MPEC Faculty and Staff
Faculty | Fellows | Staff | Research Assistants
Faculty
Kenneth Freedberg, MD, MSc
Dr. Freedberg is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
He is the Director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Center, Director of the Program in Clinical Epidemiology and Outcomes Research at the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research, and Director of the Program in HIV Research in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research interests focus on HIV and tuberculosis, as well as other chronic disease clinical outcomes and health policy, utilizing the methods of comparative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness analysis, clinical epidemiology, and implementation science.
Dr. Freedberg earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and also holds an MSc from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Ingrid Bassett, MD, MPH
Dr. Bassett is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
She is the Co-Director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Center and Director of the Developmental and Mentoring Core at the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research. Her research interests include evaluating strategies for improving uptake and retention in HIV and TB services in South Africa.
Dr. Bassett earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Lisa Bebell, MD
Dr. Bebell is an Instructor at HMS and Assistant in Medicine at MGH in the Infectious Diseases Unit.
As a physician, she practices Critical Care Medicine and Infectious Diseases, though she spends most of her time carrying out research on peripartum infections. Her current research focus is better understanding the role of the placenta in transplacental antibody transfer and early life health outcomes, particularly among HIV-exposed, uninfected children. Lisa also investigates antimicrobial resistance in resource-limited settings and bedside ultrasound use in patient management.
She received her MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed her residency at the University of California, San Francisco.
Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc
Dr. Blumenthal is an Allergist/Immunologist and drug allergy researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also the Quality and Safety Officer for Allergy at the Edward P. Lawrence Center for Quality and Safety.
Dr. Blumenthal performs drug allergy research that uses methods of epidemiology, informatics, economics, and decision science. She is recognized nationally for having created innovative approaches to the evaluation of penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotic allergies in the hospital that have since been adopted by other hospitals throughout the US and internationally, broadly referenced, and incorporated into expert recommendations.
She graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Economics. She studied medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, which she completed in 2009, before training at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Internal Medicine and Allergy and Immunology. She completed a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2017.
Andrea Ciaranello, MD, MPH
Dr. Ciaranello is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. She serves as director of the Perinatal Infectious Disease Program at MGH and Associate Director of the Program in Clinical Epidemiology and Outcomes Research at the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research.
She is also Co-Chair of the US Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Treatment of Pregnant Women with HIV Infection and Prevention of Perinatal Transmission, and has served as technical consultant for UNAIDS and WHO about simulation modeling and cost-effectiveness related to pediatric HIV and mother-to-child HIV transmission.
Her research interests involve the use of simulation models to examine the long-term clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of strategies to care for women, children, and adolescents living with and at risk for HIV.
Dr. Ciaranello earned an MD from the Yale School of Medicine and an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Esther Freeman, MD, PhD
Dr. Freeman is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and a board certified dermatologist and epidemiologist, specializing in global health dermatology. She has worked to improve healthcare, especially those affected by HIV, in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and southeast Asia since 2003.
She has collaborated with the World Health Organization since 2011, to establish guidelines for the treatment of HIV-associated skin conditions in the developing world. She has won the American Academy of Dermatology's Member Making a Difference Award, as well as the most highly cited author in the area of epidemiology in AIDS in 2009.
Her current work centers around Kaposi's sarcoma, a potentially deadly tumor associated with HIV that first appears on the skin. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Dermatology Foundation, the American Skin Association, the Harvard Center for AIDS Research, and the Medical Dermatology Society.
She earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and her MD from Harvard Medical School.
Emily Hyle, MD, MSc
Dr. Hyle is an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include using cost-effectiveness analysis to investigate policy-relevant questions for the clinical care of people with HIV, including point-of-care technologies, virologic resistance, and non-communicable diseases among people with HIV, in the US and resource-limited settings. Dr. Hyle also collaborates with the Global TravEpiNet Consortium to investigate the cost-effectiveness of pre-travel medicine.
Dr. Hyle earned her MD from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a DTMH from the Gorgas Institute in Lima, Peru and an MSc in Epidemiology for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Suzanne McCluskey, MD
Dr. McCluskey is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant in Medicine in the MGH Division of Infectious Diseases, where she serves on the Infectious Diseases consult service.
Her research focuses on the epidemiology and management of HIV treatment failure and antiretroviral drug resistance in resource-limited settings with projects based in southwestern Uganda and KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Her current work aims to explore novel strategies to more accurately differentiate between patients failing therapy with resistant versus wild-type virus and to evaluate the impact of HIV drug resistance and adherence patterns on the effectiveness of dolutegravir-based ART regimens in sub-Saharan Africa.
She received her MD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.
Anne Neilan, MD, MPH
Dr. Neilan is a medicine and pediatrics-trained adult infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Her clinical and research interests focus on adolescents and young adults.
In her work at the Medical Practice Evaluation Center, she uses computer simulation modeling to inform optimal care strategies for adolescents with HIV and at risk of HIV. She has worked on analyses with the US Centers for Disease Control as well as national and international HIV networks including the Pediatric HIV AIDS Study (PHACS), the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network (IMPAACT), the HIV Research Network (HIVRN), the International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluation AIDS (IeDEA) Network.
She is also Assistant Director of the Modeling Core for the national Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions. She was the recipient of Harvard University’s Eleanor and Miles Shore Scholars in Medicine award and the 2017 New Investigator for the Society for Adolescent Medicine.
She earned her MD and MPH from The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Italy and a Fogarty Scholar in Peru.
Krishna Reddy, MD, MS
Dr. Reddy is a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
His research interests include comorbidities in people living with HIV, tobacco smoking and smoking-related diseases, and tuberculosis. He applies methods of simulation modeling, clinical epidemiology, and cost-effectiveness analysis to study policy-relevant clinical and economic outcomes.
Dr. Reddy earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and an MS from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Spain and a Fogarty Scholar in Peru.
Fatma Shebl, MD, PhD
Dr. Shebl is the Director of Biometry for the Medical Practice Evaluation Center and a Member of the Faculty at Harvard Medical School. After receiving her PhD in 2008 , she was a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health and then joined the faculty at the Yale School of Public Health where she taught advanced analytic methods, biostatistics, and epidemiology courses.
Dr. Shebl's research interests are in the areas of infectious disease epidemiology and its intersection with chronic diseases and cancers. Dr. Shebl is also interested in maternal and child health and community trials. She specializes in applying advanced analytic methods and analysis of large datasets.
Dr. Shebl earned her MD at the University of Alexandria in Egypt and her PhD from the University of Maryland in Baltimore.
Mark Siedner, MD, MPH
Dr. Siedner is an Associate Professor of Medicine at HMS, an Assistant Physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at MGH, and the Head of Clinical Research at the Africa Health Research Institute in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
His research program is focused on improving health and quality of life for people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and includes interventional trials, implementation research, and observational clinical epidemiology methods. He mentors junior and aspiring investigators on both sides of the Atlantic.
He received his MD and MPH from Johns Hopkin University.
Research Fellows
Caitlin Dugdale, MD
Dr. Dugdale is an adult infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and MPEC research fellow.
Her research focuses on the cost-effectiveness of interventions to promote maternal and child health and reduce vertical transmission of HIV in resource-limited settings.
She earned her MD from the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Jana Jarolimova, MD, MPH
Dr. Jarolimova is an Infectious Disease fellow at MGH and previously completed her internal medicine training in the MGH Global Medicine residency program.
She is interested in care delivery for sexually transmitted infections and HIV in resource-limited settings. Her previous work focused on rural primary care delivery, HIV, and disparities in reproductive health, primarily in western Uganda. She is working with Dr. Bassett to study implementation of STI care and HIV prevention in South Africa.
She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and MPH in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Pooyan Kazemian, PhD
Dr. Kazemian is a research scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research incorporates mathematical programming, data-driven optimization modeling, simulation analysis, and machine learning to improve the prevention and treatment of chronic and infectious diseases (e.g., type 2 diabetes and HIV/AIDS).
He is also interested at evaluating the clinical outcomes, lifetime costs, and the cost-effectiveness of new interventions to prevent and treat such diseases.
He earned a PhD in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Menan Gérard Kouame, MD, MPH
Dr. Kouame is a visiting researcher from Côte d'Ivoire.
He is currently a PhD student in epidemiology at the University of Bordeaux. He will be working on a modeling project assessing the impact of different strategies for care of people with HIV and HBV in Côte d'Ivoire.
He received a Doctor of Medicine Degree from the Faculty of Medicine of Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire and a Master’s degree in Research in Public Health from ISPED, University of Bordeaux.
Jennifer Manne-Goehler, MD, DSc
Dr. Manne-Goehler is an Infectious Disease fellow at MGH.
She has served as a technical analyst for the Lancet Commission on Diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa, a co-investigator on the Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI) cohort study and a co-founder of the Global Health + Population Project on Access to Care for Cardiometabolic diseases (HPACC). In collaboration with Dr. Siedner, she will conduct research on the epidemiology and health systems implications of weight gain and metabolic disease for people with HIV. She also has secondary research interests in Chagas disease and gender equity in academic medicine.
She completed her MD at Boston University School of Medicine and a doctorate at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health before completing her Internal Medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center.
Amir Mohareb, MD
Dr. Mohareb is an adult infectious disease fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital. His research focuses on the cost-effectiveness of HIV and Hepatitis B management in resource-limited settings.
He earned his MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed his residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Crystal North, MD, MPH
Dr. North is a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an Associate in Global Health at MGH Center for Global Health, and a visiting scientist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Her research focuses on understanding the epidemiology of non-smoking chronic lung disease in resource-limited settings. In particular, she is investigating the influences of air pollution and chronic HIV infection on lung inflammation and impaired lung function in Uganda.
Dr. North earned her MD from the University of Washington and her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell, pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the Harvard combined program, and she was a Fogarty fellow in Uganda and a Wyss MGH Global Health Fellow.
Laura Platt, MD
Dr. Platt is a fellow in Infectious Diseases at MGH and Brigham and Women's hospital.
Based upon an underlying interest in reducing health care disparities and expanding access to care for vulnerable adults, her prior research endeavors have ranged from interventions to improve primary care experiences for adults with developmental disabilities to evaluating recidivism among patients transplanted for acute alcoholic hepatitis. She will conduct implementation research with Dr. Bassett focusing on community-based interventions for expanding access to sexual health services such as STI screening, treatment and PrEP.
She completed her MD at Duke University and residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Yuvaram Reddy, MD
Dr. Reddy is a nephrology fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
His research interests are focused on understanding barriers that lead to the slow uptake of peritoneal dialysis and home dialysis modalities. He hopes to achieve this through understanding, improving and affecting health care policy with the use of simulation modeling and cost-effectiveness analyses. He will be working closely with Dr. Krishna Reddy.
He earned his MD from Sri Ramachandra University in India and completed his residency in internal medicine at Boston Medical Center.
Staff
Shana Carvalho
Shana joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center team in May 2019.
She has a background and experience in global curriculum development and early childhood education.
She earned a BS in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Vijeta Deshpande, MS
Vijeta joined MPEC in May 2019. He works with Drs. Freedberg, Kazemian, Shebl and Pei on different projects leveraging CEPAC for analyzing cost-effectiveness of PrEP for various populations under consideration.
Vijeta graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in May 2019 with a Masters degree in Operations Research. In his thesis he developed a mathematical model which enabled cost-effectiveness analysis of mammography screening for middle income population settings.
Clare Flanagan, MPH
Clare Flanagan joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in June 2019. Before joining MPEC she worked on the endTB study with Partners In Health. She has a background in the implementation and management of research projects.
Clare holds an MPH in Global Health & Population from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a BA in Government and Women’s & Gender Studies from Georgetown University.
Jodi Kurtz, MSM, MA
Jodi joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in 2012 and has a wide array of experience with sponsored research administration and operations management.
She has a BS from Carnegie Mellon University, an MA from the University of Washington, and an MSM with a specialization in Research Administration from Emmanuel College. Jodi attained the designation of Certified Research Administrator in 2014.
Jaime Nangle
Jaime joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in early 2013 after working for two and a half years at Mass General Brigham. She has experience coordinating activities in all phases of the research lifecycle.
She holds a BA in Psychology from Wheaton College.
Christopher Panella
Christopher joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in 2019. As programmer for the group, he develops software projects including continued improvements and extensions to the CEPAC model.
He graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2018 with a BA in Physics and Mathematics.
Pamela Pei, PhD
Dr. Pei joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in 2011. She previously worked as a health economist at the United BioSource Corporation. Her research interests include the use of simulation models to examine HIV transmission, as well as the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of interventions to treat and prevent HIV infections.
Dr. Pei earned a PhD in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Lizzie Qian, MPH
Lizzie joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in August 2019. She assists the group with statistical data analysis projects and generating data inputs for the CEPAC model.
She holds an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Boston University School of Public Health and has a Bachelor of Medicine in Preventive Medicine from Tianjin Medical University in China and completed her rotation at Tianjin Baodi Hospital.
Zahra Reynolds, MPH
Zahra joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in July 2019. She works closely with Dr. Siedner. She previously worked as a Research Associate at MEASURE Evaluation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she designed and managed studies improving the availability of data on male HIV case finding in Namibia and Eswatini, characterizing the male partners of adolescent girls and young women in Swaziland, and understanding the behavioral risks of key populations with HIV in Guyana in order to improve programming for high risk populations.
Zahra has a BA in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College and an MPH in Maternal and Child Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Justine Scott, MPH
Justine Scott joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in March 2016. Prior to graduate studies in public health, she worked in biomedical research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Justine holds an MPH in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a BA in Biology and Government from Colby College.
Elizabeth Van Blarcom, JD
Ellie joined the MPEC in 2018 after working as in-house counsel and as a senior associate in administrative law.
She holds a JD from New England Law | Boston and a BA from Juniata College.
Research Assistants
Audrey Bangs
Audrey joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in July 2018. She is currently working with Dr. Hyle on projects related to measles vaccination in pre-travel clinics and genotype testing for HIV drug resistance in South Africa. She is also working with Dr. Neilan on a modeling project related to adherence interventions for adolescents and young adults living with HIV in the United States.
She graduated from Middlebury College in 2018 with a BA in Biochemistry and minors in Global Health and Art History.
Bridget Bunda
Bridget joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in August 2018. She currently works with Dr. Bassett on projects related to delivery of HIV care in South Africa, with a focus on the impact of South Africa's new Central Chronic Medicine Dispensing and Distribution program.
She graduated from Northeastern University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Health Science and a minor in Biology.
Delaney Ding
Delaney joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in July 2019. He currently works with Dr. Reddy on evaluating the cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions for people living with HIV (PLWH) and Drs. Kazemian and Freedberg on evaluating the cost-effectiveness of a psychosocial intervention for men who have sex with men (MSM) in India.
He graduated from Cornell University in 2019 with a BS in Human Biology, Health, and Society and minors in Biomedical Sciences, Infectious Disease Biology, and Policy Analysis and Management.
Ege Eskibozkurt
Ege joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in September 2019. She is currently working with Dr. Ciaranello on pediatric ARV forecasting and Dr. Neilan on evaluating the clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in US adolescents and young adults.
She graduated from Harvard College in 2019 with a BA in Human Developmental & Regenerative Biology with a secondary field in Global Health & Health Policy.
Julia Foote
Julia joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in August 2018. She currently works with Dr. Neilan to evaluate the clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of HIV screening and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in US adolescents and young adults, Dr. Resch to assess the cost-effectiveness of the Botswana Combination Prevention Project, and Dr. Hyle to project the morbidity and mortality of age-associated dementias among people with HIV in the US.
She graduated from Pomona College in 2018 with a BA in Neuroscience.
Adi Gandhi
Adi joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in July 2018. He currently works with Dr. Neilan on modeling improved diagnostic testing algorithms for HIV, with Dr. Ciaranello on evaluating the cost-effectiveness of maternal HIV screening during infant immunization visits, and with Dr. Hyle on analyzing trends of antibiotic prescriptions for self-treatment of Travelers’ Diarrhea.
He graduated from Wesleyan University in 2018 with a BA in Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and Science in Society.
Mylinh Le
Mylinh joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in July 2019. She currently works with Drs. Reddy and Pei on modeling the cost-effectiveness of tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tests in South Africa.
She graduated from Amherst College in 2019 with a BA in Mathematics and French Language and Literature.
Nicole McCann
Nicole joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in August 2018. She currently works with Dr. Ciaranello on early infant diagnosis of HIV in Zimbabwe and with Dr. Reddy on tuberculosis (TB) testing and HIV/TB coinfection.
She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2018 with a BA in Biology and Science in Society.
Giulia Park
Giulia joined the Medical Practice Evaluation center in September 2019. She currently works with Dr. Ciaranello on modeling projects related to point-of-care early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV in Zimbabwe, as well as the introduction of new guidelines and the implementation of new antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for children living with HIV in Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. She also works with Dr. Ciaranello and collaborators in Zimbabwe on modeling the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.
She graduated from Middlebury College in 2019 with a BA in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and a minor in Psychology.
Eli Schwamm
Eli joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in July 2019. He currently works with Dr. Reddy on modeling tobacco and electronic nicotine delivery systems and with Dr. Hyle on modeling noncommunicable diseases in an aging population of people living with HIV.
He graduated from Vassar College in 2019 with a BA in Mathematics and Statistics and a correlate sequence in Jewish Studies.
Tijana Stanic
Tijana joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in August 2018. She is currently working with Dr. Hyle on non-communicable disease in people with HIV in the United States and with Dr. Ciaranello on clinical and economic benefits of provider-initiated screening and testing for HIV in pediatric care.
She graduated from Yale University in 2018 with a BS in Economics and in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology.
Ogochukwu Ufio
Ogochukwu joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in August 2019. She currently works with Dr. Dugdale on modeling clinical and cost-effectiveness outcomes of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) for the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) in resource-limited settings.
She graduated from Howard University in 2018 with a BS in Clinical Laboratory Science and a minor in Chemistry.
Nafisa Wara
Nafisa joined the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in September 2019. She currently works with Dr. Bassett on assessing delivery of contraceptive and HIV-related care in South Africa and is spending her current year involved with project implementation and analysis in Durban, South Africa.
She graduated from Harvard College in 2019 with an AB in Molecular and Cellular Biology and minor in Global Health and Health Policy. She was a 2019 recipient of the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Postgraduate Fellowship from Harvard College.