a residency and fellowship at MGH.

Brian C. Jacobson, MD, MPH, FASGE, AGAF

Contributor

Dr. Brian C. Jacobson is a gastroenterologist and the director of program development for the gastroenterology division at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Jacobson cares for people with a broad range of gastrointestinal problems, and has expertise in advanced endoscopic procedures for the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal cancers. His current research focuses on several aspects of colonoscopy quality and effectiveness. In addition to publishing numerous research articles and book chapters, Dr. Jacobson has co-authored several guidelines and standards of practice for the gastroenterology community. He has also served in leadership roles within several gastroenterological organizations, and has received many awards for teaching, mentoring, quality improvement, and clinical care excellence. Dr. Jacobson received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College, his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a master's in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. When not working, Dr. Jacobson enjoys woodworking, baking, reading, and being part of a close-knit family.

Ted A. James, MD

Contributor

Dr. Ted James is the Chief of Breast Surgical Oncology and Co-Director of the Breast Care Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is an advocate of patient-centered care and believes that treatment should always incorporate the individual priorities and values of each patient. Dr. James works with national health organizations to improve outcomes and ensure that patients receive the best care possible.

James Januzzi, MD

Contributor

James L. Januzzi, MD, is the Hutter Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a staff cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Senior Cardiometabolic Faculty at Baim Institute for Clinical Research. After completing his undergraduate studies at Holy Cross College in 1988, Dr. Januzzi graduated at the top-ranked student at New York Medical College, and subsequently performed a residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and fellowship in Cardiology and Cardiac Ultrasound at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He joined the Cardiology Division at MGH in 2000. Dr. Januzzi is a clinician, teacher and clinical trialist. His research has contributed to the understanding of cardiac biomarker testing, where his studies have set international standards for use in diagnosis, prognosis, and management of patients suffering from acutely decompensated heart failure, chronic heart failure as well as those with acute coronary syndromes. Dr Januzzi has published more than 500 manuscripts, book chapters and review articles, has edited two text books on cardiac biomarker testing and the MGH Cardiology Board Review Textbook. He is among the top 1% most cited researchers, according to Clarivate/Web of Science. He is an Associate Editor at both Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure. He is currently the chair of the American College of Cardiology Task Force on Expert Consensus Decision Pathway Documents and will join the Board of Trustees of the American College of Cardiology in 2019. He has participated in numerous guideline and consensus documents in cardiovascular medicine. Since 2005, Dr. Januzzi has also served on the Medical Staff of the Boston Red Sox Baseball Club.

Sogol Javaheri, MD, MPH

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Sogol Javaheri is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a physician in the division of sleep and circadian rhythm disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She graduated from Case Western Reserve University with her MD as well as a masters in bioethics. She completed an internal medicine residency and a sleep fellowship at Brigham and Women's, and subsequently obtained her MPH at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In addition to seeing patients, she serves as the director of the Atrial Fibrillation Center of Excellence Sleep Clinic, and as associate program director for the MGB Clinical Sleep Fellowship program. Her primary research focus is sleep disorders and cardiovascular disease, and she is currently leading a clinical trial among patients with obstructive sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation.

Jeff Meade

Health Writer

Jeff Meade is a health writer and editorial consultant with interests in consumer health and health policy. He is a former news director for the Webby Award–winning intelihealth.com, and senior editor/producer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH

Contributing Editor

Ashish K. Jha, M.D., M.P.H. is Director for the Harvard Global Health Institute, K.T. Li Professor of International Health & Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a practicing Internal Medicine physician at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Dr. Jha received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and trained in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco where he also served as Chief Medical Resident. He completed his General Medicine fellowship from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and received his M.P.H. from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Jha’s major research interests lie in improving the quality and costs of healthcare with a specific focus on the impact of policy efforts. His work has focused on a broad set of issues including transparency and public reporting of provider performance, financial incentives, health information technology, and leadership, and the roles they play in fixing healthcare delivery systems.

Tien Jiang, DMD, MEd

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Tien Jiang, DMD, MEd, is an assistant professor in the department of oral health policy and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM). As a prosthodontist, Dr. Jiang teaches in the HSDM predoctoral preclinic and clinic, and practices in Littleton, MA. Dr. Jiang’s interests include interprofessional education and practice, health literacy, patient education, and curricular reform. Dr. Jiang is the 2023 recipient of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine Fellowship in honor of Aina M. Auskaps, DMD, for her work in health communication and patient education. Dr. Jiang earned her doctor of dental medicine degree at HSDM. Afterward, she moved to the Midwest to specialize in prosthodontics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Jiang also completed a master's of education in instructional leadership at UIC College of Education.

Anthony Joseph, MD

Contributor

Anthony Joseph, MD, specializes in the medical, laser and surgical treatment of conditions that affect the retina and vitreous. His areas of expertise and interest include macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease, retinal vascular occlusions, macular holes, epiretinal membranes, retinal detachments, and proliferative vitreoretinopathy. Prior to medical school, Dr. Joseph attended Stanford University where he earned bachelor’s degrees with distinction in both Biological Science and Economics. He also earned his Master’s degree in Information Science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Joseph received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine. He completed his Internship in ophthalmology at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI and his ophthalmology residency at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, University of California at Los Angeles. He went on to complete his fellowship training in vitreoretinal surgery at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston and the New England Eye Center at Tufts Medical Center. Dr. Joseph is a Board-certified ophthalmologist and member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Medical Association, the American Medical Informatics Association, and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He has authored numerous research articles and has presented his work nationally.

Richard Joseph, MD

Contributor

Dr. Richard Joseph is the founder of VIM Medicine, cofounder of Vital CxNs, a practicing clinician in the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in primary care/internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital after receiving his medical and business degrees from Stanford University. Dr. Joseph designed and currently conducts an intensive group-based lifestyle program, and is a coauthor of The Lifestyle Medicine Handbook: An Introduction to the Power of Healthy Habits. Prior to his medical training, Dr. Joseph worked as a CSCS-certified personal trainer, helping numerous clients toward their health and fitness goals. His background in athletics and performance training, combined with his practice of lifestyle medicine and weight management, informs his vision of holistic health and well-being. Dr. Joseph aspires to help bridge the gap between the health and fitness industry and traditional health care to create a prevention-oriented, performance-focused, community-centric, and equitable model of care.

Stephen Juraschek, MD, PhD

Contributor

Dr. Stephen Juraschek is a physician investigator at Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at both Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's department of nutrition. His research focuses on healthy food, food insecurity, blood pressure variability outside of the clinic, orthostatic hypotension, gout, and falls. Dr. Juraschek received his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and earned a doctorate in cardiovascular disease epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Markos Kalligeros, MD

Contributor

Dr. Markos Kalligeros is a gastroenterology fellow at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). His research interests include MASLD/MASH, cardiometabolic risk factors in chronic liver disease, advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis, noninvasive fibrosis assessment, and prevention of hepatic decompensation and liver-related mortality. He received his medical degree from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He served as resident and chief resident in internal medicine at Brown University, followed by a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at BIDMC.

Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

List of Experts

Elizabeth Hohmann, MD

Eric Holbrook, MD

Sigmund Hough, PhD, ABPP/rp

Michael Hsu, MD

Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD

Thomas Hübl

Jeffery Huffman, MD

Jun Huh, PhD

Kimberly Humphrey, MD, MPH

Kristin Hung, MD

Nasrien Ibrahim, MD

Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc

James P. Ioli, DPM

Eric Isselbacher, MD, MSc

Brian C. Jacobson, MD, MPH, FASGE, AGAF

Ted A. James, MD

James Januzzi, MD

Sogol Javaheri, MD, MPH

Jeff Meade

Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH

Tien Jiang, DMD, MEd

Anthony Joseph, MD

Richard Joseph, MD

Stephen Juraschek, MD, PhD

Markos Kalligeros, MD