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Welcome new pathology faculty! The Department of Pathology is pleased to welcome our outstanding new faculty members who will further strengthen our already outstanding team. Together our faculty community - both longstanding and new - will continue to advance our mission to deliver high-quality diagnostics, drive impactful research, and train the next generation of pathologists. We are delighted to introduce our newest colleagues and look forward to the many contributions they will make to our department and broader academic community. Adriano Piris, MD, is an expert dermatopathologist with extensive experience in the academic and private sectors. He joins the dermatopathology group where he will sign out routine cases, intramural and extramural consults, and will actively participate in the academic and teaching activities within the department. He is a graduate from the Medical School of the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion in Paraguay. He completed postgraduate training at Berkshire Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH Anatomic Pathology), and BIDMC (Dermatopathology). He is a former Assistant Professor in Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and former Director of the Mihm Cutaneous Pathology Consultative Service at Brigham Dermatology. He is currently a senior dermatopathology consultant for Sonic Health Care USA. He has worked with the Melanoma Group of the National Cancer Institute in Milan, Italy. Most recently, in collaboration with the Mohs micrographic surgery unit at Brigham and Women's Dermatology, he developed the first and only scoring system for desmoplasia in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, a work recently published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Elena Brachtel, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized breast pathologist and cytopathologist with extensive experience in academic medicine, clinical practice, research, and education. Dr. Brachtel will be stepping into the role of Co-Director, Breast Pathology. She joins us from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and has previously held faculty appointments at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Her clinical and research interests focus on breast pathology, breast cancer diagnostics, cytopathology, biomarker testing, and emerging technologies in cancer diagnosis. Throughout her career, Dr. Brachtel has made significant contributions to advancing breast cancer pathology, authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, and served in leadership roles in fellowship training and subspecialty pathology services. She is widely recognized for her commitment to trainee education, multidisciplinary collaboration, and innovation in diagnostic pathology. We look forward to her contributions to our clinical, educational, and research missions. Xia Qian, MD, joins our Dermatopathology team. She completed her AP/CP Residency and Dermatopathology Fellowship at BIDMC. She earned both her MD and PhD from Nanjing Medical University in Nanjing, China. She brings an extensive background in both clinical pathology and translational research, with prior work spanning cancer biology, liver disease, and gastrointestinal pathology. Her current research focuses on melanoma and inflammatory skin diseases, including the clinicopathologic features of mucosal melanoma and cutaneous syphilis. Maxwell Roth, MD, joins the Division of Laboratory and Transfusion Medicine as Assistant Director of the Blood Bank and Director of Transfusion Informatics. He received his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his residency in AP/CP at Massachusetts General Hospital. He subsequently completed a fellowship in Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine at Mass General Brigham. His research focuses on informatics-based approaches to investigate transfusion medicine practices and outcomes in critically ill patients, as well as studying blood cell population dynamics. Before joining BIDMC, Xuefei Huang, MD, PhD, was an Assistant Professor of Pathology at UMass Chan Medical School with expertise in gastrointestinal, pancreatobiliary, liver, and liver transplant pathology. She began medical school at the age of 16 and earned an MD and PhD in China. Her doctoral research was among the first to demonstrate the therapeutic potential of Aurora kinase inhibition in acute myeloid leukemia, with the findings published in Blood. She was a postdoctoral fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Boston Children's Hospital. She completed her AP/CP residency at UMass Chan Medical School, where she served as Chief Resident, followed by a fellowship in Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in leading journals. Mai Elzieny, MD, joins the department as a faculty member in Anatomic Pathology, following a General Surgical Pathology fellowship at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and residency training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Michigan. Dr. Elzieny earned her medical degree and master's degree in Clinical and Chemical Pathology from Ain Shams University Faculty of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt, where she also served as an Assistant Lecturer in Clinical Pathology. Her interests span surgical pathology, pathology education, quality improvement, and diagnostic innovation. She has contributed to a growing body of publications in areas including pathology informatics, artificial intelligence applications in pathology, laboratory medicine, and renal and liver pathology. Dr. Elzieny has also demonstrated a strong commitment to mentorship, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and trainee education throughout her career. Maxwell L. Harsha, PhD, DABCC, joins the Division of Clinical Laboratory Medicine as Assistant Director of Clinical Chemistry and Director of Diagnostic Endocrinology. Dr. Harsha comes to BIDMC from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he completed fellowship training in Clinical Chemistry and gained extensive experience in laboratory operations, clinical consultation, quality improvement, assay validation, and translational research. He earned his PhD in Environmental Analytical Chemistry from the University of New Orleans and his BS in Biochemistry from Loyola University Chicago. His research has spanned both analytical and clinical chemistry, with interests including diagnostic endocrinology, toxicology, therapeutic drug monitoring, and laboratory utilization. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and presentations and has received several national trainee awards and recognitions. Sunati Sahoo, MD, joins the department as Director of Surgical Pathology, Co-Director of Breast Pathology, and Director, Specimen Biobank. Dr. Sahoo comes to BIDMC from UT Southwestern Medical Center where she was a Professor of Pathology. She led the breast pathology service and previously served as Director of Surgical Pathology at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. She earned her medical degree in India and completed postgraduate pathology training at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, followed by residency training at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Sahoo's research has focused on neoadjuvant systemic therapy in breast cancer, prognostic and predictive biomarkers, and quality and outcomes research in breast disease management. Her arrival further strengthens BIDMC/HMFP Pathology's commitment to excellence in breast pathology, academic medicine, and multidisciplinary oncology care. Marina Vivero, MD, joins the department as a full-time attending pathologist in Anatomic Pathology, with subspecialty expertise in Thoracic Pathology and Cytopathology. Dr. Vivero comes to BIDMC from Brigham and Women's Hospital, where she served as an Associate Pathologist since 2015 and as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School since 2019. An internationally recognized expert in thoracic disease pathology and cytopathology, Dr. Vivero has made significant contributions to the diagnosis and classification of lung tumors, pulmonary neuroendocrine neoplasms, mesothelioma, and interstitial lung disease. Her research has helped advance the use of cytology specimens for molecular testing in lung cancer and has contributed to national and international diagnostic guidelines, including World Health Organization reporting systems and American Thoracic Society clinical guidance. In addition to her clinical and research accomplishments, Dr. Vivero has a longstanding commitment to education and mentorship. Kristine Wong, MD, joined Head and Neck and Cytopathology in early September. Widely recognized for her research, peer-reviewed publications, and lectures in thyroid pathology, endocrine pathology, head and neck pathology, and cytopathology, she joins us from BWH and is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. She attended Washington University School of Medicine and completed her AP/CP residency and Cytopathology fellowship at BWH. She is the co-author of the "Oncocytic Follicular Neoplasm" chapter of the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology, 3rd edition.

Women's Health spotlight: Massachusetts Preeclampsia Research & Equity Consortium (MAPREC). * September 3, 2026 Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy present ongoing challenges in how they are recognized, diagnosed, and managed. Through a rotating focus on specific disease areas, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center's (MLSC) Women's Health Initiative is supporting research on Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension to address these challenges and improve care for pregnant and postpartum patients. These efforts build upon the MLSC's leadership in Women's Health with more than $29 million in investments across 21+ Massachusetts institutions. As part of a recent announcement of Women's Health Initiative awards, the MLSC supported the Massachusetts Preeclampsia Research & Equity Consortium (MAPREC), a collaboration bringing together leading researchers and clinicians from six institutions located throughout the Commonwealth. MAPREC is connecting four distinct, but complementary projects led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Tufts University, Boston Medical Center (BMC), the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst, and UMass Chan Medical School. MAPREC provides a structured platform for cross-site learning, model validation, and coordinated progress toward solutions for preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder which affects an estimated 3% to 8% of women who give birth worldwide. By connecting research projects that take different approaches to understanding the condition, MAPREC aims to generate a multi-dimensional picture of how preeclampsia is experienced, recognized, and diagnosed, while creating opportunities for findings from each project to inform the development and testing of future interventions. Several MAPREC projects are leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the prediction, identification, and management of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy across diverse clinical settings. One team, led by Mark Clapp, MD, of MGH, Taylor Freret, MD, of BIDMC, and Mohan Thanikachalam, MD, of Tufts University, is developing and validating an AI model using electronic health record data from more than 180,000 births to predict severe postpartum hypertension before patients leave the hospital. Complementing this work, BMC investigator, Sheree Boulet, DrPH, is using data from 15,000 pregnancies to develop machine learning models that could support the identification of early- and late-onset preeclampsia. Other projects are examining how a broader picture of each patient's experience can support more equitable care moving forward. At UMass Chan Medical School, Feifan Liu, PhD, and Crista E Johnson-Agbakwu, MD, are developing risk prediction tools and a clinical dashboard that incorporate electronic health record data and social determinants of health. At UMass Amherst, Lucinda Canty, PhD, is analyzing qualitative interviews with Black women and nurses alongside electronic health records from 25,000 pregnancies to examine diagnostic pathways and disparities in preeclampsia. According to a report from the McKinsey Health Institute, Black women in the United States are 60% more likely to develop preeclampsia, and face a five times greater risk of death from the condition. Together, these projects will inform the development and testing of multilevel interventions, including clinical decision-support tools, refined diagnostic criteria, and provider training strategies designed to enable earlier and more precise identification of preeclampsia. By examining the condition through both clinical data and the experiences of patients and providers, the consortium aims to develop solutions that reduce disparities and improve care for pregnant and postpartum patients across Massachusetts and beyond. By bringing together complementary expertise and research approaches from across the Commonwealth, MAPREC represents a coordinated effort to address complex challenges in preeclampsia care. As the Consortium's research progresses, its findings will help build a more comprehensive understanding of the condition and inform new approaches to identifying and caring for patients experiencing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Success Stories Featured in The Beat

Study: Cost savings, improved access to care seen with AI-based DR screening. September 01, 2026 Add topic to email alerts Key takeaways: * In an analysis, annual average cost savings per patient ranged from $2.70 to $155.90. * AI was comparable to or exceeded human graders in specificity and sensitivity. MONTEREY, Calif. - Alongside improved clinical efficiency and follow-up adherence, AI-based diabetic retinopathy screening yielded positive reductions in cost for patients, according to a poster presentation. The study, presented at the Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium, aimed to measure the impact of AI-based screening in DR, including its impact on clinical performance and patient economics, "with a focus on standardized cost-effectiveness across healthcare systems," Sophia Guccione, of UMass Chan Medical School, and colleagues wrote. The literature review used PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus to compile studies that measured the diagnostic performance, patient perspectives or economic outcomes of AI-based screening between 2016 and 2025. The researchers analyzed standardized annual cost savings per patient in Australia, China, Singapore, Thailand and United Kingdom. According to the poster, AI-based screening for DR demonstrated sensitivity and specificity levels of more than 90% across multiple studies, "performing comparably to or exceeding human graders in diverse clinical settings." Through same-visit diagnosis and real-time analysis, primary care and community settings that implemented AI-based screening also showed improved follow-up adherence and screening completion. Modeled national savings exceeded $10 million annually, with absolute savings varying across healthcare systems, according to the poster. The study concluded that annual average cost savings per patient ranged from $2.70 to $155.90. Savings were attributed to reductions in transportation needs, missed workdays and out-of-pocket costs. "This suggests that health system-only analyses may underestimate the true value of AI-based screening," Guccione and colleagues wrote. While there are barriers to AI implementation, including inconsistent reimbursement framework and knowledge gaps among both patients and healthcare professionals regarding AI-based care, the researchers concluded that AI-based screening is a "scalable solution" for improving access, efficiency and outcomes for DR care. "High-income settings with higher labor costs generally showed larger per-patient savings, while lower-cost settings showed smaller but still positive gains," the researchers wrote. Perspective. At the recent Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium, Guccione and colleagues presented a literature review highlighting the advantages of AI-based diabetic retinopathy screening over conventional screening: excellent sensitivity (more than 90%) for detecting referable DR, improved follow-up adherence, and reduced patient burden from transportation, costs and work disruption. More than 40 million Americans have diabetes, and DR is the leading cause of vision loss among working-age adults. Given an ophthalmology workforce unable to keep pace with population needs, leveraging teleretinal screening makes sense; coupling it with AI makes even more sense. The benefits are well documented. So why has AI-based DR screening not taken off, despite FDA-approved systems being available for nearly a decade? The answer is multifactorial, but a major obstacle is the payment structure for teleretina, which remains prohibitive for a self-sustaining model. The reported cost savings of $2.70 to $155.90 per patient are comparable to what Healio has published. Yet these figures underestimate the broader economic value of earlier detection and treatment. This is the paradox of preventive medicine: Without a counterfactual, its value is difficult to see. Telemedicine can transform access to retina care. It's time for payer policies to recognize its worth - and for reimbursement to catch up with the evidence. References: Christina Y. Weng, MD, MBA, FASRS Healio | OSN Retina Board Member Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Disclosures: Weng reports no relevant financial disclosures. Published by: Sources/Disclosures. Guccione S, et al. Artificial intelligence in diabetic retinopathy screening: Clinical, patient, and economic perspectives. Presented at: Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium; Aug. 20-23, 2026; Monterey, California. Disclosures: Healio could not confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication. Ask a clinical question and tap into Healio AI's knowledge base. * PubMed, enrolling/recruiting trials, guidelines * Clinical Guidance, Healio CME, FDA news * Healio's exclusive daily news coverage of clinical data