General Internal Medicine

Dr. Safford is a health equity researcher with a focus on eliminating disparities in health outcomes for individuals with cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes, especially focused on vulnerable and high-risk populations. She has led four community-engaged behavioral interventional trials that together recruited over 2500 low-income Black residents of the rural Southeast to improve their self-management of diabetes or high blood pressure. She has a large observational research program funded by NHLBI centered around the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. This national cohort study of over 30,000 Black and White community-dwelling Americans was the first study to describe racial differences in urinary protein as a risk factor for stroke and heart attack; atrial fibrillation as a risk factor for heart attack; continued racial disparities in the risks of heart attack and especially death at presentation with heart disease; the harms of the Southern diet; and risks conferred by depressive symptoms and stress, among many others. Students and trainees are welcome to propose studies and work with experienced scientists to produce rigorous observational research using these data.

At Weill Cornell, Dr. Safford was co-PI on Cornell’s HRSA-funded Diversity Center of Excellence that led to the HRSA-funded T32 training program called the Cornell-Hunter Health Equity Research Fellowship. She is the chief architect of the Patient Activated Learning System, a novel user-driven information system specifically designed for people with low health literacy that is challenging the paradigm that “education alone is not enough to change behavior.”

Dr. Safford founded, is an academic member of, and continues to co-lead the university-wide Cornell Center for Health Equity that now includes over 400 members from the Cornell academic community as well as community partners.

Dr. Bayly is a general internist and health services researcher dedicated to examining the socio-structural determinants that shape health behaviors and perpetuate health inequities. Her research primarily investigates how neighborhood and contextual factors contribute to chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, with the goal of informing policy and guiding intervention development.

Dr. Choi is a hospitalist whose research interest is in diagnostic test evaluation and prognostic models in the inpatient setting. His current research focuses on the diagnostic value of the serum biomarker procalcitonin in community-acquired pneumonia and other infectious diseases. He was awarded a KL2 career development award from the Clinical Trials Science Center (CTSC) to study the prospective development of a predictive model of serum procalcitonin testing in the diagnosis of urinary tract infection in hospitalized older adults.

Dr. Fahme’s research focuses on the syndemic effects of armed conflict and forced displacement on women’s health in diverse humanitarian settings. She has conducted several years of clinical service and research on the health and human rights of Syrian refugee women and girls in Lebanon. Dr. Fahme designed a novel, peer-led, adolescent sexual and reproductive health intervention for adolescent Syrian refugee girls displaced in a rural region of Lebanon bordering Syria. More recently, she co-led a study investigating gender disparities in COVID-19-related outcomes across resource-limited and conflict-affected settings in the Middle East and North Africa. Currently, she is leading a study examining the prevalence and determinants of sexually transmitted infections among vulnerable Syrian refugee women in Beirut.

Dr. Ghosh is an internist, emergency physician, and environmental epidemiologist/health services researcher whose research focuses at the nexus of climate change, health, and health equity. His current work seeks to develop strategies to limit morbidity and mortality related to acute and chronic climate-amplified environmental stressors including heat waves and hydrometeorological events (e.g., hurricanes/cyclones). To accomplish this, he works closely with a broad range of scientists, including disaster sociologists, climatologists, ecologists, statisticians, and epidemiologists.

Dr. Gonzalez’s research aims to understand and leverage social and cultural behaviors to improve the health of diverse Hispanic populations in the United States. Through ongoing collaborations with investigators of the national Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (SOL), the Duke Network Analysis Center (DNAC), and New York Regional Center for Diabetes Translation Research (NY-CDTR), he has explored the heterogeneity of health behaviors and health outcomes of the Hispanic population, with a specific focus on understanding the roles of migration, acculturation and social networks. His research predominantly assesses how these factors relate to inequities in cardiometabolic health, including obesity and diabetes prevention, but has also assessed their relation to COVID-19 and Hepatitis C. Dr. Gonzalez is funded by the National Institute for the Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and his research is informed by his practice of primary care in a federally qualified health center in a predominantly Hispanic community in New York City.

Dr. Goyal studies the impacts of geriatric conditions on outcomes among older adults with heart failure. He is supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging and the American Heart Association to explore the adverse effects of polypharmacy and the safety of common medication prescribing patterns in older adults with heart failure. This work forms the basis for ongoing efforts to develop interventions to optimize pharmacotherapy and improve outcomes for older adults with heart failure, At Weill Cornell, Dr. Goyal is also the Founding Director of the Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction Program, which is one of just a few programs in the country specifically dedicated to this condition.

Dr. Lisa Kern is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences, and Associate Director of Research in the Division of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Kern’s clinical background is in general internal medicine, and her MPH degree included a concentration in health policy and management. Dr. Kern is a health services researcher whose work focuses on improving the delivery of ambulatory care, especially for patients with chronic conditions. She has become a national expert on healthcare fragmentation in the ambulatory setting, which occurs when a patient is cared for by many different outpatient providers, but no single provider accounts for a substantial proportion of visits. Dr. Kern is currently conducting two pragmatic clinical trials to address fragmented care and prevent avoidable adverse consequences. Dr. Kern has published more than 110 peer-reviewed articles. She has served or is serving as PI or co-PI on 18 grants and contracts. Funding for Dr. Kern’s work has come from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (including a recently completed R01), the National Institute on Aging, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, among other sources.

Dr. Kern served for 4 years as a standing member of one of NHLBI’s K study sections (2018-2022), including serving as chair of the study section in the 4th year (2021-2022). Dr. Kern has 20 years of experience teaching research methods and, separately, healthcare organization and delivery, for all levels of trainees (including medical students, residents, fellows, master’s students, and junior faculty). Dr. Kern currently serves as a co-mentor for 2 K awardees. Dr. Kern received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University, and she received her Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University.

A physician-scientist focused on improving health care in resource-poor populations in Haiti and Africa, particularly for HIV and cardiovascular diseases. Dr. McNairy's HIV research focuses on developing effective and practical models of care, which will reduce HIV-related mortality and decrease HIV transmission at the population level. She also evaluates cardiovascular disease risk factors and other chronic diseases in both HIV-infected and uninfected populations to understand the determinants of chronic diseases in these populations.

Dr. Navarro-Millán’s research focuses on factors that influence outcomes, particularly in cardiovascular (CV) disease among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The goals of this research portfolio aims to develop and implement evidence-based behavioral interventions for patients with RA with a specific target on CV risk reduction, diet, and exercise. The primary method to deliver these interventions is via the internet, which allows for a larger reach to patients, enhanced by the facilitation from peer coaches. Peer coaches are individuals who themselves have either RA or osteoarthritis and are trained to provide support to participants of these interventions. They guide participants to maximize the benefits they can obtain from these interventions. Other areas of Dr. Navarro-Millán’s work are in examining factors that affect morbidity and disability in patients with arthritis.

Dr. Navarro-Millán is an academic member of the Cornell Center for Health Equity.

Dr. Phillips’ research efforts have focused on translating basic social and behavioral science theories into effective community-based interventions to address health inequities in high-risk populations.

Dr. Phillips is an academic member of the Cornell Center for Health Equity.

A health services researcher working at the intersection of primary care and oncology with a focus on reducing health disparities. Her current research program includes a study to improve the uptake of breast cancer screening among vulnerable women, an evaluation of a cancer care coordination model, and several large, secondary database analyses using SEER-Medicare and Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.

Dr. Pinheiro is an academic member of the Cornell Center for Health Equity.

Dr. Ro-Jay Reid is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine. He began his academic journey with a Biochemistry degree from Oakwood University, then earned his medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine. Driven by a commitment to patient care, Dr. Reid completed his Internal Medicine residency at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center before joining Weill Cornell in 2021 as an Instructor in Medicine and a Cornell-Hunter Health Equity Research Fellow.

Dr. Reid’s research interests, inspired by his humanitarian work in underserved areas like Haiti and Mozambique, focus on addressing health disparities and promoting healthy aging. He currently leads several notable projects, including studies under the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. In addition, he conducted a qualitative study examining perceptions of healthy aging among individuals with heart failure across neighborhoods of varying affluence and is currently in the process of pilot-testing these findings with a larger patient population.

His impactful work has received funding from the National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities, the National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute, and the American Heart Association.

As a hospitalist and sociologist, Dr. Scales' research interests lie at the intersection of medicine and social science. His current is focus on medical communication, for example, between patients and healthcare professionals or medical researchers to the public, which has led him to study the positive care effect (aka placebo) and medical misinformation. In collaboration with researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and Critica, an NGO, he has trained "infodemiologists" as science communication professionals to help push back against medical misinformation and build Covid-19 vaccine confidence in online communities, leveraging cross-disciplinary evaluation methodologies that provide insight into complex systems. An Arabic speaker, Dr. Scales also volunteers as an advisor to health-related NGOs in the Levant with particular emphasis on community health workers.

Dr. Shapiro is an accomplished health services researcher. His scholarship has largely focused upon access to care and disparities in health. His most prominent work has been the HIV Cost and Service Utilization Study (HCSUS), which enrolled a national probability sample of persons with HIV and has been widely-recognized for affecting policy in HIV care through studies of access, diffusion of innovation, costs and utilization, mental health, drug use, risk behavior, viral resistance, health outcomes, providers of HIV care, and the impact of the Ryan White Care Act on patterns of care for HIV. He also has studied racial/ethnic and socioeconomic influences on patterns of care, the impact of major diseases on disparities in life expectancy, the impact of copayments on access to care, scientific misconduct in investigational drug trials, patterns of scientific authorship and their appropriateness in the biomedical literature, the quality of pharmaceutical advertising, variations in the use of intensive care, attitudes of physicians to the care of persons with HIV, and appropriateness of patterns of laboratory testing in clinical care.

Dr. Shapiro is an academic member of the Cornell Center for Health Equity.

Dr. Sterling is a general internist and health services researcher whose work focuses on identifying and addressing the social determinants of health among adults with cardiovascular disease. To do so, she uses quantitative and qualitative research methods, as well as community-partnered approaches. Ultimately, she plans to design novel interventions to improve healthcare delivery for adults with heart failure, helping them to avoid hospitalization and have an optimal quality of life at home.

Dr. Sterling is an academic member of the Cornell Center for Health Equity.

Dr. Young has over 10 years of social work direct practice experience, which includes child welfare case work, counseling clients impacted by HIV/AIDS, and youth and community organizing. Additionally, she has practiced social work in England and Jamaica.

Her scientific area of expertise is in qualitative research methods, and her work here at WCM will include establishing and operationalizing a qualitative research unit to support our projects in research, quality improvement, education innovation, and operations improvement. The unit will provide services ranging from consultative advice to full qualitative project operationalization.

Dr. Young will partner with Dr. Iris Navarro-Millan to study the factors that influence health outcomes for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatologic diseases.

Most recently, Dr. Young served as an Associate Professor of Social Work and the BSW Program Director at Binghamton University, where she was also a co-PI of the Human Sexuality Research Lab. Her research focuses on human sexuality, sexual and gender minority (SGM) health and wellness, and family acceptance and rejection of SGM populations. While at Binghamton University, Dr. Young co-founded and co-led The Rural and Underserved Services Track (TRUST), a collaboration between SUNY Upstate Medical University and the Schools and Departments of Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Social Work at Binghamton University to offer an extracurricular inter-professional education experience for students of merit. She is also the co-PI for a New York State Department of Health—AIDS Institute grant to support Pride and Joy Families, a support network for LGBTQ+ parents and families in Upstate New York.

Dr. Young received her PhD in Social Work from the University of Alabama and her MSW with a focus in community organizing from the University of Michigan. She is a former Point Foundation Scholar and was selected by the White House as an Emerging LGBTQ Leader. From 2008 through 2010, she served as a Ford Foundation “New Voices" Fellow, one of 12 people selected as a new voice in human rights. She is also the co-founder of the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, a youth-led advocacy group working to make schools safer for LGBTQ youth.