Together with Department Chair Dr. Matthias Eikermann, Director of IT Innovation Dr. Ling Zhang, and the Anesthesiology research fellows, Drs. Karaye and Pulverenti are working to enhance the team’s digital health research initiatives including an array of retrospective studies analyzing health outcomes of Montefiore Einstein patients to inform future clinical work.

Dr. Karaye is an esteemed epidemiologist, biostatistician, and public health scholar who has published a prolific body of work focused on trends of disease burden for socially vulnerable populations.

"I share in the Department of Anesthesiology’s vision of leveraging digital health to improve population health,” Dr. Karaye said. “And I share Dr. Eikermann’s passion for making the Montefiore Einstein Department of Anesthesiology a national leader in clinical research.”

Dr. Pulverenti joined Montefiore Einstein from the Brain and Spine Research Institute at New York Brain and Spine Surgery, where he was the Director of Clinical Research. He has a wide range of research experience in topics including Huntington’s Disease, neurotechnologies, and neuromodulation by transspinal stimulation and has published work in many peer-reviewed journals.

"Our Digital Health Lab focuses on using observational research to understand efficiencies in healthcare or identifying inefficiencies and ways to improve them, as well as improving patient outcomes with large data sets that can inform intraoperative and postoperative care,” Dr. Pulverenti explained.

Dr. Zhang joined the Department of Anesthesiology in 2022 after nearly a decade of successfully serving as a Data Architect in the Business Intelligence Department at Montefiore IT. Dr. Zhang is a key member of the Digital Health Research team and over the last year has expanded the Department of Anesthesiology’s available dataset including surgeries that take place in the operating room as well as procedures conducted in non-OR anesthesia locations (NORA). In addition, she has played an important part in the department’s role as a champion to improve Montefiore Health System’s Patient Safety Indicators 11 and 13, as defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

“These digital innovations provide clinicians and researchers with easier access to more clinical data, which leads to more data-driven discoveries,” Dr. Zhang said. “Through analyzing data in our perioperative digital health universe, we are able to see areas of improvement that lead to increased operational efficiency, improved patient care, and enhanced patient safety.”