Team

Dr Rifat Atun is Professor of Global Health Systems at Harvard University and the Director of The Health System Innovation Lab. In 2015-2023 he was the Faculty Chair for the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. He is a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Faculty and Member of the Harvard University Asia Center Steering Committee and Council.

Professor Atun is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Fukushima University in Japan. In 2006-13, Dr. Atun was Professor of International Health Management and Head of the Health Management Group at Imperial College London. In 2008-12 he served as a member of the Executive Management Team of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as the Director of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation Cluster, where he chaired the panel that oversaw investments of around $4billion each year in more than 120 countries.

Professor Atun’s research has two major strands. The first examines health systems performance and how health systems reforms impact on outcomes. The second strand of research explores adoption and diffusion of innovations in health systems (e.g., health technologies, disease control programmes, and primary healthcare reforms), and innovative financing in global health. Prof. Atun is a co-Investigator and the joint lead for the innovation work stream at the National Centre for Infection Preventi…

Dr Reddy is a physician, Associate Director at the Health Systems Innovation Lab, and Research Associate within the Global Health Systems Cluster at Harvard University. Previously, he was a Fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Department of Plastic and Oral Surgery and a postdoctoral Paul Farmer researcher in the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School.

Within the Lab, Dr Reddy is responsible for the innovation and translation portfolio, including the annual HSIL Venture Incubation Program and Hackathon, and several high-impact research projects and multinational collaborations in comparative health systems that analyze health system performance, transition to the Harvard High Value Health System model, and the adoption and diffusion of healthcare ventures and innovations in health systems. His research has been published in The Lancet, British Medical Journal, and Lancet Digital Health, among others.  He uses his research to inform strategy for the design, introduction, and scale-up of innovations and healthcare ventures into health systems — for large scale population level impact in relation to surgery, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, with a focus on BRICS and G20+ Nations.

He has served as the Lead Teaching Fellow for Harvard Graduate and Executive Education level courses, including Innovation and Global Health Systems (2019-2022), Fundamentals of Global Health (2020-2022), Leadership Development in Glo…

Dr Ward is the Associate Director of Research and is a decision scientist with research interests in computational science and global health. His research has been published in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet Oncology, and Health Affairs. He is also the author of Amua, an open source modeling framework and probabilistic programming language.

Zach is a Research Scientist at the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and graduated from the Ph.D. Program in Health Policy at Harvard University in 2021, with a concentration in Decision Sciences and a secondary field in Computational Science and Engineering. He received his undergraduate degree in Global Health Management from Seattle Pacific University and his Masters of Public Health from l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique (EHESP) in Paris, with a concentration in Epidemiology…

Dr. Caroline Bulstra’s research at the Health Systems Innovation Lab focuses on optimizing healthcare delivery for chronic diseases. She earned her PhD at Erasmus MC, applying geospatial modeling to optimise prevention and control strategies for HIV, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases. Caroline leads the “Global Health Systems and Planetary Health” group at the Heidelberg Institute for Global Health and has consulted for UN organizations, including the World Bank, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization. She holds degrees in Veterinary Medicine and Epidemiology from Utrecht University and Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Dr. Jake Figi undertook his pre-clinical and clinic medical training at University College London (UCL). During this time he also gained his BSc in Medical Sciences with Surgical Science. Through the COVID-19 pandemic he worked across medical wards at Barnet Hospital and on the ICU at The Royal Free Hospital in London providing frontline care. After finishing his foundation medical training in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, he moved to Boston to complete a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the Harvard School of Public Health in the Clinical Effectiveness field of study, with dual concentrations in Public Health Leadership and Health Communication.

Jake first joined HSIL during medical school as a research scholar and now continues his work at The Lab as a postdoctoral research fellow, leading the Global Collaborative for Changing Diabetes in Children and working on The Lancet Oncology Commission on Cancer in the Commonwealth, the Global Collaborative on Health Systems Performance, and various other projects. His key academic interests include high-value health systems, NCD delivery optimization, global surgery, and trauma surgery. Outside of his academic work, Jake is a former rower for ULBC and skier.

Dr. Anne Bischops is a physician and postdoctoral research fellow at the Health Systems Innovation Lab, where she investigates health systems performance for children and adolescents. She is currently working on the GC-CDIC project to examine health systems performance in relation to diabetes and mental health in children in 33 countries. She has been directly involved in research and care delivery projects focusing on improving chronic disease and mental health care for adolescents since 2020. In addition to her work as a resident doctor in pediatrics at the University Children’s Hospital Duesseldorf, she has led several randomized controlled trials and implemented a digital coaching program that she co-designed working with various stakeholders.  Anne completed her medical training at Heidelberg University, where she also earned her dissertation at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, examining non-communicable diseases in India and global adolescent health behavior.

Zia is an avid global health advocate, reformer, and strategic thinker with extensive experience in strategy and management consulting, change, and technology. Over the course of his career, he has worked with global organizations and managed several transformational initiatives. His focus in global health is on health systems reforms, evidence-based decision-making, universal health coverage (UHC), health economics, and health finance within LMICs, G20 nations, and humanitarian settings. Zia holds an MS in Management from UT Dallas, an MBA from Duke University – Fuqua School of Business, and an MPH from Yale University – Yale School of Public Health.

Caleb Kumar is an AI researcher with a background in biostatistics and machine learning. He earned his B.S. from Stanford University and an M.S. from the Stanford School of Medicine. As an undergraduate, Caleb founded VesaliusMed, a company focused on real-time cell recognition AI technology, which was acquired in 2021. His work spans across AI-driven healthcare tools, generative models, and multi-source data pipelines. Caleb’s current focus is building public health analysis tools at the lab, where he develops innovative systems that empower policymakers to generate evidence-based insights for health systems improvement.

Dr. Alessandro Bigoni is a Research Scholar at the Health Systems Innovation Lab, an Evidence Manager at Novartis, and an Associate Researcher at Fundação Getulio Vargas’s São Paulo School of Business Administration. Previously, he was a Senior Consultant at IQVIA Brazil, and a Fulbright Scholar at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Global Health and Population Department. At the Lab, Dr. Bigoni oversees and leads key research projects aimed at improving health system performance in Brazil. His research leverages large, publicly available datasets to generate national-level studies to inform public policies around the Brazilian health system.

Dr Gabriela Borin is a Physical Therapist from Brazil. She received her undergraduate and Master of Science degrees from Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil. She graduated from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2021 with a Masters in Public Health. She then did her PhD at University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health & Health Science, Amherst, USA, with a concentration in Kinesiology.

Gabriela has over 10 years of experience in clinical healthcare and academic research. She worked in public and private healthcare institutions in Brazil and Chile. She has been involved in research projects in Latin America that analyze social determinants of health, non-communicable diseases, health systems performance and innovations in health systems.

Dorit Stein is a global health policy and systems researcher studying health system performance in low- and middle-income countries. In her work, she applies methods from decision science, economics, and epidemiology to inform global health policy, priority setting, and resource allocation. Dorit holds an MS in Global Health and Population from HSPH and a BS in Human Biology and Society and Public Policy from UCLA.

Dr. Karima Ladhani is a health systems innovator committed to advancing systemic change from strategic policy to community-centered interventions for maternal and newborn care in low-resource settings. As the Founder of Barakat Bundle, she develops life-saving, sustainable solutions for mothers and infants in South Asia. Dr. Ladhani leads a global consulting practice partnering with universities and social enterprises in health innovation and international development. She is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Georgetown University and formerly led Program Management and Research at the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. Dr. Ladhani holds a PhD and MPH from Harvard and degrees in math and business administration from Canada, with honors from LinkedIn, WeWork, Aspen Ideas Festival, and Johnson & Johnson for healthcare impact.

Zhihui Li is an Associate Professor at the Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University. She earned both her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her primary research areas include global health governance, social determinants of health, and risk stratification in populations from low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Li has published over 50 academic articles, with her first- or corresponding-author works in the past five years featured in leading international journals such as The Lancet Public Health, The Lancet Global Health, and PLOS Medicine, with over 3,000 citations. She has been invited to establish overseas research bases in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, where she guided local communities, hospitals, and academic institutions in identifying and intervening with high-risk populations. Additionally, as a co-chair, Dr. Li co-led the “Tsinghua-Lancet Commission on Health and Poverty Alleviation Program in China” Commission Report. She also serves as the co-chair for the World Health Forum-Youth Forum and the chair of the Liver Health Innovation Forum.

Assel Ibadulla is a health policy researcher with a strong commitment to global health equity and strengthening global health systems. She holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from Nazarbayev University and an MPH in Health Policy from Yale University.

Assel has conducted research at Yale’s Equity Research and Innovation Center, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the health impacts of the prosecution of ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang and identify their health needs.

Previously, Assel interned with the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly global initiative (2022) and the CoronaNet project (2021), and contributed to a joint project between the WHO Europe and Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Health aimed at reintroducing the HPV vaccine.

At the Health Systems Innovation Lab, Assel’s research focuses on the “Transitioning to High-Value Health Systems in G20+ Countries” project, with particular emphasis on value-based payment models, value-based procurement, and outcome measurement systems. She is also part of the organizing team for the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Hackathon.

Elizabeth is a second-year Master of Science of Public Health (MSPH) student studying Health Systems at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At HSIL, she is excited to positively contribute to the work on value-based care and combine her interests in quality of care and global surgery to develop high value models of surgical care. Before joining Johns Hopkins, she completed her BSc in Neuroscience and Economics at the University of Toronto. Elizabeth is interested at the intersection of global health, policy, healthcare access, and global surgery, investigating quality and access to surgical care in low resource settings. In the future she aims to become a practicing global surgeon, engaging in clinical care and supporting health systems and policy interventions.

Ning Ma is a Ph.D. student at Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, China. Her research interests are at health inequality, social determinants of health, and maternal and child health. Her work has been published in The Lancet Global Health, The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, and other journals. Ning has also contributed to the Tsinghua-Lancet Commission Report on Health and Poverty Alleviation in China, where she assessed the impact of poverty alleviation policy on chronic disease management.

Yuhao Kong is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, China. Her research focuses on the social determinants of maternal and child health, tobacco control, and health inequalities in low- and middle-income countries. She has published in high-impact journals, including The Lancet Public Health, The Lancet Global Health, and eClinicalMedicine. Additionally, she is involved in several tobacco control projects in collaboration with the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Senthujan Senkaiahliyan is a dedicated healthcare administrator with a proven track record in AI integration within healthcare systems. Currently leading the AI team at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, Senthujan has also excelled in healthcare board governance and collaborated closely with community health center boards. His diverse background spans computer science, health services utilization/management, program evaluation, and medical anthropology.

Senthujan’s accomplishments include pioneering the CIHR AI4PH internship program, driving AI and public health capacity building across Canada. With a keen interest in health services research, AI implementation, and high-value health systems, he seeks to contribute to learning how to build resilient and high value healthcare systems and learn about value-based healthcare principles through his role as a Research Scholar at Harvard.

Shaoru Chen is a Ph.D. student at the Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, specializing in global health. Her research focuses on health challenges faced by vulnerable populations, particularly women and children in low- and middle-income countries. She has published her findings in prominent journals, including Lancet Public Health, Lancet Global Health, and JAMA Network Open. Shaoru has also played a  role in the Tsinghua-Lancet Commission Report on Health and Poverty Alleviation in China, where she evaluated how poverty reduction policies influence the management of chronic diseases.

Shang Lou is a MPH student at the Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, China. Shang’s research centers on global health, with a particular focus on gender equality, women’s empowerment, and adolescent health. Proficient in data science, he applies advanced causal inference techniques to assess the impact of global policies on health outcomes. Shang is eager to contribute to the HSIL pioneering work and drive meaningful change in the health sector.

Mawulorm Denu MD, MPH, is a research scholar at the Harvard Health Systems Innovations Lab. He is a physician and public health researcher with an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and currently a resident at Harlem Hospital/Columbia University in New York. He previously worked as a researcher in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.

His research is focused on non-communicable diseases, with a particular interest in hypertension and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. He has special interests in global health, with an emphasis on developing local-level health system innovations to improve non-communicable disease management in African countries.

Beyond research, he has played an active role in organizing public health initiatives, including the inaugural Harvard Africa Health Conference and previous editions of the HSIL Health System Innovation Hackathons. His work bridges clinical medicine and research, public health, and health system innovation to drive impactful solutions in both local and global settings.

Yixuan Zhang is a Master of Public Health student at Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, China, with a strong interdisciplinary background that includes engineering and economics. She has a deep interest in Global Health, particularly focusing on health and poverty, maternal and child health, and the intersection of economic policies with health outcomes. Yixuan has collaborated with Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab as a student intern on research related to fiscal space study in Lancet Commission Cancer in the Commonwealth, aiming to explore sustainable health financing solutions. Her previous work includes contributing to the Tsinghua-Lancet Commission Report on Health and Poverty Alleviation in China, where she used data science tools to analyze policy impact and explore the correlation between poverty alleviation programs and national economic systems.

Pooja Joshi is a Master of Public Policy (MPP) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) student at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. She is a Rubenstein Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. Her research interests are at the intersection of business and government in global health. At HSIL, she is excited to be supporting work on high-value health systems. Prior to Harvard, she has worked in management consulting and healthcare startups in emerging markets. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction, boxing, and singing Hindustani classical music.

Jonathan F. Gong is the Clinical Research Coordinator of the Division of Spine Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His professional interests lie at the intersection of health disparities, precision medicine, health systems development, biomedical research, and medical humanities. Prior to Boston, Jonathan earned a BS in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he completed his honors research thesis in developmental neurobiology and ophthalmology. Jonathan is excited to be a part of the Health Systems Innovation Lab and aims to learn how data science, policy, economics, and public-private sector collaboration are bridged to improve healthcare delivery. In the future, Jonathan plans to attend medical school.

Qassi Gaba is a Master of Biomedical Informatics (MBI) student at Harvard. He is also a Research Scholar and Capstone student at the Health Systems Innovation Lab at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Global Health and Population. His capstone focuses on modeling the health and economic impact of scaling up quality of cancer care globally.

Prior to Harvard, he received a B.A. in Cell & Systems Biology from the University of Oxford, where he specialized in cancer biology and immunology. Qassi aims to bridge healthcare, data science, and business strategy to advance equitable and effective healthcare delivery. His past experiences include strategy consulting at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), growth equity investing at MVM Partners, and precision medicine research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with Prof. David Livingston.
In his spare time, Qassi enjoys playing sports, such as golf, soccer, and squash, and is a keen supporter of the New Zealand All Blacks.

Dr Thanitsara (Muky) Rittiphairoj is a Research Assistant at the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Senior Professional Research Methodologist at Cochrane Eyes and Vision U.S. Satellite, University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, USA. Her research interests include synthesizing high-quality evidence and improving healthcare delivery systems and resource allocation in preventive health services in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) for low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Rittiphairoj received her M.D. from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, in 2018, and her Master of Public Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2021. Prior to entering graduate school, she was awarded a full scholarship from the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation to conduct research at the Center for Clinical Trials and Evidence Synthesis, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for one year, where she synthesized high-quality systematic reviews in NCDs to inform clinical decision making.

Luke Brothers is a recent graduate of Northeastern University. He holds a B.S. in Health Science and Business Administration with a minor in Data Science. Luke’s primary interests lie in health system innovation, venture strategy, and business development. Luke’s previous experience includes healthcare consulting at KPMG, business and data analysis at Harvard Medical School, and business development for multiple early-stage ventures in the life sciences sector.
 
At the Health Systems Innovation Lab, Luke’s research focuses on the “Transitioning to High-Value Health Systems in G20+ Countries” project, with emphasis on strategic change and innovation ecosystems and integrated provider networks. He is also involved in HSIL’s global hackathon and venture incubator program.

Maira Owais is currently a third year student studying in the Departments of Biology and Economics at Amherst College. Her academic and career interest are directed towards public health and global policy, with a particular focus on studying healthcare from an economic perspective and using the framework of health economics to better understand the intricacies of system structures. She has been working with the Health Systems Innovation Lab over the past year and has been fortunate enough to collaborate on a number of projects that has given her great insight into the field and cemented her interests in global health.

Hugh is a Kennedy Scholar at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, currently pursuing a Master of Public Health in Health Management. He earned a first-class BSc in History and Philosophy of Medicine in 2018 and an MBBS in 2021 from University College London, winning the prestigious Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Surgical Skills Competition in his final year.

As a resident doctor in Edinburgh, Hugh led the organisation of Scotland’s first-ever industrial action ballot for NHS doctors, negotiating in a landmark agreement with the Scottish Government on their behalf. The deal included a £61.3 million investment in resident doctor pay—the largest increase since Scottish devolution—and established a framework for inflation-linked pay rises and contractual reform, marking significant progress toward reversing years of pay erosion.

Hugh has held senior leadership roles within the British Medical Association (BMA), including Deputy Chair of the BMA Scottish Council and the BMA Scottish Junior Doctor Committee. Passionate about the intersection of politics and healthcare, he is particularly interested in the role of political narratives in shaping healthcare systems and is committed to revitalising the NHS as a global model of publicly funded healthcare.

Dr. Shreenik Kundu is a Ph.D. student at McGill University and a Jean Martin Laberge Global Pediatric Surgery Fellow with extensive clinical experience. He completed the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship at Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Surgery and Social Change. His research interests are centered around trauma and disaster management, democratizing emergency, and trauma education through virtual reality, and MedTech research and development. Dr. Kundu completed his medical school and training at the West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University, in China, and a fellowship at the Global Surgery Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Ayla Gerk is a Medical Doctor with extensive clinical experience in Argentina, currently pursuing a PhD at McGill University as a Jean Martin Laberge Global Pediatric Fellow. She conducts research at the Commisur Lab, Harvey E. Beardmore Division of Pediatric Surgery, Montreal Children’s Hospital, and recently completed the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship at Harvard PGSSC. Recognized by the Boston Congress of Public Health as a 40 Under 40 in 2024, Dr. Gerk is a strong advocate for equity in global health and serves as a Junior Advisor for the Gender Equity Initiative in Global Surgery.

Lauren is studying History of Science and Economics at Harvard College as a member of the class of 2025. She is interested in healthcare system development and health policy. Prior to her position at the Health Systems Innovation Lab, Lauren has worked as a Health Policy and Advocacy intern at Fenway Health, a Boston community health center, and as a research assistant with the Maternal Health Task Force at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. At the lab, Lauren is working on projects related to integrated healthcare delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa to address the rise of noncommunicable disease.

Aila has a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil with a focus on bioinformatics, data analysis, and public health. Her primary objective is to employ data-driven approaches to address global health challenges regarding non-communicable diseases. At the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab, she works on the Data-Collaborative on Health Systems Performance (DC-HSP) project, contributing to harmonizing the global evidence on cardiometabolic diseases. Looking ahead, she plans to pursue a Master’s in Public Health and a specialization in biomedical data science to further enhance her knowledge and impact in the field, aiming to advance innovation and data-driven healthcare in Latin America.

Camila is a Physiotherapy undergraduate at the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM) in Brazil, with a special interest in oncology research. She is currently collaborating with the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab as an intern on the Health Systems and Cancer Initiative in Latin America (HSCI-LA) project. After graduation, she plans to pursue a Master of Public Health degree, seeking to expand her knowledge and experience on the matter and assist in the development of improvements on Latin American health systems regarding cancer care.