Meet Our Team

Leadership

Jason Adelman, MD, MS
- Associate Dean for Quality and Patient Safety
- Director, Center for Patient Safety Science
- Program Director, Patient Safety Research Fellowship
- Vice Chair for Quality & Patient Safety, Department of Medicine
- System Associate Chief Quality Officer for Patient Safety & Learning Health System Science, NewYork-Presbyterian
- Associate Professor of Medicine (in Biomedical Informatics) at CUMC
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Benjamin L. Ranard, MD, MSHP
- Deputy Director, Center for Patient Safety Science
- Associate Program Director, Patient Safety Research Fellowship
- Assistant Professor of Medicine, CUIMC Department of Medicine
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Tony Lin, MD
- Director of Operations, Center for Patient Safety Science
Dr. Lin joined the Center as Director of Operations after several years with NYP Quality and Patient Safety. He graduated from VP&S in 2002 and completed his residency in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Lin then worked as a hospitalist at Montefiore Medical Center before taking a senior leadership role with NYC Human Resources Administration WeCARE program.
Anne Grauer, MD, MS
- Assistant Director of Patient Safety Research, Center for Patient Safety Science
- Associate Program Director, Patient Safety Research Fellowship
- Assistant Professor of Medicine at CUIMC
- Associate Director of Quality and Patient Safety, CUIMC Department of Medicine
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Pooja Reddy Spector, MD, MS
- Assistant Director of Pediatric Patient Safety Research and Faculty Development, Center for Patient Safety Science
- Associate Program Director, Patient Safety Research Fellowship
- Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in Surgery, Pediatric Transplant Hepatology, CUIMC
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Baruch S. Fertel, MD, MPA
- Director of Patient Safety Immersion, Center for Patient Safety Science
- Director of Patient Safety Immersion, Patient Safety Research Fellowship
- Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at CUMC
- Vice President, Quality & Patient Safety, NewYork-Presbyterian
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Maureen Kelly, MD
- Director, Quality and Patient Safety, CUIMC Department of Medicine
- Clinical Director, Patient Safety Research Fellowship
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Faculty

Danielle Carter, MD, MS
- Assistant Professor of Medicine
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Jerard Z. Kneifati-Hayek, MD, MS
- Assistant Professor of Medicine
- Assistant Director of Quality and Patient Safety, Department of Medicine
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Patient Safety Research Fellows (AHRQ T32)

Nicole Krenitsky, MD, MBA

Dr. Krenitsky is a Fellow in Patient Safety Research and Clinical Fellow in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She earned her MD/MBA at Yale Schools of Medicine and Management and went on to complete her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia. Dr. Krenitsky is a current member of the Columbia Housestaff Quality Council and is interested in leveraging informatics and deep learning to improve safety and quality outcomes for obstetric patients.
Chelsey Mitchell, MD

Dr. Mitchell completed medical school at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and her pediatric residency at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. She is currently in dual roles as a senior pediatric emergency medicine fellow and a patient safety research fellow. Dr. Mitchell completed leadership coursework in Quality Improvement at Cincinnati Children's James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence, focusing on improvement of interpreter services and documentation within the pediatric emergency room at Columbia. She also completed a clinical quality fellowship that focused on creating and leading an enterprise-wide Pediatric Emergency Medicine Sepsis Collaborative with the New York Greater Health Association. Dr. Mitchell's interests are in phenotyping pediatric disease states within the EHR to facilitate real-time data extraction for the purpose of generating high-quality patient research and quality improvement data, with a current focus on pediatric sepsis.
Miriam Callahan, MD

Dr. Callahan is a Fellow in Patient Safety Research and a Resident in General Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She earned her MD at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Callahan is interested in using electronic health record data to improve patient-oriented quality and safety outcomes in critical care and emergency general surgery.

NYP-Weill Cornell Leads

Erika Abramson, MD, MSc
- Pediatric Hospitalist
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Donald E. Dietz, MD, MS
- Hospital Medicine
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Data Science

Gregory W. Hruby, PhD
- Director of Data Science, Center for Patient Safety Science
- Lead Data Scientist, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Gregory Hruby is responsible for leading the overall analytic strategy for the Center for Patient Safety Science, including facilitation of data access, enablement, and evaluation in collaboration with clinical researchers. He earned his PhD in Biomedical Informatics from the Columbia University Department of Biomedical Informatics and has established an extensive record of accomplishment in providing analytics-based solutions throughout his career. As a Data Scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, Dr. Hruby developed care pathway resource ontologies to facilitate value-based care initiatives. As Outcomes Research Officer at Columbia University Department of Urology, he spearheads the development and implementation of a central research data repository supporting outcomes research.
Yelstin Fernandes, BS
- Programmer
Yelstin joined the original Center for Patient Safety Research in 2018 as a Programmer. He is responsible for organizing, analyzing, and leveraging healthcare data in order to develop programmatic tools that support the team's ongoing research and operational duties. Yelstin comes from a background in biology research holding a BS in Microbiology from the University of Rochester. Additionally, he was exposed to patient care and safety as an EMT-B, and began to code as a hobby. He is excited to now be using data analytics to reduce medical errors. In his spare time Yelstin enjoys baseball, cooking, and travel.
Isaac Michaels, MPH
- Senior Data Scientist, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Center for Patient Safety Science
Isaac Michaels is a Senior Data Scientist at the Center for Patient Safety Science. He has a passion for integrating research and practice to improve the health of patients and communities. Prior to joining NewYork-Presbyterian, he worked in public health practice at the New York State Department of Health. Mr. Michaels received his Bachelor of Arts degree in both Mathematics and Anthropology from Binghamton University. He then earned a Master of Public Health degree from the University at Albany, where he now pursues a Doctor of Public Health degree with a concentration in Epidemiology.
Chenyang Li, MD
- Data Scientist, Center for Patient Safety Science
Chenyang Li is dedicated to advancing the intersection of medicine and data science, with a focus on leveraging biomedical informatics to improve clinical outcomes. Dr. Li graduated from West China Medical Center in 2019 and completed his residency in anesthesiology at West China Hospital, gaining extensive experience in perioperative care and patient safety. Dr. Li is currently earning his Master’s in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University, focusing on leveraging large language models (LLMs) to transform healthcare solutions. He’s passionate about connecting clinical practice with informatics to spark innovation and improve patient safety.

Research and Education Operations

Elizabeth Aikman, MBA, MSPOD, RN
- Program and Project Manager, EQUIP Learning Health System
- Clinical Systems Engineer, Quality & Patient Safety New York-Presbyterian
Elizabeth Aikman comes from a diverse healthcare background beginning at the bedside as an oncology RN and transitioning through hospital leadership into quality management. In her role as a Clinical Systems Engineer at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Elizabeth works with teams to improve organizational performance through team development, leadership coaching, and process improvement. Within the Center for Patient Safety Science, she serves as program manager for EQUIP, a Learning Health System (LHS) E-StaR Center funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to support program strategy and execution in developing early-stage LHS researchers.

Elizabeth holds a BS in Exercise Physiology from the University of Miami, a BS in Nursing from New York University, an MBA in Strategic Healthcare Management from Hofstra University, and an MS in Positive Organization Development & Change from Case Western Reserve University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Organizational Change at Hult International Business School, focused on participatory action research.
Neha Thummala, MPH
- Program Coordinator
Neha joined the original Center for Patient Safety Research in 2021 as a Program Coordinator. She is responsible for supporting various research-related activities, including project coordination of research studies and submissions to the IRB. Neha graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Public Health Studies and received her MPH in Epidemiology from Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in 2021.
Ing Haviland
- Scientific Grant & Communications Writer
Ing joined the original Center for Patient Safety Research with over 20 years’ experience as a medical communications editor, writer, and information design specialist. She has helped develop numerous presentations, manuscripts, abstracts, posters, multimedia projects, and other materials on a wide range of topics for professional, institutional, patient, and donor audiences. Ing has a passion for working with teams on multi-stage iterations to elucidate complex issues, process structures, and potential advancements that engage key audiences.

Collaborators

Program Advisors

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Katrina Armstrong, MD, MSCE
James M. McKiernan, MD
R. Graham Barr, MD, DrPH
Dena Goffman, MD, MS
George Hripcsak, MD, MS
Donald Landry, MD, PhD
Steven Shea, MD, MS
Melissa Stockwell, MD, MPH

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

Peter M. Fleischut, MD
Deepa Kumaraiah, MD, MBA
Baruch S. Fertel, MD, MPA

Weill Cornell Medicine

Yiye Zhang, PhD, MS

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

William Southern, MD, MS

Brigham and Women's Hospital

David W. Bates, MD, MS
Patricia C. Dykes, PhD, MA, RN

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Hojjat Salmasian, MD, PhD

Johns Hopkins University

Allen Chen, MD
Albert Wu, MD, MPH

Mothers Against Medical Error

Helen Haskell, MA

Center for Patient Safety Science

Meet Our Team

Leadership

Jason Adelman, MD, MS

Benjamin L. Ranard, MD, MSHP

Tony Lin, MD

Anne Grauer, MD, MS

Pooja Reddy Spector, MD, MS

Baruch S. Fertel, MD, MPA

Maureen Kelly, MD

Faculty

Danielle Carter, MD, MS

Jerard Z. Kneifati-Hayek, MD, MS

Patient Safety Research Fellows (AHRQ T32)

Nicole Krenitsky, MD, MBA

Chelsey Mitchell, MD

Miriam Callahan, MD

NYP-Weill Cornell Leads

Erika Abramson, MD, MSc

Donald E. Dietz, MD, MS

Data Science

Gregory W. Hruby, PhD

Yelstin Fernandes, BS

Isaac Michaels, MPH

Chenyang Li, MD

Research and Education Operations

Elizabeth Aikman, MBA, MSPOD, RN

Neha Thummala, MPH

Ing Haviland

Collaborators

Program Advisors

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

Weill Cornell Medicine

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Johns Hopkins University

Mothers Against Medical Error