Corrigan Minehan Heart Center Telehealth & Digital Health Research & Innovation
The Corrigan Minehan Heart Center provides patients and referring providers virtual options for access to the expertise of Mass General cardiovascular specialists. Meet the dedicate members of our teleheath team.
Dr. Ami B. Bhatt is the director of outpatient cardiology and telecardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. She is an active clinical cardiologist, investigator and educator and founded the Mass General Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program in virtual care in 2013. Her research centers on identifying and implementing solutions to barriers to access to cardiovascular and telemedicine care. The COVID pandemic has amplified the disparities in access to health care secondary to disease complexity, health literacy, social determinants of health and risks widening the digital divide. Dr. Bhatt works with national cardiac organizations, hospital administration and design teams to dismantle the barriers to care associated with optimal cardiovascular outcomes. She serves as a medical advisor for digital and telehealth companies, advocates for policy change and telemedicine legislation and leads national telemedicine education via the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Bhatt also serves locally on the Board of the American Heart Association to increase awareness, access and patient self-advocacy. Internationally, she assists countries affected by COVID with an abrupt need to deliver remote care. Her interest in digital health strategy stems from her belief that state of the art, personalized care can be delivered to individuals in the community, empowering patients and creating stronger clinician-patient partnerships for sustainable health outcomes.
Dr. Ami Bhatt: Mass General Cardiology Grand Rounds 2021
Romit Bhattacharya, MD
Dr. Romit Bhattacharya is a clinical and research fellow in cardiovascular medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School. He is training to be a physician-scientist studying preventive cardiology through a combined approach of genomics and digital health. Recent developments in technology have dramatically changed our ability to derive insights from both human genetics and the data passively collected from wearable and implantable devices allowing for analyses that take into account both genetically-defined risk as well as lifestyle-associated risk (ranging from physical activity, to diet, sleep, stress and built-environment factors). Dr. Bhattacharya seeks to leverage these insights to refine our recommendations regarding a healthy lifestyle, target these recommendations to patients who are most likely to benefit and bridge care delivery gaps using digital technologies and telemedicine. His research in telemedicine has focused on the delivery of remote cardiac rehabilitation, Mass General Division of Cardiology’s transition to virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic and the validation of novel cardiac remote monitoring devices. His vision for telehealth is to design systems that bridge gaps in care for those without regular access to in-person medical care and to transition from episodic to continuous lifestyle management for those suffering from chronic cardiometabolic disease. Twitter: @RomitB_MD
Kemar J. Brown, MD
Dr. Kemar J. Brown is a cardiovascular fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and is a John S. Ladue Fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, where his work focuses on understanding the molecular fundamentals and transcriptional mechanisms of heart failure and cardiac fibrosis. He has a keen interest in advanced heart failure and transplantation, and as a clinical fellow, his research centers on identifying strategies to dismantle inequities in cardiovascular and telemedicine care. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the digital divide, and Dr. Brown hopes that his work will aid in mitigating disparities in telemedicine access for marginalized patients with heart disease. Dr. Brown is an incoming committee member of the American College of Cardiology Heart Failure and Transplant Leadership Section, is a member of the Association of Black Cardiologist (ABC) Communications Committee and is a 2020 recipient of the ABC COVID-19 Innovation Award to investigate social and clinical determinants of telemedicine use and to implement strategies to reduce barriers to telecardiology care. Follow Dr. Brown on Twitter: @kemar_MD.
Research Project PDF
Funded and Unfunded Projects PDF
Daniela Crousillat, MD
Dr. Daniela Crousillat is an advanced clinical and research fellow in advanced echocardiography at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her academic and research pursuits are centered around addressing disparities in health care delivery of women and vulnerable patient populations. Her prior research work has focused on racial and ethnic disparities in the diagnosis of aortic stenosis to better understand the reasons for the marked underrepresentation of minority groups among patients undergoing aortic valve interventions. Currently, she works closely with the Cardiology Telemedicine Equity Task Force to examine the sociodemographic determinants of telemedicine use among ambulatory cardiology patients with the goal of improving our current telehealth delivery platforms. She is also collaborating on a multidisciplinary project examining the implementation of a telehealth platform for the acute postpartum care of women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
List of current projects:
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Diagnosis of Aortic Stenosis
- Principal investigator: Sammy Elmariah, MD, MPH
- Retrospective cohort study examining racial and ethnic differences along the health care trajectory of patients with aortic stenosis from the time to diagnosis to treatment
Social Determinants of Telemedicine Utilization Among Ambulatory Cardiology Patients
- Principal investigators: Ami Bhatt, MD; Jagmeet Singh, MD
- Retrospective study examining the predictors of telemedicine use among ambulatory cardiology patients during the COVID-19 pandemic
Effectiveness of a Tailored, Telehealth Program for the Acute Post-Partum Care of Women with Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy
- Principal investigators: Ilona Goldfarb, MD; Amy Sarma, MD
- Feasibility, pilot study designed to study the effectiveness of remote monitoring of blood pressures in the immediate post-partum period among women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
Twitter handle: @DCrousillat
D. Michael Farmer, MDDr. D. Michael Farmer is a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School. Before joining the Telemachus & Irene Demoulas Family Foundation Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Mass General, he was the director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Lab at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. His interests are focused on the integration of device wearable technology and virtual care. His current projects include a collaboration with MGH Springboard to launch a pilot study to assess the feasibility of integrating device wearable biomarkers and preventive virtual cardiologists. His passion for digital health is based on his belief that cardiovascular care should move from a reactive, illness-based model to a preventive, longitudinal and value-based approach.
Research Project PDF
Connor Grady, BS
Connor Grady is an MPH candidate at the Yale School of Public Health studying chronic disease epidemiology. His research interests surround health equity and applying epidemiological methods to improve cardiac patient outcomes and prevent cardiovascular disease in communities. At Mass General, he is examining trends and inequities in telemedicine adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic. He plans to attend medical school and further study epidemiology in a PhD program. Connor graduated from the University of Georgia in 2019 with a degree in microbiology.
Daniel Kirshenbaum, MDDr. Daniel Kirshenbaum is a general cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a clinical affiliate of the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He received his medical degree, as well as his undergraduate degree in Computer Science, from Boston University. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine and cardiology at Boston Medical Center, serving also as chief resident and then chief fellow. He is passionate about digital health, as well as medical education. He has developed web and mobile applications to improve patient care, advance medical research and to enhance medical education. During his medical training he created a mobile application to provide point-of-care procedural education to trainees, while also improving the process of evaluation and feedback by supervising physicians. He is working to improve access to remote monitoring, testing and medical care for patients, an issue that has been highlighted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jona Ludmir, MDDr. Jona Ludmir is a critical care cardiologist at the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center ICU at Mass General. He is also an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ludmir received his medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, cardiology fellowship at the University of Maryland Medical Center and critical care fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center. Dr. Ludmir specializes in cardiac intensive care, echocardiography and cardiovascular disease prevention. Dr. Ludmir’s research focuses on optimizing communication in the ICU, providing family-centered care and addressing psychological comorbidities during critical illness. Dr. Ludmir is the lead physician for the Family-Centered Care Initiative in the Heart Center ICU, where he incorporates evidence-based guidelines and leads in the science of family-centered cardiovascular care delivery. In the ICU, Dr. Ludmir routinely uses digital platforms to include families in rounds, during family meetings and to provide regular clinical updates. In his outpatient practice, Dr. Ludmir created a virtual group visit curriculum focused on managing cardiovascular disease and optimizing lifestyle changes.
Jaclyn Pagliaro, MPH
Jaclyn Pagliaro is the lead telecardiology research coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center. She graduated from Northeastern University obtaining her BS in biology and minor in health science before going on to earn her MPH from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) University. Jacki joined the Division of Cardiology Research in 2018 and her research has focused on improving access to virtual care and eliminating barriers to the provision of equitable telemedicine cardiovascular care in underserved populations. Jaclyn plans to apply to medical school for the 2023 academic year.
Kaavya Paruchuri, MD
Dr. Kaavya Paruchuri is an advanced clinical and research fellow in the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Center within the Division of Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her clinical interests include general cardiology, cardiovascular prevention and cardiovascular rehabilitation. Her academic goals focus on utilizing genomic and digital biomarkers to improve cardiovascular disease risk prediction and prevention. She has worked closely with the Mass General Center for Innovation in Digital Health and industry collaborators on several digital health endeavors including implementing smartphone-based applications, wearable monitor utilization and disease management platform development. Her telemedicine efforts have been focused on the development and refinement of virtual protocols to optimize care delivery within cardiovascular subspecialties including fellows’ clinic, cardiac rehabilitation and cardiovascular prevention.
Publications and Selected Presentations:
Paruchuri K, Finneran P, Marston NA, Healy EW, Andreo J, Lynch R, Blood AJ, Jones-O’Connor M, Lander B, Kelly N, Vivaldi MT, Traynor K, Wiviott S, Natarajan P. Outcomes of a smartphone-based application with live health-coaching post-percutaneous coronary intervention. [Under review; pre-print on medRxiv.org]
Paruchuri K, Bhattacharya R, Pagliaro J, Bhatt AB. Virtual Care: Empowering Patients and Providers. 2020 American Heart Association Poster Session. November 2020. Electronic ePoster presentation done due to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Current Projects:
Utilization of and cardiac rehabilitation response assessment with wearable devices
- Principal investigator: Pradeep Natarajan, MD
- Single arm open-label study to evaluate wearable device metrics among individuals undergoing cardiac rehabilitation
Hybrid cardiac rehabilitation response with wearable devices
- Principal investigator: Kaavya Paruchuri, MD
- Prospective observational study utilizing wearable monitors to improve delivery of combined in-person and remote cardiac rehab
Twitter handle: @kparuchuri
Corrigan Minehan Heart Center
At Massachusetts General Hospital, our world-class physicians and nurses specialize in specific forms of heart disease, and work closely together to offer leading treatments and preventive care for cardiac conditions.