Joseph Aloi, MD, FACE, FACP
Professor of Medicine
Section Chief Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism Division
Department of Internal Medicine
Wake Forest School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Dr. Joseph Aloi has served as Professor of Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Health, Section Chief Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism division since 2014. Dr. Aloi’s early career centered on neuroendocrine responses to pharmacologic challenges in a variety of behavioral disorders. The time spent in the development of trial strategy, conduct of the trial with subsequent analysis of the data allowed him to develop an expertise in multiple phases of clinical investigation. During his training as a physician, he migrated into the area of reproductive neuro-endocrinology bridging investigations ranging from rodent models to clinical trial work in woman with polycystic ovary syndrome and neuroendocrine function in the geriatric population. Dr. Aloi advanced his clinical practice upon becoming a faculty member at the University of Virginia and pursued clinical trials with cardiovascular endpoints for persons with Type 2 diabetes - being an investigator in the ADOPT, EXAMINE and EMPA-reg trials. Dr. Aloi transitioned to detection and prevention of Type 2 diabetes as experience in these trials convinced me that to impact the growth trajectory of diabetes as a public health problem it will be necessary to prevent diabetes through early detection and lifestyle/pharmacologic intervention. To conduct these efforts efficiently and on a large scale integrating the clinical assessment with technology is now his current and most important focus.

Mel L. Anderson, MD, MACP
National Program Physician Executive Director, VHA Hospital Medicine
Interim Section Chief, Hospital Medicine
Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center
Professor of Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Deputy Editor, Journal of Hospital Medicine
Denver, CO

Dr. Mel L. Anderson serves as the National Program Executive Director, VHA Hospital Medicine and as the Interim Section Chief, Hospital Medicine Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center. He is a Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine and a Deputy Editor at the Journal of Hospital Medicine. His academic interests focus on teaching about teaching, evidence based medicine, and faculty development broadly.

Nihar R. Desai, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
Vice Chief, Section of Cardiovascular Medicine
Investigator, Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation
Yale New Haven Health System
New Haven, CT

Dr. Nihar R. Desai is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Vice Chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, an Investigator at the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, and Medical Director for Value Innovation at the Yale New Haven Health System Heart and Vascular Center. His interests focus on cardiovascular health services and comparative effectiveness research, examining patterns of care, identifying opportunities to improve clinical outcomes, and evaluating the impact of novel care delivery systems on cost and quality. In addition, he serves as a clinical consultant on the CMS acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery readmission and mortality measures. He graduated with highest honors from Lehigh University before completing an internship in the Clinton White House. He then attended the University of Connecticut School of Medicine where he received his Doctorate in Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health where he received his Master’s in Public Health. Dr. Desai completed his residency training in Internal Medicine as well as his clinical fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He then completed a research fellowship at the TIMI Study Group with Dr. Eugene Braunwald. His scholarly work has been published in New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Rahul Ganatra, MD, MPH
Director of CME, Medical Service
VA Boston Healthcare System
Instructor in Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Dr. Rahul Ganatra is a medical attending physician practicing inpatient and outpatient general medicine in the VA Boston Healthcare System, and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He earned his MD/MPH from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and completed his residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His professional interests include medical education, comparative physiology, health equity, and teaching critical appraisal. He is an Associate Editor and the critical appraisal correspondent for The Curbsiders: An Internal Medicine Podcast and an Associate Editor for NEJM Journal Watch: General Medicine.

Albert J. Hicks III, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Section Chief Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant
Medical Director Heart Transplant
Baltimore, MD

Dr. Albert J. Hicks is an Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiologist. He completed his fellowship in Cardiology and Advanced Heart Failure at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Hicks previously worked at Baylor Scott and White in Temple, Texas where he served as the Medical Director of the Advanced Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support, and Cardiac Transplantation, as well as the Associate Program Director of the Cardiology Fellowship. He joined the faculty of University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2021 where he currently serves as an Assistant Professor, Section Chief Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant, and Medical Director of Heart Transplant.

Heather E. Nye, MD, PhD
Director of SFVAHCS Consult/Co-Management Service & Veterans Integrated Perioperative (VIP) Clinic
Professor, Associate Chief of Medicine
San Francisco VA Health Care System/UCSF
San Francisco, CA

Dr. Heather E. Nye is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Associate Chief of Medicine at San Francisco VA Health Care System (SFVAHCS), and Director of the SFVAHCS Consult/Co-Management Service & Veterans Integrated Perioperative (VIP) Clinic. She received her MD PhD from Yale University and completed a combined residency program in medicine and pediatrics at the Harvard Combined Program (MGH, Brigham, Boston Children). She has practiced as a hospitalist at UCSF and SFVAHCS since 2003.

Dr. Nye’s clinical role caring for hospitalized patients on orthopedics, neurosurgery, and podiatry deepened her perioperative interest—and led to numerous local quality initiatives, educational programs for medicine & orthopedic residents, and collaboration among specialty services to address gaps in care for older adults undergoing surgery. Dr. Nye created the interdisciplinary VIP Clinic in 2017 for medically complex, frail, and geriatric surgical patients with an eye to whole-patient care in the perioperative period.

Dr. Nye is recognized as a national expert in hospital and perioperative medicine, giving numerous talks annually, is an active member of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) and the Society of Perioperative Assessment & Quality Improvement (SPAQI). She served as the 2022 Course Director for the SHM Annual Conference and delivered the 2023 SHM Plenary Updates in Hospital Medicine. She is deeply passionate about care of Veterans and as SFVA Associate Chief of Medicine spends considerable time in Medical Center initiatives around operations, patient flow, quality, physician wellness, and strategic growth.

Andrew W. Urban, MD
Infectious Disease and HIV Specialist
Madison, WI

Dr. Andrew W. Urban is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed his Internal Medicine residency and fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Wisconsin. His past positions include Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Wisconsin and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Wm. S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, WI. He has received numerous teaching awards and has been extensively involved in undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education. His clinical interests include primary care of individuals with HIV and consultative general infectious diseases.

Matthew R. Weir, MD
Professor of Medicine
Chief of Nephrology Division
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD

Dr. Matthew R. Weir is attending physician and Director of the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland Hospital, Baltimore. He is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr. Weir’s primary research interests include the use of antihypertensive therapy for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy, hypertensive renal injury in African Americans, cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism to treat atherosclerosis. He has written more than 700 manuscripts and book chapters about these topics. He has edited 8 books on topics in nephrology, transplantation, and hypertension. He has presented at numerous international scientific association meetings, hospitals, and medical schools.

Dr. Weir currently reviews manuscripts for more than 30 major medical journals, including the American Society of Nephrology, and Archives of Internal Medicine. He is on the editorial board of 18 journals and is Section Editor of Current Hypertension Reports and Current Opinion in Hypertension and Nephrology, and Associate Editor of Clinical Nephrology and the American Journal of Nephrology. He has 5 active NIH supported grants from NIDDK. In addition, he is a member of numerous associations, including the American Society of Nephrology, the National Kidney Foundation, the American Heart Association, and the American Society of Transplantation.

Dr. Weir received his medical degree from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He completed his internship and residency programs in medicine at the Waterbury and Yale-New Haven Hospitals in Connecticut and completed his nephrology training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts. He then moved to the University of Maryland, where he has been a full time faculty member since 1983.