About HTL

Founder & Director

Eric Isselbacher, MD, MHCDS

Eric Isselbacher is the Founder & Director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. He completed both his medical residency and cardiology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1996 he joined the staff of the Cardiology Division at Mass General. Dr. Isselbacher is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is motivated to innovate by the fact that healthcare providers today are stretched to the limit, if we hope to improve the efficiency, quality, and experience of healthcare, it can’t be by working harder or faster. It will have to be by a willingness to break with tradition and embrace the science of innovation.

Managing Director

Paula McCree

Paula McCree is Managing Director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab. Motivated by her desire to be part of a team that creates innovative solutions in healthcare that work, she brings her passion and interests to settings where she can facilitate the process through which innovation in healthcare can have an impact on how services are delivered and received. Her experience in a variety of healthcare settings developing new products and designing new programs gives her a unique perspective and understanding of innovation in the healthcare delivery system. Paula holds a BS in Biological Anthropology from Harvard and an MS in Nutrition from Tufts. Influenced by her training as a yoga instructor and stress management and resiliency program facilitator, she brings a mindful perspective to organizational development and creates purpose driven work environments where people bring their best selves and innovation flourishes.

Associate Director

Jared Conley, MD, PhD, MPH

Dr. Jared Conley is an emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He serves as the Associate Director of the MGH Healthcare Transformation Lab, where he leads a team of clinicians and engineers to enhance the quality and affordability of acute healthcare through technology and innovation. He additionally serves on the leadership team for MGH’s Home Hospital program. His work explores the relationship between acute health needs and the optimal setting and provision of care—and the enabling opportunity for digital health to improve the quality, safety, and cost of care. His work has been featured in various medical journals, including NEJM Catalyst, JAMA Internal Medicine, and Stroke. He completed a joint MD/PhD program at Case Western School of Medicine, as well as received an MPH from The Dartmouth Institute. His clinical training was obtained at Harvard (MGH/BWH) and he completed a fellowship in healthcare delivery innovation at Stanford University.

Core HTL Faculty, Cardiologist

Aaron Aguirre, MD, PHD

Aaron Aguirre is a cardiologist and critical care specialist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School a clinical affiliate of the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his doctoral degree in electrical and biomedical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He trained in internal medicine, cardiology, and critical care at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Aguirre’s graduate work focused on the development of high-resolution optical imaging methods and catheter technologies for clinical applications, and he has significant experience in the creation and preclinical validation of novel medical devices. His current research at the MGH Center for Systems Biology utilizes innovative molecular imaging and microscopy techniques to investigate the biology of myocardial infarction (heart attack) and related forms of heart disease.

Core HTL Faculty, BWH Hospitalist

Michael J. Senter-Zapata, MD

Mike Senter-Zapata is a Staff Hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His research interests include studying clinical decision support tools and point-of-care healthcare mobile apps, particularly around advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) and basic life support (BLS) resuscitation. During residency, Mike recruited a diverse team of fellow co-residents, Harvard Medical School students, and faculty across Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Emergency Medicine disciplines to develop a novel iOS mobile app that trains residents in leading effective hospital codes. He received research grants from the Brigham Education Institute (BEI), the Internal Medicine Residency Program Office, and the Mass General Brigham Office of Graduate Medical Education Center of Expertise (COE) in MedEd to study its efficacy. He is continuing this research as an MGH HTL Innovation Fellow by conducting a randomized control trial in the BWH STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation to further assess the role of mobile technology as a tool for improving resident education and patient bedside care delivery. Outside of the hospital, Mike enjoys traveling with his wife, Tasha (current PGY-4 Psychiatry Resident at MGH), hiking national parks, playing the guitar, and photography. He completed his undergraduate education at Harvard University, medical school at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Internal Medicine residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Innovation Manager

Jennifer Mann

Jennifer Mann is an Innovation Manager with the Healthcare Transformation Lab. Jennifer holds dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She also holds a Master of Engineering degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University. During her graduate program, Jennifer developed a keen interest in medical device product development and innovation management strategies. Since graduating, she has devoted the focus of her career to bringing innovative healthcare technologies to market and into the hands of patients and caregivers. Prior to joining the Healthcare Transformation Lab, Jennifer worked at a boutique technology consulting firm where she counseled med-tech companies on new product development, innovation strategy, and IP portfolio management.

Software Engineer

Halim Chu

Halim Chu is a fullstack software engineer with the Healthcare Transformation Lab. She enjoys building web-based and mobile apps that improve the delivery of care to high-risk patient populations, with a particular interest in mental health conditions. After several years of studying code on her own, she attended the Grace Hopper program within Fullstack Academy of Code in New York City. During her time at Grace Hopper, she was part of a team that built a web-based app that tracks and predicts the user’s mood using machine learning. She graduated from University of California, San Diego with a BA in Psychology.

Innovation Associate

Rahul Prabhu

Rahul Prabhu is an engineer and part-time researcher at the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering and a Computer Science minor from Georgia Tech and has worked as an R&D engineer at Boston Scientific since graduating in 2020. Rahul was drawn to HTL after noticing a need to improve healthcare access to underserved communities during the pandemic. By leveraging his engineering skills to understand how healthcare technology can be leveraged in home care settings, Rahul hopes to also gain an understanding of how social determinants of health can be addressed to bridge clinical gaps in the patient-physician experience.

Hospitalist, Clinical Affiliate

Jocelyn Carter, MD, MPH

2017-2018 Aetna Foundation Fellow in Healthcare Innovation

Jocelyn Carter, MD, MPH is a 2017 Aetna Foundation Fellow in Healthcare Innovation with the Healthcare Transformation Lab.  Clinically prepared in preventive medicine, internal medicine and leadership at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Dr. Carter is passionate about experiential learning, scalable and cost-efficient initiatives, outcomes research, and healthcare information technology driving the redesign of patient-centered care in healthcare innovation. She is an active member across the MGH community, serving as the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion Manager of Trainee Affairs, and on the Department of Medicine’s Albright Medicine Service and Internship Selection Committee in addition to being a practicing internal medicine hospitalist. A recent awardee of a 2017 Partners Healthcare Center for Population Health Delivery System Innovation Implementation Grant, Dr. Carter and her team are studying the impact of patient-community health worker pairings upon hospital discharge on health care outcomes in high risk populations. She is an editor of the Society of Hospital Medicine Clinical Quick Talks and is a regular reviewer for esteemed academic journals.

Assistant Professor BWH, Clinical Affiliate

Gezzer Ortega, MD, MPH

Gezzer Ortega, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Lead Faculty for Research and Innovation for Equitable Surgical Care at the Center for Surgery and Public Health in the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School, and adjunct faculty at the Patient Reported Outcomes, Value & Experience Center. Born in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic, Dr. Ortega’s work centers on improving surgical care for low-income and historically underserved populations and promoting language-concordant care for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). He serves as the Principal Investigator of a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) K23 and BWH Center for Diversity and Inclusion Minority Faculty Career Development Award focused on improving outcomes for surgical patients with LEP. Dr. Ortega was also the Project Director for the Provider Awareness and Cultural Dexterity Toolkit for Surgeons (PACTS) Trial, a NIMHD R01 project to develop and evaluate a curriculum for surgical residents to improve cross-cultural communication and engagement. Dr. Ortega endeavors to diversify the academic physician workforce and was recognized as Health Provider of the Year (2020) by the Building the Next Generation of Academic Physicians. He co-founded the Latino Surgical Society, which supports the advancement of Latino/a/x surgeons. He also received the Syracuse University Chancellor’s Citation Award (2021) and the Harvard Medical School Scholarly Engagement Excellence in Student Mentoring Award (2022). Dr. Ortega earned a Doctor of Medicine from Howard University College of Medicine, a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University.

General Surgeon, Clinical Affiliate

Numa Perez, MD

Numa Perez, MD, is a 2018-2019 Aetna Foundation Fellow in Healthcare Innovation with the Healthcare Transformation Lab, and the 2018 Claude E. Welch Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. Numa spent his childhood in El Salvador before coming to the United States and joining the U.S. Marine Corps where he worked as an Avionics Technician of the CH-53E Helicopter. From there, he moved onto college and worked as a Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. This diverse background in technology and system design, combined with his Surgical training at MGH, have prepared him well to tackle issues that lay at the intersection between healthcare innovation, outcomes and disparities. Numa’s goal is to rethink and redesign the entirety of the perioperative patient experience, while leveraging technology to make it streamlined and more patient-centered, thus leading to improved patient satisfaction and postoperative outcomes. While hoping to enhance quality for all, Numa’s goal is to simultaneously bridge the disparity gap that affects so many patients at MGH and around the nation. Numa graduated with his BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to earn his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. Outside of work, Numa enjoys spending time with his wife Rachel, his daughter Olivia, and his son Numa III.

Cardiologist, Clinical Affiliate

Nicholas Houstis, MD, PhD

Nick Houstis is a 2020 Fellow of the Healthcare Transformation Lab as well as a cardiologist and scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital. With graduate training in computer science (MS, Purdue University) and biology (PhD, MIT) he has sought to apply computation to a spectrum of research questions, from the molecular mechanism of insulin resistance to the pathophysiology of exercise intolerance in heart failure. His current focus is on developing decision support tools to help physicians reason about complex physiology in the intensive care unit. Such tools could help tame this complexity, improving the quality of care as well as democratizing it.

Critical Care Physician, Clinical Affiliate

Amy Dickey, MD

Amy Dickey, MD is a Healthcare Transformation Lab Fellow in Healthcare Innovation and an instructor in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division of the MGH Department of Medicine. She is passionate about adapting and applying technologies for use in porphyria, a family of rare genetic diseases affecting the production of heme. Her interest in porphyria arises from personal experience, as she personally has erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP). This disease causes painful sensitivity to light but currently has no FDA-approved treatments. Her innovation project focuses on developing and applying technologies to provide quantitative endpoints for clinical trials in EPP. For this project, she was recently awarded a Spark Grant from the MGH Medicine Innovation Program. In addition to being an HTL fellow, she is also a Protect the Future Trainee of the American Porphyria Foundation, a program designed to train the next generation of porphyria specialists.

Emergency Physician, Clinical Affiliate

Andrew Chu, MD, MPH, MBA

Andrew “Andy” Chu, MD is a Fellow in Healthcare Innovation with the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He is passionate about transforming healthcare through the use of digital health solutions and care delivery, with special emphasis on developing technologies that improve the longitudinal care, patient-provider experience, and clinical outcomes of patients from high-risk, underserved communities. He is currently a resident physician in the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (HAEMR) program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Andrew earned his MD at Boston University School of Medicine and his MPH at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. For his prior work in digital health and innovation, he is grateful to have received the American Medical Association Leadership, Massachusetts Medical Society Scholars, and the ECRI Health Devices Achievement Awards. Outside of work, Andrew loves to spend time with his wife, Halim, and dog, Birdie.

Research Affiliate

Olivia S. Jung, PhD

Olivia Jung is a research affiliate of the Healthcare Transformation Lab, as well as a faculty affiliate of the Laboratory of Innovation Science at Harvard University and an Assistant Professor at UCLA. Dr. Jung’s research in the field of health care management is informed by her interdisciplinary training in health policy, organizational behavior, and general management. Using mixed methods and organizational theories, Dr. Jung studies ways to motivate and organize frontline workers to innovate and engage in quality improvement work. Her research program is built around examining organizational structures, incentives, and cultures that support innovations—from generating ideas to implementing practices—that aim to improve health care delivery processes and outcomes. At HTL, she helped to design, implement, and study the first iteration of the Ether Dome Challenge in 2014. Dr. Jung holds a PhD and AM in Health Policy & Management from Harvard Business School at Harvard University, a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in International Studies from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

Entrepreneur in Residence

Gregory Snyder, MD, MBA

Greg Snyder is a clinician and physician innovator applying technology to improve healthcare quality and experience. He is a graduate of Princeton University, Jefferson Medical College, Brigham & Women’s Hospital Internal Medicine residency and Harvard Business School. He practices hospital medicine at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, is affiliate faculty at Ariadne Labs, and is a clinical lead for Medically Home, which uses telemedicine and remote patient monitoring to provide hospital-level care to patients in their homes. Greg has partnered with diverse healthcare technology ventures to improve digital patient navigation (Medumo), virtual-first primary care (Dialogue), and AI-guided dermatology (LuminDx). He is now focused on bringing healthcare services to patients where they are most comfortable, in order to improve care quality and patient experience.

Innovation Intern

Abigail Lee

Abigail Lee is an intern at the Healthcare Transformation Lab. She is a senior at Brigham Young University studying molecular biology with a research focus in public health. With grants from the American Cancer Society and the Utah Department of Health, she works with a team that is helping to determine the root factors of HPV vaccine hesitancy in Utah and pinpoint strategies healthcare providers can use to increase vaccine uptake. Abigail was drawn to HTL because of its unique approach to reducing health disparities through technological and organizational innovation. She hopes to gain a greater understanding of how systems can be designed to reduce healthcare inequities and increase the affordability of healthcare.

Clinical Research Coordinator

Sarah Mann

Sarah Mann is a Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC) at the Healthcare Transformation Lab. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Tampa and is in the process of completing her graduate degree in Cybersecurity from Southern New Hampshire University. Her journey into the healthcare realm began with a desire to address critical issues in patient care and data security. As a CRC at HTL, Sarah is specifically looking forward to helping pilot a new language translation technology to help lower the barriers for receiving equitable care for patients with limited English proficiency at MGH.