Catherine S Spina, MD, PhD

Dr. Joyce Kuo is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center. In addition to being a board-certified emergency medicine physician, Dr. Kuo is also the Medical Director of the Emergency Physician Assistant group at CUMC and Allen Hospital.

Julia Wattacheril, MD, MPH is an associate professor of medicine, physician scientist, inventor and director of the Metabolic Dysfunction Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her clinical and translational work spans the multidisciplinary care of MASLD patients at all stages of their disease to the investigation of rare genetic variants influencing the development and progression of MASLD before and after liver transplantation. She currently leads an interdisciplinary research group using machine learning to identify at-risk and protected phenotypes within the electronic health record (EHR) for multi-omic analysis. Of particular interest for clinical outcomes discovered through EHR phenotyping include rapid progression to advanced liver disease, need for transplantation and hepatocellular carcinoma. Awards include the Department of Surgery Innovation Award and Columbia Department of Biomedical Engineering Ignition Award for these software applications as they move into medicine. Wattacheril is the lead principal investigator for several clinical trials in MASH. Her early pilot work with proteomics and lipidomics in the development of metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis (MASH) led to her current efforts investigating multi-omic signatures associated with fibrotic MASH. She co-led a multicenter consortium investigating the clinical risks associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with all etiologies of chronic liver disease, with a particular local focus on diverse populations. At Columbia, she works closely with the Center for Precision Medicine and Genomics to integrate genomics into clinical care. She mentors across disciplines including computational geneticists to masters’ program students in nutrition to undergraduates in psychology. She has a commitment to community education, including faith-based and non-profit sectors.

Dr. Liliya Abrukin is a board-certified emergency medicine attending physician and is an Associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at NYP/Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Abrukin graduated from SUNY Upstate Medical University and completed her Emergency Medicine Residency at NYU Langone Medical Center/Bellevue Hospital Center, where she was chief resident. After residency, Dr. Abrukin completed an additional year of fellowship training in Patient Safety and Quality at NYU/Bellevue, during which she also obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. As a faculty member at Columbia, Dr. Abrukin served initially as the Associate Director of Quality for the GEM division and then as Director of Quality and Patient Safety for the Department. She has led and participated in numerous departmental and enterprise-wide quality initiatives, including the development of peer review and quality improvement frameworks, sepsis care, professionalism curricula, and enterprise-wide clinical care guidelines for spinal emergencies, opioid overdose, and workplace violence. Regionally, Dr. Abrukin is currently serving as the chair of the MCIC ED Leadership Committee. Recently, Dr. Abrukin was selected to join the NYP LEAD Academy, a development program for physician leaders. Dr. Abrukin currently serves as the Vice Chair of Quality and Patient Safety in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center.