Dr. Juan Wisnivesky is a pulmonologist and clinical epidemiologist whose research focuses on chronic lung disease, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)r, cancer epidemiology and outcomes research, and long-term outcomes of Covid-19. He is the Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine. He has led several studies evaluating determinants of self-management, outcomes, and disparities in care of patients with chronic lung diseases, including asthma and COPD. Currently, he is PI of multiple R01-funded studies evaluating symptoms perception and asthma self-management in the elderly, self-management of COPD in patients with comorbidities, and investigating the biologic and behavioral pathways linking depression with asthma self-management behaviors and outcomes. Additionally, he is PI of two U01s investigating the relationship between comorbidities, PTSD and asthma outcomes of WTC rescue and recovery workers. Since 2020, Dr. Wisnivesky has been leading the Mount Sinai Health System Post-Covid-19 Registry, assessing the long-term outcomes of Covid-19 patients.

His work has also been related to lung cancer treatment in the elderly and disparities in care. He has been involved in several projects involving SEER-Medicare data and other large cancer registries. He published several manuscripts using population-based cancer registries addressing issues related to screening, diagnosis, treatment, disparities in care and outcomes of patients with lung cancer. In the past, he led 3 R01s evaluating staging and treatment of lung cancer using the SEER-Medicare registry and a 4-site cohort study funded by the American Cancer Society to study disparities in lung cancer care. He is the primary mentor of 5 junior faculty with externally funded career development awards.

He has published widely in prominent peer-reviewed journals such as Lancet, British Medical Journal, Cancer, JAMA Internal Medicine, Annals of Surgery, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, among others.

Melissa Martynenko, MPA, MPH – Research Program Director
Ms. Martynenko is the Research Program Director in the Division of General Internal Medicine. She received a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from Rutgers University specializing in non-governmental organization management and a Master’s degree in Public Health from New York University with a concentration in global health and epidemiology after serving in the Peace Corps. For over 12 years, Ms. Martynenko has worked closely with clinician researchers in the Division to manage the study activities, research staff, budgetary requirements and regulatory compliance of pre- and post-award grants.

Kim Stone, MPH – Data Analytics Manager
Ms. Stone graduated from the University at Buffalo in 2013 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and from Columbia University Mailman’s School of Public Health in 2016 with an MPH in Epidemiology. She provides statistical support and data management to Drs. Keith Sigel and Juan Wisnivesky. She is also the Data Analytics Manager for the Division. In this role, she leads the Division’s statistical support and data management operations.

Michelle Barry, MS – Assistant Research Manager
Ms. Barry received her BA in Psychology in 2013 from Mount Saint Mary College and MS in Experimental Psychology in 2016 from Seton Hall University. In her role as Assistant Research Manager she provides overall operational support to the research group. She currently manages numerous observational and intervention studies examining chronic illnesses, overseeing study operations, data collection, research staff, finances, and pre- and post-award compliance.

Akosua Twumasi, MPA – Senior Project Manager
Ms. Twumasi received her BA in Geography from Binghamton University and her MPA in Health Care Administration from Pace University. Currently, she oversees two of Dr. Wisnivesky’s COVID research grants. The first is the Mount Sinai Health System Post-Covid-19 Registry, which is a longitudinal study that follows patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or COVID-19 to assess the long-term consequences of infection across multiple organ systems and compare their outcomes with patients without confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The second is an industry sponsored study with Regeneron that examines the extent, quality and durability of immune responses of immunocompromised patients to SARS-CoV-2 and compares them to control patients without immunodeficiency.

Michelle Doan, MPH – Project Manager
Ms. Doan received her BS from UC Irvine and MPH from Johns Hopkins in Child and Adolescent Health and Global Nutrition. Prior to receiving her MPH degree, she initially worked as a clinical research coordinator on Phase I, II and III clinical trials. Currently, she oversees Dr. Wisnivesky’s research on comparing treatments for early-stage lung cancer. She also works on lung cancer screening studies and studies analyzing large cancer datasets and registries.

Arushi Arora, MPH – Data Analyst I
Ms. Arora graduated from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in 2018 with an MPH in Epidemiology. She provides statistical support and data management to Drs. Alex Federman and Juan Wisnivesky for both their randomized controlled trials and cohort studies that focus on low-income and elderly populations. She also is the data analyst on a COVID-19 study focused on immunocompromised adults led by Dr. Wisnivesky.

Grace Mhango, MPH – Data Analyst II
Ms. Mhango holds an MPH with a concentration in Biostatistics from the Yale School of Public Health in 2008. She works primarily on Dr. Wisnivesky’s SEER-Medicare lung cancer projects.