Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

Adam Kibel, MD, MHCM

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Adam Kibel, MD, MHCM, is the chief of urology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Elliott Carr Cutler Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He received his BA and MD from Cornell University in 1987 and 1991 respectively. He then completed his residency at the Harvard Program in Urology (Longwood) in 1997, and a fellowship in urologic oncology at Johns Hopkins in 1999. In 2022, he received a master’s in health care management from Harvard University. His practice focuses on minimally invasive approaches to urologic cancers. He has over 400 peer-reviewed publications, and has received grant support from multiple agencies, including the National Cancer Institute, the American Urologic Association, the American College of Surgeons, and the Department of Defense. The focus of his research is on identification and treatment of patients with aggressive genitourinary cancers though neoadjuvant therapy, improved imaging, and novel biomarkers.

Laura Kiesel

Contributor

Laura Kiesel is Boston-area freelance writer whose articles and essays have appeared in The Guardian, Salon, Washington Post, The Fix, Vice, Al-Jazeera, The Atlantic, and many others. She is currently completing a collection of personal essays.

Hyun Jung Kim, MD

Contributor

Dr. Hyun Jung Kim is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, specializing in transitional-age youth (15 to 25 years old) with serious mental illnesses, such as early psychotic disorders. She is a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and is in charge in the psychotic disorders division at McLean Hospital.

Leo Kim, MD, PhD

Contributor

Leo Kim, MD, PhD, is a retina surgeon and a full time member of the Retina Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary who has extensive experience in the management of retinal diseases associated with neovascularization or angiogenesis. These include diseases such as retinal vein occlusions, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration. After obtaining his MD/PhD from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Kim attended University of Southern California/Doheny Eye Institute for his ophthalmology residency, where he was recognized with the Doheny Resident Research Award for two consecutive years. He also was awarded the Lillian and Henry Nesburn Award for Research Excellence and was chosen to participate in the 2008 Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Residents Retreat, an honor extended to only the top residents in the United States demonstrating exceptional potential in academic ophthalmology. Following residency, Dr. Kim continued at Doheny Eye Institute as a vitreoretinal surgery fellow and was recognized by the Heed Foundation with a highly prestigious fellowship grant.

Davis Kimaiyo, MD

Contributor

Davis Kimaiyo, MD, is an Internal Medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. He completed his medical degree at the University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Kimaiyo’s research interests include cardiovascular medicine, particularly preventative cardiology, heart failure, and clinical trials.

George King, MD

Contributor

Dr. George L. King is the Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer at Joslin Diabetes Center, as well as a professor of medicine and ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and did his residency at the University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals in Seattle and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. King has published over 300 papers and multiple books. Dr. King’s work focuses on finding the causes of diabetic complications. He is the founder of The Medalist Study to discover new treatments for diabetic complications and understanding the reasons for the high rate of diabetes in Asian Americans. His laboratory discovered that VEGF, the protein most responsible for causing the severe form of diabetic eye disease. Dr. King has received numerous awards: the Cogan Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology; the Alcon Award for Vision Research; the Harold Amos Diversity Award from Harvard Medical School; the Chinese American Medical Society Scientific Award; the 2015 Edwin Bierman Award from the American Diabetes Association, with several others; the Champalimaud Award for Vision, the largest award in the vision research field; and the Mary Tyler Moore and Robert Levine Award from the JDRF 2016.

Daniel Kirshenbaum, MD

Contributor

Daniel Kirshenbaum, MD, is a general cardiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He completed his internal medicine residency at Boston Medical Center (BMC), also serving as Chief Medical Resident, where he then went on to also complete his clinical cardiology fellowship. He has academic interests in digital health, as well as the use of technology to enhance medical education.

Sarah Klein

Health Writer

Sarah Klein is a Boston-based health journalist with more than 15 years of experience in lifestyle media. Most recently, she was editor in chief and senior director of content at LIVESTRONG.com. She previously held positions at Health.com, Prevention, and HuffPost. She's worked as a freelancer with a range of publications and clients, including TIME Health, SELF.com, Peloton, Everyday Health, Exos, Stride, and Felix Creative. Sarah is a graduate of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, a National Academy of Sports Medicine–certified personal trainer, and a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. She completed the National Press Foundation 2020 Vaccine Boot Camp and the 2019 Mayo Clinic Journalist Residency.

Lauren Ko, MD, MEd

Contributor

Lauren Ko, MD, M.Ed, is a dermatology resident physician at the Harvard Combined Dermatology Program. She received her undergraduate education at Columbia University, and thereafter received her Masters in Education in New York City where she taught elementary school for four years. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Her clinical and research interests include inpatient and complex medical dermatology, medical education, and cutaneous manifestations of systemic disease.

Anthony L. Komaroff, MD

Editor in Chief, Harvard Health Letter; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Anthony L. Komaroff is the Steven P. SimcoxPatrick A. Clifford/James H. Higby Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, senior physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and editor in chief of the Harvard Health Letter. He was director of the division of general medicine and primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for 15 years, and is the founding editor of Journal Watch, a summary medical information newsletter for physicians published by the Massachusetts Medical Society/New England Journal of Medicine.

Megan A. Koster, MD, PharmD

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Megan A. Koster, MD, PharmD, is the interim chief of pulmonary & critical care medicine at Mount Auburn Hospital (MAH), and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Koster started her journey in health care with a doctor of pharmacy degree from Northeastern University. She worked as a clinical pharmacist with a special focus in organ transplant and surgical intensive care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) before matriculating at HMS. Following medical school, Dr. Koster pursued internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and continued her training with a MGH/BIDMC fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine. She received advanced training in medical education leadership through a BIDMC clinician educator fellowship. In addition to her practice in general pulmonology and critical care medicine at MAH, Dr. Koster has continued her work as an educational leader, serving as co-director for undergraduate medical education, clerkship director for several HMS electives, and the pulmonary subspecialty education chair for the internal medicine residency program at MAH. Her professional interests include interprofessional health care education, clinical leadership, and supporting women and parents in medicine.

Parul Kothari, MD

Contributor

Parul Kothari, MD, is an Associate Physician of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She completed medical school at New Jersey medical school followed by an Internal Medicine residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and an Allergy and Immunology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Kothari’s clinical interests include drug allergy, allergies and asthma, and chronic urticaria.

Arianne Shadi Kourosh, MD, MPH

Contributor

Arianne Shadi Kourosh, MD, MPH, is a board certified dermatologist and associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. She is a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she received the institution's awards in leadership, outstanding professionalism, and humanism as a physician. Dr. Kourosh is committed to patient advocacy and solving public health problems for patients with skin disease. She developed the Skin Advocate iPhone app, a free iPhone application that connects patients with patient advocacy organizations for their skin conditions. She has published and been recognized in the news and many publications, and served as editor in chief of Dialogues in Dermatology, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)’s official podcast and internationally subscribed educational program for physicians. Dr. Kourosh serves as the dermatology department’s director of community health, providing access to dermatologic care for underserved communities. She is the founding director of the Clinic for Pigmentary Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and the founder and director of the Radiance Clinic, MGH’s pro-bono tattoo removal program, assisting those seeking to escape gangs and human trafficking to be safe and reintegrate into society, which has won national awards for its impact. She also advocates for patients at the national level in the AAD’s delegation to Congress to protect medical research and affordable care for patients with skin disease. Dr. Kourosh’s research at the intersection of dermatology and public health — including her pioneering work on Zoom dysmorphia, climate justice in the impacts of pollution on skin diseases and aging (especially in vulnerable populations), and on the skin signs of human trafficking — has reached national and international impact, and has been featured on Today, The Daily Show, PBS, Fox News, and Boston Globe Media, and in Oprah magazine, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, Consumer Reports, Allure, Harvard Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Wired magazine, among numerous others, and for which she has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Dr. Kourosh has won numerous awards, including Massachusetts General Hospital's Clinician-Teacher Award, Harvard Medical School's Dean's Community Service Award, the Ernesto Gonzalez Award for outstanding service to the Latino Community, and Boston's Top Doctors. In 2020 she received the AAD's Presidential Citation for outstanding service during the COVID-19 crisis. In 2022 and 2023, she received Presidential Citations from both the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Society for Medicine and Surgery, for her leadership of a national task force and multiple initiatives in the medical community to aid those affected by human trafficking, and she has been named one of Medscape's 25 Rising Stars in Medicine.

Suzanne Koven, MD, MFA

Contributor

Suzanne Koven, MD, MFA, is a primary care physician and the inaugural writer-in-residence at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her writing has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Boston Globe, The Lancet, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications, and has been featured on National Public Radio. Her book Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes From a Medical Life was published by W.W. Norton & Co. in May 2021. (Photo credit: Patrick B. Duffy)

Rebecca Kranz

Health Writer

Rebecca Kranz is an award-winning freelance medical writer who specializes in breaking down complex medical and scientific concepts into understandable language for health care providers, patients, and the general public. She is also a trilingual medical interpreter working in American Sign Language, Spanish, and English.

Lorrie Kubicek, MT-BC

Contributor

Lorrie Kubicek is a board-certified music therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital, co-director of The Katherine A. Gallagher Integrative Therapies Program, and program manager of expressive therapies at MGH Cancer Center and Mass General Hospital for Children. She is a clinical supervisor for the music therapy program at Berklee College of Music, and has authored a chapter on the use of music technology in music therapy interventions with adult cancer patients.

Daniel Kuritzkes, MD

Contributor

Daniel R. Kuritzkes, MD received his BS and MS degrees in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, and his MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed his clinical and research training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and was a visiting scientist at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research before joining the faculty at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Kuritzkes returned to Harvard Medical School in 2002, where he is now the Harriet Ryan Albee Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Kuritzkes has published extensively on antiretroviral therapy and drug resistance in HIV-1 infection. He has chaired several multicenter studies of HIV therapy and previously chaired the AIDS Clinical Trials Group. He has served on numerous NIH committees, including as a member of the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council. He is a former member of the Department of Health and Human Services panel on guidelines for antiretroviral therapy and a past Chair of the HIV Medicine Association Board of Directors. He has been a member of several editorial boards, and serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. His research interests focus on HIV therapeutics, antiretroviral drug resistance, and HIV eradication.

Deborah Kwolek, MD, FACP, FAMWA, MSCP

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Deborah Gomez Kwolek is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and is the founding lead of the Mass General Women’s Health and Sex and Gender Medicine Program. She is a certified specialist through the Menopause Society and a practicing primary care physician. Dr. Gomez Kwolek has over 30 years of experience in women’s health and sex and gender medicine. Throughout her career, she has focused on improving education in this field at regional, national, and international levels. In addition to her educational work, Dr. Gomez Kwolek chairs the Sex and Gender Health Collaborative of the American Medical Women’s Association/Medical International Women’s Association.

Daniela J. Lamas, MD

Contributor

Daniela Lamas is a pulmonary and critical care doctor at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and faculty at Harvard Medical School. Following graduation from Harvard College, she went on to earn her MD at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, where she also completed internship and residency. She then returned to Boston for her subspecialty fellowship. She has worked as a medical reporter at the Miami Herald and is frequently published in the New York Times. This is her first book.

Adam Landman, MD, MS, MIS, MHS

Contributor

Adam Landman, MD, MS, MIS, MHS is Chief Information Officer at Brigham Health, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an attending emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine and Clinical Informatics and an expert in health information technology and digital health design, development, and implementation. In his current role, he is responsible for developing strategic IT initiatives, with the goal of evolving the next generation of information systems and digital health solutions across the Brigham Health enterprise, while maintaining a focus on excellence.

Adaira I. Landry, MD, MEd

Contributor

Dr. Adaira Landry is an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. She is a Harvard Medical School Society advisor, where she advises a cohort of medical students, and a co-chair for the diversity and inclusion committee for the department of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also a mother to three young children.

Gayle Lang, OTR/L, CHT, MS

Contributor

Gayle Lang is an occupational therapist with a specialty certification in hand therapy. She graduated with a master's degree in occupational therapy from Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehab Sciences. She has been working primarily at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH) since 1996, in both the inpatient acute care and outpatient hand therapy settings. She became a Certified Hand Therapist in 2007, and currently works at BWH's hand therapy clinic in Foxborough, MA.

Helene Langevin, MD

Contributor

Dr. Langevin received an MD degree from McGill University, completed a post doctoral research fellowship in Neurochemistry at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge, England, residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is a Professor in Residence of Medicine and Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also a Visiting Professor of Neurological Sciences at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Dr. Langevin has been the Principal Investigator of several NIH-funded studies investigating the role of connective tissue in low back pain and the mechanisms of acupuncture, manual and movement-based therapies. Her previous studies in humans and animal models have shown that mechanical tissue stimulation during both tissue stretch and acupuncture causes dynamic cellular responses in connective tissue. Her current work focuses on the effects of stretching on inflammation resolution mechanisms within connective tissue, and their relevance to chronic musculoskeletal pain and cancer.

Debi LaPlante, PhD

Contributor

Dr. Debi LaPlante is director of the division on addiction at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She joined the division in 2001 and is involved with its diverse research, education, training, and outreach activities. With her colleagues, she developed the syndrome model of addiction, and co-edited the two volume APA Addiction Syndrome Handbook. She has authored dozens of book chapters, journal articles, and reports. Dr. LaPlante authored the Harvard Health Publishing ebook Responsible Drinking for Women. Dr. LaPlante’s current research involves assessments of public health treatment and intervention systems, studies of actual gambling and daily fantasy sports behavior, and tribal participatory research to develop a culturally grounded, mental health first-response training program, xaʔtu̓s (Salish for First Face) for Mental Health. In addition to these activities, Dr. LaPlante is a member of the editorial team for the division’s The Brief Addiction Science Information Source. She also has been a course director for online and live continuing education courses for addiction, and for gambling-related problems specifically. Dr. LaPlante is a regular reviewer for research grants and academic journal submissions. She spearheaded the division’s Cambridge Health Alliance Readiness for Gambling Expansion initiative, which features Gambling Disorder Screening Day on the second Tuesday of March annually.

Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA

Contributor

Nicole J. LeBlanc is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Harvard University, where she conducts research on the association between social factors and the development and maintenance of emotional disorders. She is also a clinical fellow in the department of psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is completing clinical and research training with the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Program and the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders. Her clinical interests include empirically-supported treatments for anxiety and traumatic stress disorders. She is a member of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).

Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

List of Experts

Adam Kibel, MD, MHCM

Laura Kiesel

Hyun Jung Kim, MD

Leo Kim, MD, PhD

Davis Kimaiyo, MD

George King, MD

Daniel Kirshenbaum, MD

Sarah Klein

Lauren Ko, MD, MEd

Anthony L. Komaroff, MD

Megan A. Koster, MD, PharmD

Parul Kothari, MD

Arianne Shadi Kourosh, MD, MPH

Suzanne Koven, MD, MFA

Rebecca Kranz

Lorrie Kubicek, MT-BC

Daniel Kuritzkes, MD

Deborah Kwolek, MD, FACP, FAMWA, MSCP

Daniela J. Lamas, MD

Adam Landman, MD, MS, MIS, MHS

Adaira I. Landry, MD, MEd

Gayle Lang, OTR/L, CHT, MS

Helene Langevin, MD

Debi LaPlante, PhD

Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA