Senior Faculty Scholars

Dr. Haraf is the Professor of Radiation & Cellular Oncology and the Medical Director of Radiation Oncology. Dr. Daniel Haraf is an expert in the treatment of lung, esophageal, and head and neck cancer. He was instrumental in pioneering the use of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)—a highly precise form of three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy. IMRT uses computers to accurately plan and deliver radiation with the fewest possible side effects for patients.

He has become a nationally recognized leader in the treatment of head and neck cancer (HNC). Dr. Haraf has been a major force in developing a program using chemotherapy together with IMRT in the treatment of patients with HNC—reducing or eliminating the need for extensive, debilitating, or mutilating surgery. This program has a long track record curing cancer with preservation of normal organ function as documented in the medical literature. Dr. Haraf is proud that we can actually discuss the expected results with our patients based on detailed analyses of our own treatment program.

Dr. Haraf has also pioneered re-irradiation for patients with recurrent cancer of the head and neck. People with recurrent cancer after radiation often have limited treatment options and little chance of cure. Most radiation oncologists will not consider offering a second round of radiation treatment. Dr. Haraf has found that re-irradiation is possible and offers these people their only chance of cure.

He is active in developing new methods of radiation delivery for patients with lung and esophageal cancer. Cancers in the chest can move while people breathe during treatment. We now have the technology to time the delivery of radiation to a specific part of respiration. The result is greater accuracy in treating the cancer while limiting the amount of normal lung tissue exposed to radiation.

Dr. Rex Haydon is a Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Rehabilitation Medicine and Associate Director of the Molecular Oncology Laboratory. Prior to entering medicine, Dr. Haydon was trained in archaeology and physical anthropology, culminating in a PhD in Anthropology in 1993. He then entered medical school, and completed residency training in orthopaedics, followed by fellowships in research and orthopedic oncology. Dr. Haydon has been a faculty member at the University of Chicago since 2003.

Dr. Haydon’s clinical focus is in the treatment of bone and soft tissue tumors of the extremities, and he is part of the Musculoskeletal Oncology Group at the University of Chicago. Dr. Haydon is a superb clinician who seeks to care for his tumor patients with less toxic treatment options, which has lead to identifying novel agents for the treatment of sarcomas and benign tumors.

He serves as the fellowship program director for musculoskeletal oncology.

Dr. Hightower is the Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Technology Officer (CDTO) of the University of Chicago Medicine, and the CEO and co-Founder of Equality AI. She is the former Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) and Sr. Director of Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Utah Health and former CMIO and Chief Population Health Officer (CPHO) at University of Iowa Healthcare. Her executive leadership experience spans healthcare digital transformation strategy and operations, population health, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, with academic medical centers, clinically integrated networks, and accountable care organizations, and early-stage investor financed healthcare tech.

Dr. Hightower is an expert and a nationally sought speaker in Responsible AI and the intersection of digital technology with health equity, diversity, and inclusion. She strives to ensure that the value from digital transformation of healthcare is equitable across all stakeholders, including our most vulnerable.

In addition to leading digital strategy and operations at UChicago Medicine, she leads Equality AI, an early-stage investor backed healthcare tech startup. Equality AI is on a mission to end algorithmic bias in healthcare. Data scientists are the newest members of the care team. Equality AI empowers digitally enabled care teams to achieve health equity goals through responsible AI and tools to develop algorithms that address bias, fairness, and performance.
Dr. Hightower is a champion for health equity, diversity, and inclusion awareness and initiatives. She developed the Healthcare IT Equity Maturity Model (HITEM) to dismantle structural bias hardwired in healthcare IT and develop an inclusive and equity minded healthcare IT culture. Dr. Hightower was recently recognized by Health Data Management as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT” and “25 leading CMIOs at healthcare organizations.” She was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of “50 hospital and health system CMIOs to know”.

Dr. Hightower received her Medical Degree, as well as a Master of Public Health, from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, followed by residencies in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. She also holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Dr. Hightower has moved full-time in the CEO role for Equality AI.

Dr. Sherwin Ho is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Chicago, The Frank and Tang Families Endowed Professor Sports Medicine, and Director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship. He has taught and lectured nationally and internationally, and has served as an official spokesman for the Americian Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), as well as course faculty and on many committees for the AAOS, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, and the Arthroscopy Association of North America. He is a member of the Herodicus Society, a principal reviewer for the American Journal of Sports Medicine, a founding member of the editorial board of the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, and Editor-In-Chief for Sports Medicine for Medscape Reference (WebMD, formerly eMedicine). He has served as a team physician for the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL, the Chicago Sky of the WNBA, and Concordia University Chicago where he was inducted into their Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. As team physician for the USA Women’s Volleyball national team, he accompanied them to Beijing where they won a silver medal. More recently, as head team physician for the China Women’s national volleyball team, he accompanied them to gold medals at the 2015 World Cup in Japan, the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Dr. Hoehn attended medical school at University of Kansas, then completed her pediatric residency at University of California San Francisco, followed by a pediatric critical care medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She also obtained a Masters in Bioethics from University of Pennsylvania. She has been on faculty at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, St. Christopher’s in Philadelphia, Rush and Comer, plus University of Kansas. She is a national leader in pediatric palliative care, and has started and grown multiple palliative care programs. In addition, she has been a course director and taught a pediatrics ethics course at Kansas City University of Biosciences. She has done research in informed consent, difficult decision making and family support and communication. She serves on the editorial boards of AAP PREP and the journal, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. She is on the Pediatric Advisory Committee of the FDA, and a national advocate for safe prescribing of opioids. She is an advocate for children, no matter where they are in their journey. Here at the University of Chicago she is director of supportive care, which focuses on pain, palliative and integrative medicine. She is also the co-director of the MacLean Ethics Consultation Service. As a Bucksbaum senior scholar, she is excited to mentor students, residents and fellows on topics of communication, equity and palliative care. In addition, she is working to develop clear connections between ethics and equity. As Amanda Gorman said, ‘just is isn’t always justice.’

Dr. Philip Hoffman is an expert in cancers of the lung and breast, and sees patients with all stages of these cancers. The author of more than 80 medical journal articles, Dr. Hoffman’s research interests include clinical trials in small cell and non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer. Dr. Hoffman has been recognized for many years for his teaching skills in the medical school, as well as the internal medicine residency and hematology/oncology fellowship programs. He has appeared most years on the Pritzker School of Medicine’s graduating class composite portrait as one of their honored faculty, has recently won the Postgraduate Teaching Award of the Department of Medicine, and has been named a Master of the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators at Pritzker.

Dr. Elbert Huang is Professor of Medicine, Director of the Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy, and Associate Director of the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Huang is a primary care doctor who studies clinical and health care policy issues at the intersection of diabetes, aging, and health economics. Using methods from health economics, the decision sciences, and clinical epidemiology, his research has provided the theoretical and evidence-base foundation for the concept of personalizing diabetes care goals as well as the contemporary natural history of the disease in older people. Dr. Huang’s research has directly influenced modern diabetes care clinical practice guidelines for older people that now emphasize 1) individualization of glycemic goals, 2) the role of patient treatment preferences, 3) the clinical importance of hypoglycemia, and 4) management of geriatric conditions.

Dr. Huang’s research has been supported by the NIH, AHRQ, CDC, American Diabetes Association, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He has received numerous honors including the Research Paper of the Year Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine and elected membership to the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Lilly Cheng Immergluck is a physician-scientist who studies the impact of antibiotic-resistant infections and vaccine-preventable illnesses in children. Her research focuses on clinical vaccine and infectious disease–related therapeutic trials, and public health matters related to the prevention of infectious diseases among medically underserved populations, including how social determinants of health influence the spread of infection.

Her work has been published in Antibiotics, PLoS One, Nature Medicine, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, Clinical Infectious Diseases, JAMA Network Open, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and Pediatrics in Review.

Immergluck received her BA in biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology from Northwestern University, and an MD from The Ohio State University College of Medicine, followed by an MA in clinical research from Morehouse School of Medicine. She completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Chicago, where she received the Pediatric Scientist Development Award. Most recently, she was a professor and physician-scientist at Morehouse School of Medicine, as well as director of its Pediatric Clinical Translational Research and Vaccine Trial Units, and site principal investigator for its participation in the US Covid-19 Prevention Network.

Dr. Mahmoud Ismail is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the section of Maternal-Fetal medicine. Dr. Ismail is the Co-Director of the UChicago Medicine Perinatal Network and was previously the Section Chief of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Dr. Ismail’s areas of interests are infections in pregnancy, twin-to-twin transfusion, and mono-mono twins. Dr. Ismail has received numerous awards and recognitions including: America’s Top Doctors Award, Chicago Magazine’s Top Doctors award for 6 years, and the University of Chicago Distinguished Clinical Award Senior Professor.

Dr. Ismail devotes much of his leisure time to community service and is the founder and trustee of Aqsa School, an Islamic girls’ school, in Bridgeview, IL; and, he is a member of the National Arab American Medical Association.

Priti Jani MD, MPH is a specialist in pediatric critical care medicine. Dr. Jani’s scholarly focus lies at the intersection of research in simulation-based medical education and resuscitation quality improvement. She develops and investigates simulation-based educational curricula and quality improvement initiatives towards improving individual, team and system level performance with the goal of translation to improved patient outcomes. A dedicated educator, she utilizes her expertise in simulation to direct and develop curricula for trainees and healthcare teams. Serving as the Chair of the Pediatric CPR Committee and Pediatric Resuscitation Quality Committee as well as the Faculty Director of the UChicago Simulation Center, she is highly invested in using simulation to further advance education, safety and quality at the University of Chicago Medicine and Comer Children’s Hospital.