Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

Claire McCarthy, MD

Senior Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publishing

Claire McCarthy, MD, is a primary care pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. In addition to being a senior faculty editor for Harvard Health Publishing, Dr. McCarthy writes about health and parenting for Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston.com, and the Huffington Post.

Chris McDougle, MD

Contributor

Dr. Christopher J. McDougle, director of the Lurie Center for Autism at Massachusetts General Hospital and Nancy Lurie Marks Professor in the Field of Autism at Harvard Medical School, is a neuropsychopharmacologist and internationally recognized expert in research and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders that extend into adulthood. He has 25 years of experience diagnosing and caring for children, adolescents, and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Before coming to Mass General, Dr. McDougle was the chairman of the department of psychiatry and executive director of the Institute of Psychiatric Research at Indiana University School of Medicine, where he was also the Albert Eugene Sterne Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. McDougle has maintained an active clinical practice throughout his career and continues this commitment to caring for individuals with ASDs at the Lurie Center, where he has expanded services for adults. As director of the Lurie Center, Dr. McDougle is keenly interested in leveraging the vast resources that exist at Mass General and elsewhere in Boston to advance new discoveries and treatments for children, adolescents, and adults with ASDs Dr. McDougle received a BA in chemistry from Valparaiso University in 1981 and an MD from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1986. He subsequently completed a residency in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine (1990) and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center (1995).

Katherine D. McManus, MS, RD, LDN

Contributor

Kathy McManus is Director of the Department of Nutrition and Director of the Dietetic Internship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Boston. In addition, she serves as the Director for Nutrition at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the Director of Nutrition and Behavior Modification Programs for the Program for Weight Management at the Brigham. Ms. McManus has been involved with a number of cardiovascular and obesity related research trials during her years at the Brigham including an NIH funded obesity study, POUNDS (Preventing Overweight Using Novel Dietary Strategies) Lost as a co-investigator.

Darshan Mehta, MD, MPH

Contributor

Darshan Mehta, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor in medicine and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the medical director of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), director of the Office for Well-Being with the Center for Faculty Development at MGH, and the medical and education director for the Osher Research Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In addition, he is the MGH site director for the Practice of Medicine curriculum required of all first-year Harvard Medical School students. After completing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois-Chicago Hospital, Dr. Mehta completed a clinical research fellowship in complementary and integrative medicine at the Osher Center, during which he received a master of public health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is board certified in internal medicine and integrative medicine.

Robert C. Meisner, MD

Contributor

Robert C. Meisner, MD, is the medical director of the ketamine service in the psychiatric neurotherapeutics program at McLean Hospital, and an attending psychiatrist in the acute psychiatric service at Massachusetts General Hospital. He graduated from Princeton summa cum laude and attended Harvard Medical School. He was a doctoral student in cultural anthropology at the Harvard Graduate School for Arts and Sciences, where he focused on child soldiering in Uganda under American anthropologist Arthur Kleinman. He received his early clinical training as a resident at Harvard in internal medicine, anesthesia, critical care, and pain. Dr. Meisner has written and lectured on a wide range of topics, from pediatric and collegiate mood disorders to the safe translation of ketamine research into evidence-based clinical practice. He has previously served on the administrative board of Harvard College, as acting resident dean at Harvard College’s Currier House, and on the faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard University.

Babar Memon, MD, MSc

Contributor

Dr. Babar Memon is an infectious disease specialist with an interest in prosthetic joint infections, tick-borne illnesses, and infection control. He earned his medical degree at Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan, and obtained a master’s degree in infection control from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He completed his training in internal medicine at Carney Hospital in Boston and his infectious disease fellowship at Boston University Medical Center. He currently provides medical care at Beth Israel Lahey Health-Milton, where he is an infectious disease consultant and runs an outpatient general infectious diseases clinic, and at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital.

Elise Merchant, MD

Contributor

Dr. Elise Merchant is an infectious diseases fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She completed her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Tufts Medical Center, after earning her MD from Tufts University School of Medicine and an AB in anthropology and biology from Brown University. Her academic interests include medical education and HIV.

Beverly Merz

Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch

Beverly Merz is Executive Editor of Harvard Women’s Health Watch, a publication she helped start in 1993. Before coming to Harvard she was an Associate Editor of JAMA, Managing Editor with the Union of Concerned Scientists, and held editorial positions at Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia. She was also a founding editor of Cardio, a newsmagazine for cardiologists and SusanLoveMD.org. Beverly has contributed to a variety of general and health publications including The New England Journal of Medicine, Good Housekeeping, and The Chicago Tribune. She is a graduate of The University of Colorado.

Eric A. Meyerowitz, MD

Contributor

Dr. Eric Meyerowitz (he/him/his) is an infectious diseases fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in the HIV clinician educator track. Dr. Meyerowitz received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his MD from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his internship and residency at the University of Washington in Seattle in the HIV pathway, where he trained in the Madison Clinic. His clinical interests include caring for people living with HIV and those at risk for HIV. He is passionate about working to ensure everyone has access to high-quality healthcare.

Amy Leigh Miller, MD, PhD

Contributor

Amy Leigh Miller, MD, PhD, received her MD and PhD from the University of Michigan, and completed her Medicine residency, Cardiology fellowship, and Cardiovascular Electrophysiology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she has been on staff since 2010. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard. In addition to seeing patients, Amy is the Associate Chief Medical Information Officer at Partners Healthcare and is the Executive Director of Clinical Informatics for the Partners Healthcare Epic implementation (“Partners eCare”).

Joan Miller, MD

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Joan Miller is the David Glendenning Cogan Professor and Chair of the department of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), chief of ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital, and ophthalmologist-in-chief at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she earned her MD from HMS and completed her ophthalmology residency and vitreoretinal fellowship at Mass Eye and Ear. Her clinical research interests focus on retinal disorders, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Dr. Miller and her colleagues at Mass Eye and Ear/HMS pioneered the development of verteporfin photodynamic therapy (Visudyne®), the first pharmacologic therapy for AMD. The group also identified the key role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in ocular neovascularization, leading to the development of anti-VEGF therapies now administered to millions of people with sight-threatening retinal diseases around the world. Her current studies focus on the pathogenesis of AMD, including genomics, metabolomics, imaging, and functional measures; strategies for early intervention in AMD; and neuroprotective therapies for retinal diseases. An internationally recognized expert in the field of retina, Dr. Miller has published over 280 original articles and more than 95 book chapters, reviews, and editorials. A member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, she has received numerous honors for her work. Among them, Dr. Miller delivered the 2012 Edward Jackson Lecture for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), and was a co-recipient of the 2014 António Champalimaud Vision Award, the highest distinction in ophthalmology and visual science. In 2015, Dr. Miller became the first woman to receive the Mildred Weisenfeld Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology from Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO); in 2018, she became the first woman awarded the Charles L. Schepens Award from AAO. Recently, Dr. Miller was awarded the 2018 Lucien Howe Medal from the American Ophthalmological Society, and the 2018 Gertrude D. Pyron Award from the American Society of Retinal Specialists.

Kathleen W. Miller, MD

Contributor

Dr. Kathleen W. Miller is a third-year resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Miller received her undergraduate degree and medical degree from Harvard University before starting internship and residency at MGH. She is starting the combined MGH/Brigham and Women's Hospital infectious disease fellowship in the HIV clinician educator track in July 2021. Her clinical interests focus on HIV care, care for the underserved, and medical education.

Michael Craig Miller, M.D.

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Michael Craig Miller was Editor in Chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter from August 2000 to March 2012. Published monthly, the Harvard Mental Health Letter was read widely by professionals and nonprofessionals alike. Dr. Miller’s writing on mental health topics has appeared in Newsweek, The Boston Globe, and in syndicated articles that appear in newspapers nationwide. He has appeared as a commentator on the Today show, The Martha Stewart Show, ABC News, CNN, and NPR, and for media outlets in the Boston area. In practice for more than 30 years, Dr Miller is a member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School and on the medical staff at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Jeannine Miranne, MD, MS

Contributor

Jeannine M. Miranne, MD, MS is a Urogynecologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. She also serves as the Course Director for the Harvard Medical School Urogynecology Advanced Elective at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She sees patients at both Brigham and Women’s main campus and in Braintree, MA and operates at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, and South Shore Hospital. Her clinical interests include urinary incontinence, recurrent UTI, and pelvic organ prolapse.

David Mischoulon, MD, PhD

Contributor

Dr. Mischoulon is the Joyce R. Tedlow Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP) of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He is a board-certified psychiatrist and an accredited medical acupuncturist. His research and clinical work have focused on various areas of depression, including complementary and alternative medicine. He has carried out research studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Dr. Mischoulon has mentored research fellows and junior faculty from all over the world, including Europe, Asia, and Australia. He has published more than 250 original research articles, review articles, and book chapters. He has co-edited a textbook on natural medications for psychiatric disorders, and is currently co-editing a guide to treatments of depression. Dr. Mischoulon teaches in the MGH Department of Psychiatry’s residency program and in various continuing medical education programs nationwide. He also cares for patients through the DCRP’s clinical practice, and is regularly sought out for consultation regarding management of treatment-resistant depression and use of complementary therapies for psychiatric disorders.

Kristin Moffitt, MD

Contributor

Dr. Kristin Moffitt is a pediatric infectious diseases doctor and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is involved in several studies of COVID-19 in children, and has been a regular contributor to local and national news affiliates for pediatric COVID-19 updates.

Rose L. Molina, MD, MPH

Contributor

Rose L. Molina, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. She completed the Global Women’s Health Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and obtained a Master of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She works as a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist at The Dimock Center, a federally qualified community health center, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). She is the Faculty Director of the Medical Language Program at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the OB-GYN Diversity, Inclusion & Advocacy Committee at BIDMC.  Dr. Molina works as Core Faculty at Ariadne Labs to design, test and spread solutions to ensure that everyone receives appropriate, safe, and respectful care during pregnancy and childbirth with a focus on equity. Her current research focuses on addressing racial/ethnic inequities in maternal health in Greater Boston.  Her advocacy work seeks to advance access to language-concordant and culturally-humble health care for all. She is a member of Physicians for Human Rights and performs asylum evaluations. 

Rose L. Molina, MD, MPH

Contributor

Rose L. Molina, MD, MPHâ€¯is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. She completed the Global Women’s Health Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and obtained a Master of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She works as a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist at The Dimock Center, a federally qualified community health center, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). She is the Faculty Director of the Medical Language Program at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the OB-GYN Diversity, Inclusion & Advocacy Committee at BIDMC.â€¯ Dr. Molina works as Core Faculty at Ariadne Labs to design, test and spread solutions to ensure that everyone receives appropriate, safe, and respectful care during pregnancy and childbirth with a focus on equity. Her current research focuses on addressing racial/ethnic inequities in maternal health in Greater Boston.â€¯ Her advocacy work seeks to advance access to language-concordant and culturally-humble health care for all. She is a member of Physicians for Human Rights and performs asylum evaluations.â€¯

Richard F. Mollica, MD

Contributor

Dr. Richard F. Mollica is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT) at Massachusetts General Hospital. A pioneer in international research on refugee trauma, he is the author of Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World.

Margaret Moore, MBA

Contributor

Margaret Moore is a 17-year veteran of the biotechnology industry in the US, UK, Canada, France. In 2000, Margaret founded Wellcoaches Corporation, in strategic partnership with the American College of Sports Medicine, which has trained more than 10,000 health professionals as health and wellness coaches in 45 countries. Margaret is co-founder and co-director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and co-director of the annual Coaching in Leadership & Healthcare conference offered by Harvard Medical School. Margaret teaches a Science of Coaching Psychology program at Harvard University Extension School. She co-founded and co-leads the National Consortium for Credentialing Health & Wellness Coaches, and led the formation of a strategic partnership with the National Board of Medical Examiners to deliver national standards and certification for health and wellness coaches. Margaret co-authored the Coaching Psychology Manual published by Wolters Kluwer (2009, 2015), and two Harvard Health books: Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life (Harlequin, 2012), and Organize Your Emotions, Optimize Your Life (William Morrow, 2016).

Medha Munshi, MD

Contributor

Medha Munshi, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. She is a geriatrician and an endocrinologist. She practices primary care geriatrics at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and directs geriatric diabetes program at the Joslin Diabetes Center. This program uses interdisciplinary program beyond the traditional diabetes program that considers clinical, functional and psychosocial barriers faced by older adults before formulating individualized treatment strategies. The primary focus of Dr. Munshi’ s clinical research is to identify challenges faced by older individuals with diabetes, to develop strategies to overcome these barriers, and to improve clinical and functional outcomes, including quality of life. One of the important areas for her investigation has been on the risks and poor outcomes of hypoglycemia in aging population. She has co-edited 2 textbooks on the topic of geriatric diabetes and contributed many chapters on this topic. Under the umbrella of the International Diabetes Federation, she co-authored the global guidelines on managing older people with type-2 diabetes. She also co-authored the consensus report on diabetes management in community-living older adults and the position statement for diabetes management in the LTC facilities published by the American Diabetes Association. She chaired the committee to author the Joslin Diabetes Center guidelines for the care of the older adults with diabetes. She has published many papers of original investigation on the subject of geriatric diabetes and has presented nationally and internationally on this topic.

Jonathan Nadler, MD

Contributor

Emergency Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance Department of Emergency Medicine Education: Post-graduate Training: Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Doctor of Medicine: University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA Undergraduate Degree: Bachelor of Science in Biology/Biotechnology from Tufts University Medford, MA

Uma Naidoo, MD

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Uma Naidoo is a nutritional psychiatrist and serves as the director of nutritional & lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Naidoo trained at the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and completed a consultation liaison fellowship at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Naidoo studied nutrition, and she also graduated from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts as a professional chef. She was awarded her culinary school’s most coveted award, the MFK Fisher Award for Innovation. Dr. Naidoo is regarded nationally and internationally as a pioneer in the field of nutritional psychiatry, having founded the first US hospital-based clinical service in this area. She is the author of This is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More. With her passion for food and nutritional psychiatry, she will share her expertise on the integration of food, mental health, and medicine.

James Naples, MD

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. James Naples is a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. He earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and stayed there to complete his residency training in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery. He completed a fellowship in neurotology and skull base surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He has diverse clinical interests that include hearing loss and cochlear implants, skull base surgery, vestibular disorders, and medical history. In addition to his clinical practice, he has performed research in all of these areas. He hopes to integrate his research ideas to improve care and outcomes for all patients with ear-related clinical disorders.

Pushpa Narayanaswami, MD, FAAN

Contributor

Pushpa Narayanaswami is a neuromuscular neurologist. She is the vice chair of clinical operations in the department of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, and associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. She is a clinician-educator and researcher with special interest in myasthenia gravis, myopathies, and muscular dystrophies.

Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

List of Experts

Claire McCarthy, MD

Chris McDougle, MD

Katherine D. McManus, MS, RD, LDN

Darshan Mehta, MD, MPH

Robert C. Meisner, MD

Babar Memon, MD, MSc

Elise Merchant, MD

Beverly Merz

Eric A. Meyerowitz, MD

Amy Leigh Miller, MD, PhD

Joan Miller, MD

Kathleen W. Miller, MD

Michael Craig Miller, M.D.

Jeannine Miranne, MD, MS

David Mischoulon, MD, PhD

Kristin Moffitt, MD

Rose L. Molina, MD, MPH

Rose L. Molina, MD, MPH

Richard F. Mollica, MD

Margaret Moore, MBA

Medha Munshi, MD

Jonathan Nadler, MD

Uma Naidoo, MD

James Naples, MD

Pushpa Narayanaswami, MD, FAAN