Our Team

Principal Investigator

Dr. Goyal

Dr. Goyal is a full-time faculty member at Weill Cornell Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and the Division of General Internal Medicine. He is the Founding Director of the Program for the Care and Study of the Aging Heart, and Director of the Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction and Cardiac Amyloidosis Program at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York-Presbyterian Hospital. 

Dr. Goyal has received extramural funding from the National Institute on Aging, the American Heart Association, and the New York Community Trust. This work has been highlighted in high-impact journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. For a detailed biography, please visit Dr. Goyal’s faculty page: https://weillcornell.org/parag-goyal-md-msc

 

Parag Goyal, MD, MSc, FACC, FHFSA
  • Associate Professor of Medicine
  • Etingin Family Clinical Scholar

Lab Members

Alumni

Brooke Kelly, BS
  • Research Assistant (2022-2023)

Brooke Kelly graduated from Cornell University in 2022 with a B.S. in Nutritional Science, and joined the Lab in 2022. Brooke managed our HFpEF & Cardiac Amyloidosis Registry, and contributed to multiple other ongoing studies related to HFpEF and Cardiac Amyloidosis. Brooke has a keen interest in a future career in medicine and has been accepted into the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University to pursue her medical degree.

Ryan Mohebpour, BS
  • Research Assistant (2022-2023)

Ryan Mohebpour received his B.S. in Biology combined with a minor in Business Administration from the University of Florida. Ryan joined the Lab in 2022 and helped with multiple clinical trials including a study examining the impact of a multi-domain exercise intervention on older adults hospitalized for HFpEF. Ryan looks forward to a career in the field of medicine in the future and has been accepted into New York Medical College to pursue his medical degree.

Maryam Hyder, BA, MPH
  • Research Assistant

Maryam Hyder graduated from Barnard College in 2022 with a B.A. in Linguistics and joined the lab in 2021. Maryam assisted with various research-related projects and was involved in qualitative data analysis for N-of-1 trials on deprescribing beta-blockers for patients with HFpEF. Maryam has a keen interest in a future career in medicine and has been accepted into the The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences to pursue her medical degree.

Aileen Aylward, MSW, MPH
  • Research Coordinator

Aileen Aylward received a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and has worked in geriatrics research and programming since 2018, primarily focusing on social determinants of health for older adults. She joined the lab in September 2023 and supported Dr. Goyal’s research efforts to enhance the quality of life for older adults with cardiovascular disease.

Jennifer Lau, MPH
  • Research Data Analyst

Jennifer Lau completed her MPH in Biostatistics from CUNY School of Public Health. She provided biostatistical support to various research groups and has contributed to studies at the Goyal lab on health behaviors, geriatric vulnerabilities, and frailty in addition to the N-of-1 trials.

Krisha Mehta, BA, MD
  • Research Assistant (2017 - 2018)

Krisha Mehta obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College, CUNY in New York City in 2017 and her medical degree from Stony Brook University School of Medicine on Long Island, NY in 2022. She is currently a resident at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine. She worked as Dr. Goyal's research assistant from July 2017- June 2018 during which she managed data collection for projects studying the impact of polypharmacy in heart failure patients, developed data abstraction tools for the HFpEF clinic registry, and coordinated a variety of Dr. Goyal's research studies. Krisha hopes to continue working with older adults throughout her medical career.

Mahad Musse, MD
  • Research Assistant (2019 - 2022)

Mahad Musse received his medical degree from Stony Brook University School of Medicine on Long Island, NY. He joined the lab as a Research Assistant in 2019. He helped manage research activities for projects studying the impact of polypharmacy in heart failure patients and studying beta-blocker prescribing in HFpEF. He also helped manage the HFpEF program registry and biobank. Mahad plans to seek a career in the field of Internal Medicine in the future.

Tina Dharamdasani, MS
  • Research Assistant (2018 - 2019)

Tina Dharamdasani obtained a Master’s Degree in Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics from Rutgers School of Public Health in 2017. In 2018 she joined the HFpEF Program as Dr. Goyal’s research assistant, where she helped manage research and administrative activities for projects studying the indications of beta-blocker prescription in HFpEF, as well as polypharmacy increases following heart failure hospitalizations. Tina anticipates obtaining her Ph.D. in Epidemiology in 2023 and hopes to continue her work in health outcomes and aging research.

Sabrina Mangal, RN, PhD
  • Postdoctoral Associate (2020 - 2022)

Sabrina Mangal received her PhD in Nursing Science from Columbia University in 2020. She joined the lab as a Postdoctoral Associate, where she assisted with study coordination, patient interviews, and data analysis for N-of-1 trials on deprescribing beta-blockers for patients with HFpEF. She enjoyed working with a range of populations to streamline patient engagement in care and patient/provider communication through mixed methods approaches. Sabrina is currently a postdoc at the University of Washington School of Nursing.

Hannah Curtis, BS
  • Research Assistant (2021 - 2022)

Hannah Curtis graduated from Northeastern University with a B.S. in Health Science combined with a minor in Business Administration. She helped manage and assisted in several research-related activities in studies involving HFpEF patients taking beta-blockers. Hannah currently works in healthcare consultancy.

Staff

Daniel McDonald, MD
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. McDonald graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He received his medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine. Dr. McDonald remained at NYU after graduating from medical school to complete his internal medicine residency training there. He then completed fellowships in cardiovascular disease and advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Presently, Dr. McDonald is a heart failure cardiologist at NYP/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He is interested in all aspects of advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology including caring for patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fractions, cardiac amyloid, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy..

Christina Ramasami, AGNP-BC
  • Nurse Practitioner

Christina Ramasami graduated from Molloy College with her BSN in 2014 and received her Adult/Geriatric Nurse Practitioner certification from Hunter College. Christina has worked as a cardiac specialized nurse for several years, including working as a critical care nurse at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell.

Kaitlyn Pinkos, PharmD, BCCP
  • Clinical Pharmacist

Dr. Kaitlyn Pinkos is a board certified cardiology pharmacist. She attended The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and completed her residency at UChicago Medicine. Dr. Pinkos works at New York Presbyterian as a CTICU Clinical Pharmacy specialist, and supports the HFpEF and Cardiac Amyloidosis Program through working with patients on medication management.

Emily Kim, BS
  • Research Coordinator

Emily Kim earned a B.S. in Psychology with a focus on Neuroscience from The Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Honors College and a minor in Natural Science. Since 2021, she has been involved in cardiology clinical research, focusing on pediatric lymphatic and cardiovascular conditions as well as adult cardiac electrophysiology. Emily joined the Goyal Lab in September 2024, where she coordinates N-of-1 trials for deprescribing beta-blockers in HFpEF patients and supports various other ongoing research studies related to HFpEF and Amyloidosis. Emily looks forward to working with a diverse patient population and gaining more experience in clinical research and medicine through the program.

Princess Osma, BA
  • Assistant Research Coordinator

Princess Osma obtained her B.A. in Biochemistry from Hunter College in 2020 with minors in Psychology and Sociology. She joined the lab as a Research Assistant in July of 2022 where she currently assists various research-related activities on N-of-1 trails for deprescribing beta-blockers for HFpEF and Cardiac Amyloidosis patients to address polypharmacy. Princess looks forward to the continuation of her professional and organizational growth with the program as she hopes to advance into a career in medicine working with diverse groups of patients.

Alexandra Reich, BS
  • Research Assistant

Alexandra Reich graduated from Cornell University in 2023 with a B.S. in Human Biology, Health, and Society (HBHS) with a minor in Education. Alexandra joined the lab in June 2023 where she manages our HFpEF & Cardiac Amyloidosis Registry, and contributes to multiple other ongoing studies related to HFpEF and Cardiac Amyloidosis. Alexandra has a keen interest in a future career in medicine. 

Musarrat Nahid, MSc
  • Senior Data Analyst

Musarrat Nahid is a Senior Research Data Analyst in the Division of General Internal Medicine at WCM, providing data analytic support to various faculty members including Dr. Goyal. She has an MSc degree in an interdisciplinary field and a BSc degree in engineering, and has a broad range of knowledge and experience in data analysis. Her passion lies in learning new statistical methods and software.

Kristi Chau, MPH
  • Data Analyst

Kristi Chau is a Research Data Analyst for the Division of General Medicine. Utilizing her M.P.H. in Epidemiology and experience in academic and medical research, she supports GIM researchers with data visualization and analysis. Her interests lie in research focusing on chronic disease, aging, and underserved populations.

Ro-Jay Reid, MD
  • Instructor in Medicine

Dr. Reid is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician. He completed his undergraduate degree at Oakwood University and his medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center and joined the Weill Cornell Medicine in 2021 as an Instructor in Medicine and a health equity research fellow in the Master’s of Science in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research program. Dr. Reid spends his time as a hospitalist (seeing acute patients with diverse medical conditions) and as a researcher with a special interest in social determinants of health and successful aging. 

Ashkan Hashemi, MD
  • Research Fellow

Dr. Ashkan Hashemi is a Research Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell with a focus on Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) and Cardiac Amyloidosis. With a background in Internal Medicine from Rutgers, New Jersey, he brings experience in caring for underserved communities and a passion for inclusive and holistic care. He is excited to collaborate with Dr. Goyal’s team to improve patient outcomes. His role involves contributing clinical expertise to research design and execution, overseeing the clinical aspects of ongoing trials, implementing risk mitigation strategies, and developing comprehensive patient education materials. By combining clinical knowledge with research, he aims to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and management of HFpEF and Cardiac Amyloidosis. 

Kate M. Zarzuela, MD
  • Research Program Manager

Dr. Kate Zarzuela is the Research Program Manager for the Program for the Care and Study of the Aging Heart at Weill Cornell Medicine. She earned her Medical Degree from Universidad Católica Nordestana in the Dominican Republic. Following this, she has held positions to manage clinical trials in both the academic and industry setting. Since 2019, Dr. Zarzuela has leveraged her prior training and experience toward managing multiple clinical research studies in Dr. Parag Goyal’s clinical research lab, including observational cohort studies, prospective registries, and clinical trials. Over the coming years, Dr. Zarzuela seeks to continue to help Dr. Goyal with programmatic growth of a broader Geriatric Cardiology program that includes clinical, research, and educational arms—with the overarching objective of improving outcomes and the wellbeing in older adults with cardiovascular diseases.






Weill Cornell Medicine
The Program for the Care and Study of the Aging Heart

1305 York Ave, 8th floor
New York, NY 10021
Phone: (646) 962-7571
Fax: (212) 746-6665