Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

John Ross, MD, FIDSA

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

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.

Natalia S. Rost, MD, MPH, FAAN, FAHA

Contributor

Natalia S. Rost, MD, MPH, FAAN, FAHA, is chief of the stroke division at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) department of neurology, and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. A cum laude graduate of Boston University School of Medicine, she also holds a master of public health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Rost trained in neurology and vascular neurology at MGH and Brigham and Women's Hospital residency and fellowship programs. Dr. Rost is internationally recognized for her expertise in vascular neurology, neuroimaging of cerebrovascular disease, and big-data science applications to personalized clinical outcome prediction in acute stroke. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and is coauthor of the Harvard Medical School Special Health Report Stroke: Strategies to prevent, treat, and recover from a "brain attack" and the MGH Handbook of Neurology. Dr. Rost is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and American Heart Association, former president of the Boston board of the American Heart Association (2014–2016), scientific chair of the 2022 NINDS Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias Summit, and she serves as associate editor of the journal Stroke.

Christian Ruff, MD, MPH

Contributor

Christian Thomas Ruff, MD, MPH, Director, Genetics Core Laboratory; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts Christian T. Ruff, MD, MPH is the Director of General Cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Neurobiology and earned his medical degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr Ruff is an investigator in the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) Study Group and serves as the Director of the Genetics Core Laboratory and as Co-Director of the Clinical Events Committee. He has specific expertise in atrial fibrillation, risk stratification and implementation of antithrombotic therapy for stroke prevention, as well as the treatment and prevention of venous thromboembolism.

Christina Ruggeri, PT, DPT, NCS

Contributor

Christina Ruggeri earned her doctor of physical therapy degree at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions in 2018, and became an APTA board-certified neurologic specialist in 2022. She practices at the Spaulding Outpatient Center in Salem, MA, where she is experienced in caring for patients with a variety of medically complex conditions and injuries. Christina is a member of the Spaulding North Shore Innovative Sports Medicine Team, where she is involved in aquatic therapy, wheelchair evaluations, and fittings in the brace clinic. Christina has assisted with adaptive kayaking and adaptive golf through Spaulding’s adaptive sports program, and advocates for the program to patients who may benefit. Christina also works in acute care at Salem Hospital.

Emily S. Ruiz, MD, MPH

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Emily Ruiz, MD, MPH, is an associate physician at the Mohs and Dermatologic Surgery Center at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center; an instructor in dermatology at Harvard Medical School; and director of the High-Risk Skin Cancer Clinic at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Ruiz received her undergraduate degree from Duke University, medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, and master of public health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed an internship in internal medicine at New York University School of Medicine, dermatology residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and fellowship in micrographic surgery and dermatologic oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Elisabeth J. Ryan, JD, MPH

Guest Contributor

Elisabeth Ryan, JD, MPH, is the Legal Fellow at the Northeastern University School of Law Center for Health Policy and Law. She has formerly practiced as a public defender and as deputy general counsel for the Massachusetts public safety executive office. She currently heads Public Health Law Watch and her work focuses on the intersection of criminal justice and public health.

Katherine Sakmar, MD

Contributor

Dr. Katherine Sakmar is a physician in the department of internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her interests include hypertension and medical education. She treats outpatients at the MGH Comprehensive Hypertension Center and the inpatient medicine service at MGH. Dr. Sakmar earned her medical degree with honors at the University of Chicago, followed by a residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Maureen Salamon

Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch

Maureen Salamon is the executive editor of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. She also writes for the Harvard Health Letter, Harvard Heart Letter, and Harvard Men’s Health Watch, as well as for Harvard Health Publishing’s flagship website. She began her career as a newspaper reporter and later covered health and medicine for a wide variety of websites, magazines, and hospitals. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN.com, WebMD, Medscape, and HealthDay, among other major outlets. Maureen earned a BA in print journalism from Penn State University.

Meghan Salamon, MS, RDN, LDN, CPT

Contributor

Meghan Salamon is a registered dietitian at the Weight Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has a passion for and background in bariatrics, GLP-1 and weight-loss medication nutrition therapy, as well as behavioral weight management. Meghan received her bachelor of science degree in dietetics at Boston University and completed her master of science in nutrition and dietetic internship at Saint Elizabeth University. She is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Outside of the Weight Center, Meghan is a certified personal trainer who coaches group fitness in the Boston area.

Suzanne Salamon, MD

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Suzanne Salamon is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is a geriatrician and practices primary care geriatrics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she is the associate chief for clinical geriatrics. She is board certified in internal medicine and geriatric medicine. She is the geriatrics editor of the Harvard Health Letter, and has been the medical editor for Harvard Health Publishing Special Health Reports including Better Balance and Aging in Place. She is active in community public health, serving on the board of the Brookline Senior Center and writing a monthly column for their newsletter called “Ask a Geriatrician,” and she belongs to the Medical Reserve Corps. (Her mother, who just turned 100, lives with her and her family.)

Daniel Sands, MD, MPH

Contributor

Dr. Daniel Sands earned a bachelor of science degree from Brown University, his M.D. from Ohio State University, and a master of public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, received internal medicine training at Boston City Hospital, and did fellowships in clinical computing and general medicine at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (formerly Beth Israel Hospital). Dr. Sands is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and practices primary care internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he also teaches residents and medical students. He is also co-founder and chief advocacy officer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Kathyana P. Santiago Mangual

Contributor

Kathyana P. Santiago Mangual is a clinical research fellow in dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She is also a medical student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and will be graduating in 2025.

Danielle L. Sarno, MD

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Danielle Sarno is the director of interventional pain management in the department of neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an instructor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. She is the founding co-director of the Harvard Interventional Pain Simulation Center, where she is developing and studying an interventional spine simulation–based education curriculum for physicians specializing in pain medicine. She has written widely on pain care and the spine, and presented her research nationally and internationally. Dr. Sarno received a Pillars of Excellence Award for integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion from Mass General Brigham, and a “20 Under 40” award from the North American Spine Society. She co-directs a virtual integrative program (www.finerprogram.org) for people with chronic pain, which aligns with her mission to broadly increase access to pain management resources and improve quality of life. Instagram: Danielle Sarno, MD

Ameet Sarpatwari, JD, PhD

Contributing Editor

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.

David Scales, MPhil, MD, PhD

Contributor

David Scales, MPhil, MD, PhD is a physician, sociologist and faculty member at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School. David received his BA in Chemistry and American History from the University of Pennsylvania, received a scholarship to study History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine at Cambridge University then completed his MD and PhD degrees at Yale University, where his dissertation focused on the World Health Organization’s efforts to track and manage the spread of diseases across international borders. His post-doctoral work at HealthMap.org included working on BioMosaic, a Centers for Disease Control project mapping the intersection of demography, migration and infectious diseases and volunteering for SyriaTracker, a non-profit tracking human rights abuses in Syria. David completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, where he currently works as a Hospitalist. David’s clinical interests focus on providing care to the medically underserved both in the US and in the Middle East. Focusing on migrants and refugees, he works with local NGOs Questscope and the Lajee Center, in Jordan and Palestine respectively, advising them as they address structural determinants of health by promoting agency and minimizing health inequalities. With a certificate in medical interpreting in Levantine Arabic, David’s writing centers on medical communication – between healthcare providers, in the doctor-patient relationship and to the general public. He has written for Aeon, MedPage Today and is a contributor to WBUR’s CommonHealth.

C.W. Schmidt

Editor, Harvard Medical School Annual Report on Prostate Diseases

C.W. Schmidt is an award-winning freelance science writer based in Portland, Maine. In addition to writing for Harvard Health Publishing, he has written for Science magazine, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Environmental Health Perspectives, Nature Biotechnology, and The Washington Post.

Zev Schuman-Olivier, MD

Contributor

Dr. Schuman-Olivier is the Medical Director, Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance. He is also an Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and a board-certified addiction psychiatrist with expertise in opioid use disorder treatment and substance abuse treatment for people with co-occurring disorders. After graduating from Tufts University School of Medicine, he completed psychiatry residency at Harvard Medical School (HMS)/Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), and the HMS addiction psychiatry fellowship. He trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Addiction Recovery Management Service, specializing in addiction treatment with young adults. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society opioids task force. He received the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry Young Investigator Award for research on buprenorphine diversion. He is funded through the NIH Science of Behavior Change Initiative to investigate how mindfulness influences self-regulation and medical regimen adherence. With NIDA funding through the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (www.c4tbh.org) at Dartmouth, he has been developing MySafeRx, an integrated mobile platform for enhancing buprenorphine adherence and diversion prevention among young adults with opioid use disorders. He is on the Board of Directors of the 501(c)3 scientific non-profit organization, MySafeRx, Inc., which aims to develop, evaluate, implement and disseminate technology-based solutions to adherence in mental health and addiction treatment.

Lee H. Schwamm, MD

Contributor

Dr. Lee Schwamm graduated from Harvard Medical School and practices neurocritical care and vascular neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also serves as the director of the Center for TeleHealth. He currently leads virtual care activities across the Partners Healthcare System as vice president of virtual care in Partners Digital Health. He is a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and active clinical researcher, and the author of over 400 peer-reviewed articles describing his pioneering work in telehealth/virtual care, systems of stroke care, quality improvement science, and advocacy. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, among others.

Nandita S. Scott, MD

Contributor

Dr. Nandita S. Scott is the Ellertson Family Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine, and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also director emerita of the Mass General Brigham Women’s Heart Health Program, and the inaugural director of Mass General Brigham Cardiovascular Medicine. Dr. Scott earned her MD from the University of Ottawa Medical School in Ontario, Canada, where she also held positions as chief of internal medicine and chief cardiology resident. She also completed a fellowship in echocardiography at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Sherry Scovell, MD, FACS

Contributor

Dr. Sherry Scovell is a board-certified vascular and endovascular surgeon in the division of vascular and endovascular surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Scovell’s area of interest is diagnosis and treatment of superficial vein thrombosis, but she also specializes in the evaluation and treatment of other venous vascular conditions including varicose veins, pelvic venous disease, leg swelling, and cosmetic treatments for spider veins. She received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati and her vascular surgery training from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. She is as assistant professor of surgery (part-time) at Harvard Medical School.

Eva Selhub MD

Contributing Editor

Dr. Eva Selhub is an internationally recognized expert, physician, author, speaker and consultant in the fields of stress, resilience, mind-body medicine and working with the natural environment to achieve maximum health and wellbeing. Dr. Selhub engages her clients and her audiences with her powerful energy, words of wisdom and scientific knowledge to be empowered to transform themselves, their health and their life for the better. Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Dr. Selhub is on staff at Harvard Medical School and is a Clinical Associate of the world renowned Benson Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Selhub also works with clients privately, combining her knowledge and expertise from Western and allopathic medicine and from the Eastern healing traditions. Dr. Selhub has been published in medical journals and featured in national publications including The New York Times, USA Today, Self, Shape, Fitness, and Journal of Woman’s Health, and has appeared on radio and television in connection with her work, including the Dr. Oz show.

Maryanne Makredes Senna, MD

Contributor

Dr. Maryanne Makredes Senna is a board-certified dermatologist at at Beth Israel Lahey Health, and assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Senna founded and directs the Lahey Hair Loss Center of Excellence and serves as principal of the research unit. Prior to this role, she founded the MGH Hair Loss Clinic and clinical trials unit, which she ran for nearly 10 years. She has held a number of pharmaceutical, device, and foundation appointments. Widely published and recognized for her clinical expertise, teaching, and research, Dr. Senna is frequently invited to speak and give lectures nationally and abroad, and has been quoted in top-tier media publications such as The New York Times and The Atlantic. She has also been featured on multiple news outlets including Good Morning America, and in the HBO Max documentary series Not So Pretty. Dr. Senna is an esteemed member of several professional societies and committees, and is on the board of directors of the Scarring Alopecia Foundation, the American Hair Research Society, and on the medical advisory task force for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

Howard D. Sesso, ScD, MPH, FAHA

Contributor

Dr. Howard D. Sesso is an associate epidemiologist in the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He designs and conducts randomized clinical trials and epidemiologic studies, focusing on dietary supplements, nutrition, and lifestyle factors to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension, and other aging-related outcomes. Dr. Sesso is the associate director of the division of preventive medicine and director of nutrition and supplement research at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Sesso helps lead the Physicians’ Health Study, consisting of two trials testing aspirin, beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, and a multivitamin on aging-related outcomes in 29,000 men. Dr. Sesso is also examining vitamin D and fish oil supplements on blood pressure, hypertension, and other outcomes in the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL). Finally, Dr. Sesso is co-principal investigator of the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a recently completed trial testing cocoa extract and multivitamin supplements in the prevention of CVD and cancer in 21,442 older women and men. He has published more than 350 papers, teaches courses on clinical trials and epidemiology, and enjoys mentoring students and junior faculty.

Brittany Seymour, DDS, MPH

Contributor

Dr. Brittany Seymour is a dentist, public health expert, and national consumer spokesperson for the American Dental Association. She serves as associate dean for faculty affairs and associate professor at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. With training in both dentistry and public health, she has spent her career caring for communities, educating health professionals, and leading health improvement initiatives in the US and around the world. Her work focuses on prevention, healthy aging, and improving health through better oral care across the lifespan.

Catherine Ullman Shade, PhD, MEd

Contributor

Catherine Ullman Shade, Ph.D. M.Ed. is the Director of Education at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH)’s Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Program, where she coordinates educational and outreach services for children with complex congenital heart disease. Prior to her current position, Dr. Ullman Shade worked in BCH’s Developmental Medicine Center, and as a teacher, instructional coach, professional development trainer, educational researcher, and curriculum designer, in settings including K-12 schools and nonprofit organizations.

Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

List of Experts

John Ross, MD, FIDSA

Natalia S. Rost, MD, MPH, FAAN, FAHA

Christian Ruff, MD, MPH

Christina Ruggeri, PT, DPT, NCS

Emily S. Ruiz, MD, MPH

Elisabeth J. Ryan, JD, MPH

Katherine Sakmar, MD

Maureen Salamon

Meghan Salamon, MS, RDN, LDN, CPT

Suzanne Salamon, MD

Daniel Sands, MD, MPH

Kathyana P. Santiago Mangual

Danielle L. Sarno, MD

Ameet Sarpatwari, JD, PhD

David Scales, MPhil, MD, PhD

C.W. Schmidt

Zev Schuman-Olivier, MD

Lee H. Schwamm, MD

Nandita S. Scott, MD

Sherry Scovell, MD, FACS

Eva Selhub MD

Maryanne Makredes Senna, MD

Howard D. Sesso, ScD, MPH, FAHA

Brittany Seymour, DDS, MPH

Catherine Ullman Shade, PhD, MEd