School of Medicine
Showing 1-20 of 140 Results
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Peter Acker
Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research and work focus on optimizing the use of health system data to create intelligent and accurate emergency referral systems to ensure vulnerable populations receive the care they require as efficiently as possible. I am interested in increasing our understanding of currently available health infrastructure in resource limited settings, and pairing that knowledge with technology tools to help identify patient's true needs and match those needs with health system capacity in real-time.
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Leonardo Aliaga
Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
BioDr. Leonardo Aliaga is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University and a medical education researcher. His scholarly focus lies in error-based learning strategies, adaptive expertise, and clinical reasoning. He is co-Principal Investigator of The Right Kind of Reps, an AI-powered virtual patient simulator designed to accelerate diagnostic skill development through purposeful exposure to cognitive struggle and contrasting cases that sharpen pattern recognition. He has been invited to give international presentations and to lead an international symposium on error-based learning strategies. His research has been published in JAMA Network Open and focuses on designing instructional methods that harness errors as cognitive catalysts to deepen learning and develop adaptive expertise.
Dr. Aliaga is currently pursuing a Master of Health Professions Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where his thesis aims to establish a framework to help educators implement error-based learning strategies across diverse medical education settings. He collaborates with colleagues at UC Davis, Wake Forest University, the University of Toronto, the University of Washington, and University Hospital Basel, and is building the FERN: the Failure in Education Research Network.
Dr. Aliaga brings a unique background to his work, having trained in neurosurgery before transitioning to emergency medicine. That experience shaped how he thinks about expertise and the role of struggle in becoming a truly excellent physician. He also draws from his earlier career in fine arts and photography to shape his approach to teaching—grounded in visual clarity, storytelling, and helping learners “see” through the layers of clinical complexity. He’s known for delivering gritty, high-yield, and visually rich learning experiences that don’t steal the struggle but instead help residents turn missteps into mastery. -
Al'ai Alvarez, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am a Biodesign Faculty Fellow graduate, and my active research is on using biometrics for personalized fatigue-mitigation lifestyle coaching in high-performance teams to minimize sleep-related disruptions.
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Zainab (Zaina) Alzawad
Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
BioDr. Zaina Alzawad is a clinical strategist with extensive experience advancing patient care through research, data-driven innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She currently serves as a Clinical Development and Data Strategy Consultant in the Emergency Department at Stanford Health Care, where she leads and supports research and quality initiatives aimed at improving care delivery, operational efficiency, and clinical outcomes.
Dr. Alzawad’s research background is grounded in pediatric intensive care, with a growing focus on emergency care systems and innovation. She brings specialized expertise in psychometrics, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and healthcare data analysis, supported by advanced training in measurement, statistics, and nursing science. She previously served as a Nurse Scientist at Stanford Health Care, where she led interdisciplinary studies and mentored clinical teams in research and evaluation. Driven by a passion for inquiry and impact, Dr. Alzawad actively mentors interdisciplinary teams and contributes to the design, implementation, and dissemination of studies that inform clinical practice. -
Kenton Anderson
Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCardiopulmonary Resuscitation
Cardiac Arrest
Emergency Ultrasound -
Timothy J Batchelor
Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
BioDr. Timothy Batchelor is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University, dual fellowship trained in Advanced Emergency Ultrasound and Global Emergency Medicine. Dr. Batchelor completed emergency medicine residency at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and medical school at Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa, Florida, as a member of the SELECT curriculum. He also has an MBA from University of Massachusetts’ Isenberg School of Management, and is working with private industry to bring imaging technology to health systems equitably. Prior to clinical medicine Dr. Batchelor was a fire service lieutenant, prehospital EMS provider, and accredited EMS and firefighter instructor.
He has ongoing international research in Rwanda looking at the impacts of emergency medicine resident Point-of-Care Ultrasound training, in Costa Rica evaluating ultrasound utilization in austere healthcare settings using geospatial analysis, in Kenya implementing a novel AI-enabled trauma education program for prehospital providers, and in Sri Lanka investigating road traffic accident injuries and how emergency care resources can be leveraged to optimize outcomes.
Domestically Dr. Batchelor is involved in cardiac arrest transesophageal echocardiography research, and how electromagnetic hand motion analysis can augment procedural Point-of-Care Ultrasound training. As founder and content creator of CardinalPOCUS.com, he works to make emergency Point-of-Care Ultrasound training accessible to all. -
Joseph Becker
Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
BioDr. Joseph Becker is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University School
of Medicine. He received his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of California, San
Francisco in 2003. Subsequent to this, Dr . Becker completed an internship in Aerospace
Medicine at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) before completing specialty
training in Emergency Medicine at Yale University. In 2010 Dr Becker completed a fellowship in
Global Emergency Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Becker has served as
Laboratory Officer and Associate Research Scientist at the Mailman School of Public Health at
Columbia University and holds the title of Senior Lecturer and Visiting Associate Professor at the
University of Rwanda where he has worked consistently for nearly twenty years assisting in the
creation and development of the Emergency and Critical Care Residency program. He currently
holds the title of Head of Department and Curriculum for Emergency Medicine for the
University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) also in Rwanda. Dr. Becker is a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air
Force/California Air National Guard and currently serves as an Aerospace and
Operational Medicine specialist/Flight Surgeon with the 129th Rescue Wing in Mountain View, California. -
Christopher Bennett
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine (Adult Clinical/Academic)
BioI am a board-certified emergency physician and researcher at Stanford, where I bridge clinical practice with health innovation. In addition to being faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine, I hold affiliations with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), the Center for AI in Medicine & Imaging (AIMI), and the Center for Digital Health (CDH).
My work leverages data-informed precision medicine with the goal of transforming healthcare delivery—especially for transmissible infectious diseases. As an NIH funded investigator, I lead a research group that designs solutions to improve patient outcomes and inform policy. I bring extensive experience from training at Duke, Harvard, and Stanford, and a proven track record of leadership from serving on the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Board of Directors, the SAEM Foundation Board of Trustees.
I am passionate about collaboration to pioneer digital health strategies that revolutionize care and drive tangible impact. -
Marc Berenson
Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
BioDr. Berenson was born in the heart of New York City and grew up in the NYC metropolitan area with the notable exception of a three-year stint living in the UK. He has also lived in Washington DC and Roanoke VA. Prior to medical school, Dr. Berenson worked as a Mobile Intensive Care Paramedic for well over a decade, spending a significant portion of his time creating and providing EMS-related education. After completing his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, he went on to attend Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, graduating with a Distinction in Medical Education. He remained at Rutgers NJMS for residency training, serving as Chief Resident in his final year. In his free time, Dr. Berenson enjoys a spontaneous/random adventure, playing piano, and spending quality time with friends and family.
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Andra Leah Blomkalns
Redlich Family Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Andra Blomkalns is an innovation advocate who believes the best patient-centered programs depend upon clinical practice innovation, continuous data-driven improvement, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Dr. Blomkalns has a long-standing history of scholarship and publication on cardiovascular emergencies, point-of-care testing, innate immunity, and obesity. She has authored or contributed to more than 14 chapters and more than 40 journal articles in peer-reviewed publications on topics influential to administration and organization, clinical best practices, and scientific exploration. Additionally, her grant portfolio diversity reflects her multi-pronged, collaborative approach, and includes institutional, investigator-initiated industry, and federal funding.
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Italo Milton Brown
Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
BioItalo M. Brown, MD MPH is a Board-certified Emergency Physician, an Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine, and Health Equity & Social Justice Curriculum Thread Lead at Stanford University School of Medicine. Throughout his career, Italo has been at the frontlines of social medicine and health equity. Italo is the current Chief Impact Officer of T.R.A.P. Medicine, a barbershop-based wellness initiative that leverages the cultural capital of barbershops to address the physical and emotional health of Black men and boys. He is a former board member of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, an organization that spearheads statewide advocacy efforts in support of the Affordable Care Act and Medicare/Medicaid Reform. Italo trained at Jacobi Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center, two Bronx Hospitals ranked among the top 20 busiest ERs in the country. In 2017, the National Minority Quality Forum named Italo among the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health. An avid writer, Italo served with the ABC News Medical Unit, and has contributed health equity & wellness commentary to The New York Times, NPR, USA Today, GQ, Men's Fitness, and Bloomberg. Recently, Italo was selected to be among clinician leaders in access to care for the recurring Health Equity Leaders Roundtable, a new initiative by the White House Office of Public Engagement.
