Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

Chirag Patel, PhD

Contributor

Chirag Patel, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. His long-term research goal is to address problems in human health and disease by developing computational and informatics methods to reason over both genomic, metagenomic, and exposomic information, spanning molecules to populations toward more precise medicine, specifically type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Patel received his graduate degrees in biomedical informatics (MS, PhD) from Stanford University. https://www.chiragjpgroup.org/

Payal Patel, MD

Contributor

Dr. Payal Patel is a dermatology research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her clinical and research interests include autoimmune disease and procedural dermatology. She is part of the Cutaneous Biology Research Center, where she investigates medical applications of laser technology.

Vikram Patel, MBBS, PhD

Contributor

Vikram Patel, MBBS, PhD, is The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health at Harvard Medical School. He was the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Laureate in Global Health in 2019, and was listed in Time magazine’s 100 most influential persons in 2015. To get involved with the GMH@Harvard initiative, write to: GMH_admin@hms.harvard.edu.

Daniel Pendick

Former Executive Editor, Harvard Men's Health Watch

Daniel Pendick is a former executive editor of Harvard Men’s Health Watch. He previously served as editor and chief writer for the Cleveland Clinic Men’s Health Advisor and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine’s Focus On Healthy Aging. Dan earned a master of arts degree in the history of science and medicine from the University of Wisconsin in 1992, and was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT in 1998–99. He is also a lecturer in the Professional Writing Program at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he teaches the next generation of physicians and biomedical researchers how to communicate more effectively with each other and the general public.

Numa Perez, MD

Contributor

Dr. Perez is a general surgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, and one of the 2018–20 Healthcare Innovation Research Fellows at the MGH Healthcare Transformation Lab. His research lies at the intersection of healthcare outcomes and disparities, and the use of mobile healthcare technology to improve patient experience while upholding equity. After completing his surgery residency, Dr. Perez hopes to pursue a career in pediatric surgery.

Edward Phillips, MD

Contributor

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.

Shiv Pillai, PhD, MBBS

Contributor

Shiv Pillai, PhD, MBBS, is a professor of medicine and health sciences and technology at Harvard Medical School, director of the Harvard immunology PhD and master’s in medical sciences programs, director of MD student research for the Harvard-MIT health sciences and technology program, and program director of an NIH-funded autoimmune center of excellence at Massachusetts General Hospital, based at the Ragon Institute.

Srini Pillay, MD

Contributor

Srini Pillay, M.D. (www.drsrinipillay.com) is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (Part-Time) at Harvard Medical School. After graduating as the overall top medical student in South Africa, he completed his residency in psychiatry at McLean Hospital—Harvard’s largest freestanding psychiatric hospital. There, he won more national awards than any resident in his class, and was one of the top three award winners in the US. Srini has completed fellowships in Psychopharmacology, Structural Brain Imaging and Functional Brain Imaging. In addition, he was Director of the Outpatient Anxiety Disorders Program at McLean Hospital. Srini was nationally funded by NIDA and was a co-investigator on many NIMH grants during his seventeen years of studying functional brain imaging at McLean Hospital, where he was Director of the Panic Disorders Research Program in the Brain Imaging Center. During this time he maintained an active clinical practice and still does. Srini is invested in translating research findings in psychiatry for the general public. A keen but non-nihilistic critic of certainty in any realm, he is invested in honoring qualitative and evidenced-based approaches from thoughtful examinations of psychological vulnerabilities. Srini received the “Books for a Better Life” award for his book, “Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear (Rodale, 2010). As an expert in brain-based leadership development and CEO of NeuroBusiness Group (www.neurobusinessgroup.com), he has also written “Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders (FT Press, 2011.)” Srini is also a LinkedIn educator who teaches people how to manage their depression in the workplace: (https://www.lynda.com/search?q=srini+pillay) Srini has contributed to developing leaders at The World Bank, IMF, United Nations, Fortune 500 Food and Beverage Companies, Lockheed Martin and many others. He is internationally recognized as an expert in applied brain science and human behavior, having been invited to speak throughout the US, London, Greece, Paris, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, Brazil and India. His expertise has also frequently been sought out by the media having been featured on CNN, Fox, NPR, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider and various other outlets. His upcoming book, a deeper examination of focus, distraction and human complexity will be published by Random House (Ballantine) in the Spring of 2017. Srini is also a musician and poet.

Jorge Plutzky, MD

Contributor

Dr. Jorge Plutzky is director of preventive cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and is on the Harvard Medical School faculty. In his position within preventive cardiology, Dr. Plutzky directs the BWH Lipid Clinic and the BWH Pollin Center for Women’s Cardiovascular Health. Dr. Plutzky is a recognized expert on preventive cardiology issues, with a particular focus on how metabolic abnormalities like diabetes, obesity, and dyslipidemia impact atherosclerosis. Dr. Plutzky received his BA, with highest distinction as an Echols Scholar, from the University of Virginia, and his MD from the University of North Carolina, with distinction for research accomplishments during medical school through an NIH fellowship. Internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship were completed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, which included a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Melanie Pogach, MD

Contributor

Dr. Melanie Pogach is a critical care and sleep medicine physician, the associate director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Sleep Center, and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is committed to clinical care, education, innovation, and research as they apply to respiratory and sleep health. Her clinical passion lies in understanding and treating complicated sleep-breathing disorders, circadian dysregulation, and chronic respiratory failure. She has developed a chronic respiratory failure management program, and is conducting clinical research on noninvasive ventilation in patients with advanced COPD.

Rani Polak, MD, Chef, MBA

Contributor

Dr. Rani Polak is the founding director of both the Culinary Healthcare Education Fundamentals (CHEF) Coaching program at the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and the Center of Lifestyle Medicine at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; as well as a Research Associate at the Department of PM & R, Harvard Medical School. Prior to this position he completed a Research Fellowship in Lifestyle Medicine at Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, and a residency in Family Medicine at the Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. Rani had the good fortune to be the founder of the Hadassah Healthy Cooking and Lifestyle Center and the Israeli Society of Lifestyle Medicine. His first lifestyle intervention won the Hebrew University’s Kaye Award Prize for innovation and his book, Delicious Diabetic Recipes, is a gold best seller. Dr. Polak’s focus, along with clinical care, is on nutrition education, and on clinical and translational research relating to culinary medicine and medical education. His current work is concentrated on the Culinary Coaching approach, which aims to improve nutrition through culinary training combined with health coaching principles. This approach was used through: 1) Patients CHEF Coaching telemedicine program, aimed at improving eating behavior of patients with cardio-metabolic risk factors. This was implemented at HomeBase, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and at dozens of practices nationwide, and 2) Clinician CHEF Coaching tele-training program, aimed at training clinicians in how to provide effective Culinary Healthcare Education. This was implemented in the Yale Preventive Medicine/Internal Medicine residency program, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and was recently approved by Harvard Medical School for Continuing Medical Education credits. Dr. Polak’s work has been featured in many media outlets including Scientific American, Herald Tribute, Jerusalem Post, and USA Today.

Martina Porter, MD

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Martina Porter is the vice chair for research and academics in the department of dermatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is also the director of the Clinical Laboratory for Epidemiology and Applied Research in Skin (CLEARS), and the co-leader of the Pathogens, Immunology, and Inflammation Translational Research Hub at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is also the chair of the American Academy of Dermatology's Patient Safety and Quality Committee. She specializes in treating immune-mediated dermatologic conditions, including hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and inflammatory bowel disease–related dermatoses, with biologics and small molecules, and leads both investigator-initiated and phase 2 and 3 industry-sponsored clinical trials in these disease indications. Dr. Porter completed a combined dermatology residency and clinical research fellowship at Roger Williams Medical Center/Boston University and Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as a second research fellowship focused on clinical trials at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is an assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

Heather Potts, PhD

Contributor

Heather Potts, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who earned her doctorate in school psychology at Syracuse University. She completed her internship at Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine's department of pediatrics and at Springfield Public Schools, and her postdoctoral fellowship at SIU. Prior to her graduate studies, she earned a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from The George Washington University, and provided counseling and transition services to high school students with disabilities. She joined the outpatient psychiatry services team at Boston Children's Hospital in January 2020 to deliver clinical psychological services and specialty care for children and adolescents with ADHD.

Anthony Prince, MD

Contributor

Dr. Anthony Prince is an associate surgeon in the division of otolaryngology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and serves as an instructor in the department of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Harvard Medical School. He completed residency training in the department of otolaryngology–head and neck at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. His clinical practice focuses on the surgical management of obstructive sleep apnea, sino-nasal disorders, as well as head and neck surgical pathology. He currently leads a multidisciplinary program focusing on nerve stimulation as treatment for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in people not successful with other therapies.

Mark Proctor, MD

Contributing Editor

Mark Proctor, M.D. is the Director of the Brain Injury Center and Interim Neurosurgeon in Chief at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is past-Chairman of the Board of the Thinkfirst National Injury Prevention Foundation, and continues to serves on the Board. He has major clinical interest in brain and spine injury, congenital spinal disorders and craniofacial malformations. He is Chairman-elect of the Pediatric Section of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and incoming President of the New England Neurosurgical Society.

Stuart Quan, MD

Contributing Editor

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.

Loren Rabinowitz, MD

Contributor

Dr. Loren Rabinowitz is an instructor in medicine Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, and an attending physician in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at BIDMC. Her clinical research is focused on the intersection of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and women’s health. She is passionate about achieving gender equity in medicine and gastroenterology, and has led multicenter national studies on gender dynamics in medical education, mentorship, and parental leave policies. Her work has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet GI & Hepatology, Academic Medicine, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Gastroenterology, and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, among others.

David Ramsey, MD, PhD, MPH

Contributor

David J. Ramsey, MD, PhD, MPH, is currently the Director of Ophthalmic Research at the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, a part of Beth Israel Lahey Health. As a specialist in retinal disease, he performs surgery and sees patients in Peabody and Burlington, MA. Dr. Ramsey received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine in 2008. He completed his residency in Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2009-2012) and afterwards a combined medical/surgical fellowship in vitreoretinal diseases at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (2012-2014). His research focuses on the prevention and detection of retinal diseases such as diabetes, macular degeneration, and glaucoma.

Vikram Rangan, MD

Contributor

Dr. Vikram Rangan is a gastroenterologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. He joined the faculty in 2018, and is part of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and motility team at BIDMC, which specializes in the diagnosis and management of GI motility disorders, as well as clinical research into novel treatment approaches for these conditions. Dr Rangan’s clinical and research interests include acid reflux, disorders of the stomach, and IBS.

Prashant Rao, MBBS

Contributor

Dr. Prashant Rao is a cardiologist and physician-scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center specializing in sports cardiology and cardiovascular genetics. He is also an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rao received his bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (MBBS) from King’s College London, followed by residency at the University of Arizona and cardiology fellowship training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His research is supported by the NIH and is focused on understanding the biological drivers of fitness, performance, and cardiometabolic health.

John J. Ratey, MD

Contributor

John J. Ratey MD, is an associate clinical professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognized expert in Neuropsychiatry. He has published over 60 peer reviewed articles and 11 books, including the groundbreaking ADHD “Driven to Distraction” series, and “Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.” Honored by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society for Advancing the Profession, Ratey lectures around the world in additional to maintaining a private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Los Angeles, California. He enjoys running, weight training and hiking with his wife. Web site: Johnratey.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JohnRateyMD/ Twitter: @jratey

Heidi Rayala, MD, PhD

Contributor

Dr. Heidi Rayala is an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and a practicing urologic surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She specializes in the management of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), elevated PSA, and prostate cancer, with a focus on helping patients navigate the intersection of these conditions. Dr. Rayala earned her MD and PhD in molecular biology at Washington University School of Medicine, followed by urologic residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in urologic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Rayala lectures nationally on the medical management of BPH and overactive bladder in the aging male population. Her research centers on improving the patient experience during office-based urologic procedures, including pioneering studies on the use of low-dose nitrous oxide to reduce pain and anxiety during prostate biopsies.

Timothy Rebbeck, PhD

Contributor

Timothy R. Rebbeck is a cancer researcher and professor who works to prevent cancer and reduce unfair differences in who gets and dies from the disease. He is the Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention, and helped create major programs at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that focus on stopping cancer before it starts and improving cancer care around the world. His work looks at how genes and other biological factors affect a person’s chance of getting cancer, with a special focus on why prostate cancer hits some groups, especially men of African descent, harder than others. He also directs a National Cancer Institute–funded program that trains the next generation of cancer researchers, especially those working in Africa and other underserved regions.

Niyoti Reddy, MD

Contributor

Dr. Niyoti Reddy is currently an advanced fellow of obesity medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She is a board-certified internist and has completed a fellowship in endocrinology and diabetes. She is also pursuing a fellowship in contemplative medicine, an innovative 12-month program to cultivate leaders committed to addressing challenges in the healthcare system. The core training is based on the teachings of the historical Buddha. Dr. Reddy has been practicing yoga and meditation for several years, and has chosen to be an obesity medicine specialist because it is the most impactful way for her to help people.

Natalia Redyk, PT, DPT

Contributor

Natalia Redyk is a physical therapist at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Center’s outpatient facility in Orleans, MA. She works with older adults utilizing a fitness-forward approach.

Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

List of Experts

Chirag Patel, PhD

Payal Patel, MD

Vikram Patel, MBBS, PhD

Daniel Pendick

Numa Perez, MD

Edward Phillips, MD

Shiv Pillai, PhD, MBBS

Srini Pillay, MD

Jorge Plutzky, MD

Melanie Pogach, MD

Rani Polak, MD, Chef, MBA

Martina Porter, MD

Heather Potts, PhD

Anthony Prince, MD

Mark Proctor, MD

Stuart Quan, MD

Loren Rabinowitz, MD

David Ramsey, MD, PhD, MPH

Vikram Rangan, MD

Prashant Rao, MBBS

John J. Ratey, MD

Heidi Rayala, MD, PhD

Timothy Rebbeck, PhD

Niyoti Reddy, MD

Natalia Redyk, PT, DPT