Featured Health Services Research Experts

*Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician (ABFM) with 14+ years clinical experience (based in Chicago, IL) *Named Castle Connolly Top Doctor (2024, 2025) *Medical Media Commentator seen on/in ABC 7, Fox 32, CBS 2, WGN 9, The Chicago Tribune , Chicago Sun Times, and Everyday Health; including a nationwide 25 interview satellite media tour (TV & radio, November 2025) *Premedical Student Mentor, Urban Bridges Medical Mentoring Program Dr. Rene is a board-certified Family Medicine physician and Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (FAAFP) with 14+ years of clinical experience. She provides comprehensive primary care for Medicare-eligible patients at Oak Street Health's Avalon Park location in Chicago, specializing in chronic disease management, preventive care, healthcare equity, and access for underserved communities. After overcoming 50 medical school rejections, Dr. Rene graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed residency training at Ascension Saint Joseph Hospital - Chicago. She developed the L.Y.M.I.T.S. Method—a framework for transforming limitations into your greatest strengths. She mentors aspiring physicians through the Urban Bridges Medical Mentoring Program. Dr. Rene has appeared as a medical expert on ABC 7, Fox 32, CBS 2, and WGN 9 Chicago and recently completed a 25-interview national satellite media tour. She is available for expert commentary on resilience in healthcare, medical education equity, resilience and overcoming failure, healthcare access for underserved populations, and diversity in medicine.

Dan Pierce, MD, is a rehabilitation medicine physician and healthcare quality expert who helps reporters cover what happens after the initial injury - recovery, disability, and the long-term cost of care. An Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, he holds physician leadership roles across academic, community, and VA health systems, serves in the AMA House of Delegates, and advises Nebraska's Medicaid program. He can speak to brain injury, spinal cord injury, and stroke recovery, Veterans' health, quality and safety, Medicare/Medicaid policy, and health system sustainability.

I want to make healthcare better for patients and for the people who take care of them.

PROFESSIONAL Healthcare runs on people - providers, administrators, executives making decisions under pressure in a fragmented system. That's where I work. If you're covering what it actually takes to lead organizations through major and disruptive change - I have a perspective built from experience. I've spent over two decades working at senior and board levels within healthcare organizations. I was the CHRO and a product executive at a major Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. Now I run my own consulting practice and serve as an independent advisor affiliated with EBG Advisors. My clients are health systems, physician groups, behavioral health providers, and investor-backed companies navigating transitions - acquisitions, integration, and operating model changes. I've led leadership teams and boards to align their business and workforce strategies while simultaneously improving performance, employee engagement and organizational health. ADVOCACY My adult son is profoundly autistic AND his life was saved by medical cannabis. Those two facts don't stay in a corner of my life. They have changed my family's life, and they inform how I think about policy, service systems, and who gets left out of the conversation. If you're covering autism policy, what families of severely autistic individuals actually need from the service system, or the intersection of healthcare policy and patient access to cannabis - I'm available to talk. I serve on the board of the National Council for Severe Autism (NCSA), focused on individuals with severe autism and complex needs. This is one area of health policy where the most severe and complex cases are disproportionately underrepresented in research, funding, policy design, and public discourse. They don't capture the reality for families like mine, where the daily stakes involve safety, access to healthcare, housing, and support services. I also support Americans for Safe Access, the leading organization advancing legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use. Patients and families are making decisions about cannabis in an environment that is fragmented and poorly researched. Better science and better access policy matters. I know firsthand what's at stake when both fall short.

I serve as Group Vice President of HealthStaffingGroup, a healthcare workforce division focused on helping hospitals and healthcare organizations navigate complex staffing and leadership challenges. My work centers on workforce strategy, leadership hiring, retention, and long-term staffing stability in high-demand healthcare environments. With experience supporting healthcare systems across the country, I regularly work with executives, administrators, and clinical leaders to address issues such as nursing shortages, physician recruitment, workforce burnout, and succession planning. I’m particularly interested in how leadership decisions, operational design, and workforce planning directly influence patient outcomes and organizational resilience. Over the years, I’ve seen that staffing challenges are rarely isolated hiring problems; they are strategic issues tied to leadership development, workload design, and long-term workforce sustainability. I often speak on healthcare leadership trends, retention strategies, and the evolving talent landscape within hospitals, clinics, and specialty care environments. My perspective combines frontline workforce realities with executive-level strategy, offering insight into how healthcare organizations can build stable, high-performing teams in an increasingly complex care environment.

Dr. Saravanan Thangarajan is a global climate, health, and equity governance advisor focused on how heat, air pollution, and resource insecurity shape health outcomes in climate vulnerable settings. His work connects policy, financing, and frontline service delivery, with a strong emphasis on maternal health, mental health, and community resilience. Trained in dentistry, health administration, and global health delivery, he brings operational and systems experience across public health programs and digital health infrastructure. He provides clear, quote ready insights on climate adaptation for health systems, equity centered governance, and implementation pathways that move evidence into action.

Edward Lin, MD, MPH, is an emergency medicine physician based in Walnut Creek, California. His professional career has focused on emergency medicine, a specialty dedicated to evaluating and treating patients with acute illnesses, injuries, and other time-sensitive medical concerns. Public records identify him as a physician whose work combines clinical expertise with a broader understanding of healthcare through his MD and MPH credentials. His role involves helping patients receive prompt care during urgent medical situations while supporting informed clinical decision-making. Edward has established a strong connection to the East Bay healthcare community, particularly in Walnut Creek and the surrounding Contra Costa County area. Public physician directories indicate that he has more than two decades of experience in acute care settings. Throughout his career, he has worked in environments where physicians are expected to assess patients efficiently and determine appropriate courses of treatment. He practices in a specialty where patients often arrive with immediate concerns, changing symptoms, or limited information. In these situations, physicians must evaluate risk, identify priorities, and coordinate care based on the patient's condition. The work requires careful judgment, effective communication, and a commitment to helping patients understand their healthcare options. Lin is most consistently associated with the practice location at 1450 Treat Boulevard, Suite 160, in Walnut Creek. Public listings connect this address with John Muir Health Walnut Creek Urgent Care. Additional physician directories associate him with John Muir Physician Network, John Muir Medical Center, Walnut Creek Campus, and Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center. These healthcare settings serve a diverse East Bay population and support a broad range of urgent and hospital-connected services. Edward Lin's professional identity is closely tied to emergency medicine. Unlike specialties that often involve long-term patient relationships, emergency medicine focuses on immediate assessment and treatment. Patients may seek care for pain, injury, fever, weakness, dizziness, shortness of breath, or other symptoms that require timely medical attention. Determining what requires urgent intervention and what can be managed through follow-up care is a central responsibility within the specialty.

Rohan Desai – BI Analyst | Data Analytics | Healthcare Technology Results-driven Data Analyst / BI Developer specializing in healthcare analytics, data visualization, and revenue cycle management (RCM). Proven expertise in data regression modeling, business intelligence (BI) solutions, and process automation to enhance operational efficiency and decision-making. Passionate about leveraging data-driven insights to solve complex business challenges. Expertise: Business Intelligence (BI) | Data Modeling | SQL | Power BI | Tableau Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) | Financial Analytics Cloud Computing (Azure) | Big Data Processing Publications: Published 7+ research papers on Healthcare Technology & Analytics Medium Page: https://rohan-desai.medium.com/

Dr. Ayesha Bryant, M.S.P.H, M.D. is a physician, clinical scientist, and associate professor dedicated to translating complex medical research into practical health solutions. With more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and multiple textbook chapters, Dr. Bryant is recognized for her contributions to perioperative outcomes research, preventive medicine, and quality-of-life improvement. She currently serves as a clinical advisor at Alpas Wellness, a drug, alcohol & mental health treatment center in Maryland. She completed her medical training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and Emory University, with additional training in epidemiology and public health. Her research has been featured at major national and international conferences, including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Bryant’s expertise spans functional medicine, AI-driven healthcare algorithms, and national clinical data registry research. She is passionate about combining evidence-based medicine with real-world wellness strategies to improve patient outcomes and preventive care. In addition to her academic work, she has written for Rupa Health, where she shares insights on how readers can live healthier, more vibrant lives.

Dr. Jagdish Khubchandani is a Professor of Public Health at New Mexico State University (NMSU), known for his extensive research and expertise in global health and social epidemiology

Dr. Akshaya Srikanth Bhagavathula is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at North Dakota State University, internationally recognized for his pioneering work at the intersection of digital epidemiology, pharmacovigilance, and artificial intelligence. His research harnesses advanced statistical modeling and AI to track and predict health behaviors, medication safety, and disease patterns in real time—bridging traditional epidemiology with next-generation digital health analytics. Dr. Bhagavathula has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Annals of Epidemiology, JAMA Network Open, and Lancet Digital Health. His work has been widely cited and featured in major media outlets such as The New York Times, where he discussed the real-world safety of GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro). Recognized among the Stanford–Elsevier Top 2% of Scientists (2019–2024) and elected as a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, Dr. Bhagavathula is known for translating complex data into actionable insights that shape public health policy and clinical practice. His ongoing projects include NIH- and NSF-aligned initiatives on AI-powered overdose forecasting, digital twins for public health, and real-world drug safety surveillance using explainable machine learning. With a decade of experience spanning more than two dozen countries and collaborations with organizations such as WHO, USAID, and UNICEF, Dr. Bhagavathula brings a global, data-driven, and human-centered approach to solving modern health crises.

I am an MD-PhD physician-scientist with a passion for translating complex clinical and scientific data into clear, accurate content. My training and experience span clinical practice and translational research, with expertise across oncology, immunology, gastroenterology, inflammation & metabolism, and rare diseases. With over 10 years of experience, I have supported key deliverables including more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, manuscripts, slide decks, literature reviews, and scientific narratives. I enjoy working in collaborative, deadline-driven environments and am particularly interested in medical writing, medical information, and publication development, where scientific accuracy and effective storytelling intersect.

Joshua Mirrer, MD is a Board-Certified Reconstructive Plastic and Hand Surgeon practicing in the American Southwest, where he treats high-volume trauma, complex hand injuries, chronic wounds, and reconstructive conditions across multiple hospital systems. He serves as Hand and Microsurgery Fellowship Program Director, where he trains surgeons at the intersection of technical excellence, clinical judgment, and real-world healthcare constraints. Dr. Mirrer’s clinical work places him on the front lines of the U.S. healthcare system—caring for patients affected by delayed access, insurance denials, chronic disease, environmental exposure, and socioeconomic instability. This experience has shaped his broader focus on healthcare as a system, not just a series of medical encounters. He frequently examines how policy decisions, reimbursement structures, regulatory lag, and financial incentives influence patient outcomes, costs, and physician practice. In addition to his surgical practice, Dr. Mirrer writes and speaks on healthcare reform, prevention versus disease management, medical training, insurance inefficiencies, and the downstream health effects of environmental and economic policy. His work integrates clinical medicine with public health, behavioral economics, and systems thinking, aiming to translate complex issues into practical insights for clinicians, policymakers, and the public. He is not affiliated with industry or political organizations and approaches these topics as a practicing physician and educator offering firsthand perspective from within one of the most stressed segments of the healthcare system. This includes but is not limited to shortfalls of The Affordable Care Act, limitations of the current administration’s actions on healthcare, lack of preventive medicine, costs of care, and the intersection of environment, finance, morality, freedom, and healthcare.

Jodee Gibson, PCC, PhD(c) is an award-winning author, human development researcher, and founder of Human Behavior Architects™. Her work challenges the prevailing mental health narrative by arguing that many behaviors currently labeled as disorders are often the predictable output of developmental gaps within systems never designed to support human development. With more than three decades of experience working with schools, healthcare organizations, and leadership teams, Dr. Gibson operates at the intersection of neuroscience, mental health, developmental psychology, and systems design. Her work focuses on upstream trauma prevention and behavioral system redesign vs trauma-informed care. She helps organizations move beyond symptom management toward environments that support emotional development and sustainable human development. She frequently speaks on healing mental health, understanding behavioral health systems, leadership, and psychology. She is also well versed in the hidden developmental forces shaping human behavior and why many approaches to mental health are addressing the wrong problem.

Dr. Hitanshu Pandit is an applied microeconomist and quantitative researcher specializing in labor, urban, and health economics. He is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northeastern University and uses big data, administrative records, and causal inference methods to study how policy changes affect workers, firms, and communities. His research covers minimum wage policy, youth employment, Medicaid and behavioral health, congestion pricing, and place-based policy, and he is also studying how AI is reshaping white-collar work and global hiring. His work is designed to produce rigorous, practical insights for policy, business, and public debate.

Dr. Manthan Tripathi is a medical professional, healthcare writer, and digital health educator based in India, with a clinical foundation from Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University, Lucknow. He combines frontline medical training with over 3,000 published articles across patient education, preventive medicine, medical technology, and AI in healthcare, making him one of India's most prolific evidence-based health communicators. His work has appeared on platforms including Medicircle, HospitalSuggest, HealthVoice, DocVo, Dr. Malpani and IVF Matters, and is recognized for translating complex clinical concepts into accurate, reader-friendly content that helps patients make genuinely informed decisions. His healthcare and education content has generated over 55 million cumulative views across digital platforms. Dr. Tripathi brings a perspective that is rare among health sources: deep India-specific clinical knowledge, including India's disease burden, government health schemes, Indian drug brand names, and regional dietary patterns; context that generic Western health content consistently misses. He is the founder of drmanthan.com, an evidence-based health information and clinical tools platform built specifically for Indian patients, families, and medical students. He has also worked as a Subject Matter Expert with Physics Wallah and Chegg India, contributing academic content for competitive medical examinations including NEET. His areas of expertise include internal medicine, thyroid and metabolic disorders, diabetes, preventive health, and India-specific patient education. Journalists covering Indian healthcare, global health disparities, patient literacy, medical misinformation, or AI in medicine will find in Dr. Tripathi a source who speaks with both clinical accuracy and genuine public communication experience.

As I am a medical expert for Invigor Medical, a urologist, and an MD currently completing my PhD in clinical medicine, my work bridges patient care, education, and research. I serve as a teaching assistant in surgery, where I guide and support future doctors while treating patients in everyday practice. My research focuses on oncologic urology, men’s health, and hormonal health, and I actively collaborate on international studies. Through these roles, I am dedicated to advancing evidence-based medicine, improving patient outcomes, and helping shape the future of urological care.

Brooke Skovira is a registered nurse and healthcare strategist with a decade of clinical and operational experience spanning women's health, newborn care, cardiology, and medical-surgical care. She specializes in bridging the gap between frontline clinical practice and the technology, business, and policy decisions shaping modern healthcare delivery. She has worked at top academic medical centers, including The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and has been featured as a webinar speaker by the American Heart Association Center for Health Technology and Innovation. Brooke is the co-founder of Shift Changes, a platform supporting nurses pursuing careers beyond the bedside. Areas of clinical and industry expertise include: -Women's health, cardiology, newborn care, and medical-surgical nursing -Clinical workflow and patient safety in digital health and AI adoption -Clinician trust, burnout, and technology adoption in hospital settings -Health system partnerships and go-to-market strategy for health tech companies -Nursing workforce trends and career transitions into tech and healthcare innovation

Board certified emergency physician with experience in a very busy community emergency medicine department, prior military officer with leadership experience, both domestically and deployed.