Associate Junior Faculty Scholars

Sonia Oyola, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and currently serves as the Medical Education Director, Clerkship Director and co-director of the Culinary Medicine Programs for the University of Chicago’s Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Oyola earned her MD from the University of Illinois, College of Medicine at Chicago in 1997 before pursuing her residency in Family Medicine at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County. She is an Andrew Weil Integrative Medicine Fellow and has Homeopathy Certification through the Center for Education and Development of Homeopathy. Her clinical practice is at Heartland Health Centers where she provides Primary Integrative Family Medicine and Integrative Medicine Consults. For her work to promote, trauma-informed care, social justice and challenge inequities in health and health care, Dr. Oyola was recently selected as an awardee from the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, and has been identified by Pritzker students to receive the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Leonard Tow Award, a nomination for the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award and most recently, been inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AΩA) Honor Medical Society AΩA Society. Additionally, Dr. Oyola is the Founder and President of the Chicago domestic violence non-profit, Be Alright, since 2009.

Dr. Patel is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Associate Program Director of the Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship Program. As an academic clinical trialist, she specializes in complex multidisciplinary interventions aimed at improving outcomes in patients with respiratory failure. Her overall hypothesis is that many ICU complications are perpetuated by current standard care practices and that choosing mobility over immobility, mental animation over sedation, and spontaneous versus controlled respiration will improve outcomes. Her research career is built on this “less is more” approach to inform investigational trials that rely on collaborative team building, innovation, and program development. This approach has inspired her investigations of early mobilization in mechanically ventilated patients and helmet ventilation in ARDS, which was recognized as among the top three clinical research achievements of 2016 by the Clinical Research Forum and referenced internationally to guide COVID-19 pandemic response. Her efforts and commitment to medical education has also been recognized in teaching awards from the University of Chicago Internal Medicine Residency.

Dr. Pritesh Patel is an Assistant Professor of Radiology with specialization in Abdominal and Pelvic Imaging. He joined the University of Chicago in 2014 after completing an Abdominal Imaging fellowship at Harvard University’s Massachusetts General Hospital.

He is actively involved in medical student, resident, and fellow education and serves as the Director of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety for the department of Radiology.

His research interests are centered in leveraging new and existing technology, including artificial intelligence, to improve the quality of patient care and educational content. Given his passion for quality improvement, he is currently working on projects to significantly reduce error rates in oncologic imaging, reduce IV contrast dosage on patients with renal insufficiency, reduce radiation dose by utilizing spectral CT over conventional CT, and appropriately triaging patient for STAT imaging studies in collaboration with the department of Internal Medicine. Other research interests include prostate, liver, and gynecologic imaging.

Most recent publication topics include prostate MRI and the use of natural language processing in radiology reports. Dr. Patel has also presented numerous educational exhibits at major radiologic conferences, and been an invited lecturer to international conferences.

Tiffany Patton, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatrics, Section of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. She completed her training in Pediatrics at John H. Stroger, Jr Hospital of Cook County, where she also served as chief resident. Dr. Patton completed her fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology at the University of Chicago before joining as faculty.

Her clinical interests include eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease, non-IgE food allergies, abdominal pain, inflammatory bowel disease, constipation, nutritional deficiencies, and fecal microbiota transplantation. Dr. Patton is committed to medical education, serving as the Pediatric Gastroenterology clerkship director for medical students, faculty mentor for pediatric residents, and a member of the scholarship oversight committee for Pediatric Gastroenterology fellows.

Her research interests include eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease, intestinal microbiome, and fecal microbiota transplantation. Specifically, she is focused on early life risk factors contributing to alterations of gut bacterial populations and how this effects development of gastrointestinal diseases. Dr. Patton serves on several national committees focused on promoting patient knowledge and scientific advancement in these fields. She is the author of several book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Dr. Perez-Gutierrez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, specializing in kidney and liver transplantation.

Dr. Perez-Gutierrez received her medical degree from the University of Veracruz in Mexico, where she graduated summa cum laude. She then completed her General Surgery residency at the National Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition in Mexico City.

Dr. Perez-Gutierrez then spent three years at the Thomas Starzl Transplantation Institute at the University of Pittsburgh performing translational research, focusing on tolerance induction models using cell immune therapy.

She completed an abdominal transplant fellowship and pancreatic islet transplantation fellowship at the University of Chicago and has played an important role in the clinical growth of the Abdominal Transplant Program.

Due to her experience in pediatric transplant surgery acquired during her fellowship, Dr. Perez-Gutierrez is the primary pediatric kidney transplant surgeon at the University of Chicago.

As a Spanish-speaking transplant surgeon, Dr. Perez-Gutierrez is dedicated to helping Hispanic patients and their families who seek the highest-quality transplant care, and she is part of the newly established Hispanic Transplant Program. Her academic work has focused on transplant outcomes and biomarkers. Dr. Perez-Gutierrez has been instrumental in the development of the biorepository of the University of Chicago Transplantation Institute, which has the goal of fostering transplant research and collaborations. At the same time, she continues her own translational efforts, which are demonstrated in her multiple peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals.

Dr. Pinto is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Comprehensive Solid Tumor Clinic at the University of Chicago and a member of the Committee on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics. Dr. Pinto’s research focuses on the role of genetic variation in ethnic disparities and responsiveness to chemotherapy. Dr. Pinto directs the GREAT KIDS research program, an effort to comprehensively sequence the genomes of patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed pediatric cancer in order to gain a broader understanding of gene-environment interactions as well as actionable genetic alterations. Future research goals include improving communication of complex genetic traits and inheritance to patients and families affected by cancer.

Dr. Pinto is a physician at the Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle, WA.

Luka Pocivavsek, MD, PhD, is a highly skilled vascular surgeon who specializes in a wide range of vascular conditions, including peripheral vascular, cerebrovascular disease and aortic disease.

As an active researcher, Dr. Pocivavsek advances vascular care by investigating innovative treatments and techniques for better outcomes and quality of life for his patients. His research focuses on improving treatment for patients with aortic dissections, a condition in which inner layers of the aorta tear and/or rip. Dr. Pocivavsek evaluates patients using specific aortic parameters to identify what treatment(s) would be most effective depending on each individual patient’s aortic anatomy. His research highlights the importance of examining both size and shape – as well as other features – of a dissected aorta before determining the right treatment. Appraising factors beyond size alone provides a more holistic picture of a damaged aorta, which not only indicates which patients will benefit from surgery, but also classifies patients that will have better long-term outcomes with medical management alone.

His research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, such as Science, Nature Physics, Journal of Vascular Surgery, Biophysical Journal, Soft Matter, Biomaterials and Annals of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Pocivavsek also presents his findings at conferences and meetings both domestically and internationally.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Pocivavsek is also the co-founder of ArugaTechnologies, a medical device company that designs synthetic vascular grafts using new surface technology inspired by nature.

Tamar Polonsky, MD, MSCI, an Associate Professor and is a general cardiologist. She treats a wide range of cardiac conditions, including coronary artery disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), and valve disease.

Dr. Polonsky also specializes in the management of heart disease in cancer patients. She works closely with oncologists and surgeons to take care of patients with preexisting heart disease and to help monitor for potential cardiac complications from chemotherapy and radiation. Dr. Polonsky has research expertise in cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention. She has experience analyzing data from large cohort studies, with the aim of finding novel ways to predict a person’s risk of developing heart disease.

Dr. Poston is a critical care physician, pulmonologist, and medical educator. His clinical scholarship focuses on interdisciplinary care and communication to promote optimal outcomes from critical illness. Dr. Poston also dedicates himself to the education of medical students, and directs several innovative courses that teach the clinical skills of doctor-patient communication, physical examination, professional development, and critical medical thinking.

Priya Prakash MD, FACS, is a trauma and acute care surgeon at the University of Chicago’s Level 1 Trauma Center. She specializes in the care of complex multisystem injuries in an underserved patient population, specifically affected by the gun violence epidemic. Her primary interests are in delivery of compassionate and equitable care to the South Side community, trauma systems development, and institution of best practices in clinical care. She has been actively involved in research to better understand the impact of UChicago’s Trauma Center on access to care for violently injured patients in our catchment area as well as collaborated with the Booth School of Business to understand operating room efficiency at the medical center. She is also dedicated to teaching and serves as the faculty advisor for the Pritzker medical students during their clerkship rotation. In addition, she is the vice-chair of the Process Improvement and Patient Safety Committee and is dedicated to advancing the care of critically injured patients on the local, national, and global level.