Hi! I'm Aya
Physician-scientist, Fulbright scholar, former research fellow at Harvard/MGH, and incoming Internal Medicine resident at UPMC.
About
I am a physician-scientist interested in how clinical research, data, and health systems design can improve patient outcomes. After medical school, I realized I was drawn to a career integrating patient care with research — combining the individual impact of medicine with broader systems-level change.
My work at Harvard and MGH has focused on disease biomarkers and cardiovascular morbidity in chronic conditions, particularly chronic kidney disease and HIV. Using large clinical datasets and translational cohorts, I have studied cardiometabolic risk, disease mechanisms, and how clinical guidelines translate into real-world decision making and workflows. This work has been published in JAMA Network Open, JAHA, and The Lancet HIV.
As a Fulbright scholar, I trained in interdisciplinary and internationally collaborative environments. More recently, I am interested in AI implementation in medicine, and our role as clinicians in ensuring an integration that keeps the patient in the center.
Education
Harvard Medical School
Master of Medical Sciences in Clinical Investigation
2022 - 2024
Harvard Medical School
Master of Medical Sciences in Clinical Investigation
Thesis-based Master of Medical Sciences in Clinical Investigation at Harvard Medical School focused on clinical epidemiology, biostatistics, and translational research methods. Graduate training was fully funded through the Fulbright Scholarship. Awarded the Gordon Williams Gold Medal for Research Excellence in recognition of outstanding achievement in clinical investigation and translational research. Thesis work centered on cardiovascular risk, biomarkers, and clinical outcomes using large-scale cohort data.
Technion Institute of Technology
Doctor of Medicine (Summa Cum Laude)
2017 - 2022
Technion Institute of Technology
Doctor of Medicine (Summa Cum Laude)
Doctor of Medicine (MD), summa cum laude, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Medical training was grounded in broad, high-volume clinical exposure across inpatient and outpatient medicine, with early interests in cardiovascular disease, complex chronic illness, and evidence-based clinical decision making. Completed a clinical externship in Infectious Diseases at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.
Technion Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Science in Medical Sciences (Summa Cum Laude)
2014 - 2017
Technion Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Science in Medical Sciences (Summa Cum Laude)
Bachelor of Science in Medical Sciences (summa cum laude), with foundational training in biomedical sciences, human physiology, and evidence-based medicine.
Employment History
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)
Internal Medicine Resident Physician
2026 - Present
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)
Internal Medicine Resident Physician
Incoming Internal Medicine resident in the International-Scholar/Clinician-Scientist Track at UPMC, with interests in cardiovascular medicine, clinical informatics and implementation science.
Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Research Fellow, Metabolism Unit
2024 - 2026
Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Research Fellow, Metabolism Unit
Conducted clinical and translational research focused on cardiovascular morbidity, disease biomarkers, and cardiometabolic risk in populations living with chronic conditions, particularly HIV and chronic kidney disease. Trained under the mentorship of Steven Grinspoon, MD , internationally recognized clinical trialist, Chief of the MGH Metabolism Unit, and chair of the NIH-funded REPRIEVE trial — the first large-scale randomized trial studying statin therapy for primary cardiovascular prevention in people living with HIV. Also trained at the Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research (CBAR) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with work spanning large-scale cohort analyses, predictive modeling, and studies examining implementation of clinical guidelines and decision support tools.
Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Graduate Student Researcher, Kidney Lab
2022 - 2024
Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Graduate Student Researcher, Kidney Lab
Conducted thesis-based research under the mentorship of Sahir Kalim, MD, MMSc , focused on carbamylation in chronic kidney disease and its implications for cardiovascular morbidity and disease progression. Thesis work, “Carbamylation in Chronic Kidney Disease: Comparative Biomarker Analysis and Implications for Cardiovascular Disease,” examined carbamylated proteins as emerging biomarkers of metabolic stress, inflammation, and cardiovascular risk in CKD using translational cohort data.
Rambam Health Care Campus
Medical Intern & General Physician
2021 - 2022
Rambam Health Care Campus
Medical Intern & General Physician
Completed rotating medical internship and worked as a general physician in one of Israel’s largest tertiary academic hospitals, with broad clinical exposure across inpatient and outpatient medicine, acute care, and multidisciplinary clinical teams.
Skills
R
Python
Clinical Research
Mentoring
Epidemiology
Biostatistics
Survival Analysis
Real World Evidence
PheWAS
BigQuery
Shiny
ggplot2
Data Visualization
Clinical Informatics
Cardiometabolic Research
Machine Learning
AI in Healthcare