The Columbia Alliance for
Healthcare Management


Alumni Profiles



MBA/MPH
    Ms. Smolinski has been an Associate Analyst in US Healthcare Policy at Citigroup Investment Research since January 2005. Prior to that, she worked as a Healthcare Sales Specialist in Institutional Equities at Bear Stearns in New York. She also worked at Pfizer in corporate finance and as a healthcare consultant for the Lewin Group in Washington, DC. Ipsita holds a MBA & MPH from Columbia University and a BA in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University.

Ipsita G. Smolinski


   
MD/MBA
   

Dr. Joshi is the Director of Clinical Procurement at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH). He graduated with honors from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Columbia Business School in 2001 with a MD/MBA dual degree. In his current role, Dr. Joshi and the clinical sourcing team are responsible for leading Strategic Sourcing initiatives across the roughly $400M+ annual clinical spend base. In addition, the team manages the new technology introduction process for the various clinical areas of the hospital, and the day-to-day clinical order placement operation for NYPH. Prior to joining NYPH, Dr. Joshi spent 3.5 years with McKinsey & Company as a consultant in its Pharmaceutical and Medical Products and Payor/Provider practices. He consulted for numerous top-tier pharmaceutical and medical device companies on sales and marketing strategy, R&D strategy, and R&D operations. His work for providers focused on hospital supply chain management and operations.



Dr. Anand Joshi
   
MD/MPH
   
Dr. Helmer, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Medicine & Dentistry New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School and a staff physician/researcher at the VA-New Jersey Health Care System since 2001. He completed undergraduate studies in genetics and cell biology at the University of Minnesota in 1991 and a 5 year dual-degree program at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and School of Public Health in New York in 1997. Dr. Helmer moved to Houston, Texas for his internal medicine residency and a federally funded primary care research fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine.

Improvement of ambulatory care delivery systems is the career goal of Dr. Helmer, especially organizational characteristics and provider behavior that affect outcomes for people with chronic conditions. As clinical director of the War-Related Illness & Injury Study Center at the East Orange VA Medical Center from 2002-2004, Dr. Helmer put into practice the concepts of developing and improving a health care delivery system by building a national referral clinical program for veterans with deployment-related health concerns.

A recipient of a Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development Research Career Development Award, Dr. Helmer investigates the organizational and provider characteristics associated with high quality ambulatory care. With colleagues at the Center for Healthcare Knowledge Management, he examines the association between ambulatory care services and hospitalizations for metabolic decompensation and amputations in veterans with diabetes using merged VHA and Medicare administrative data. In a separate project, he uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to study best practices for the care of patients with chronic pain and fatigue. He is also completing a study of the public’s perception of causal relationships between the environment and health funded by the NJ State Commission on Cancer Research.

Dr. Helmer’s recent publications include “Health and exposure concerns of veterans deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan” (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in press), “Applying diabetes-related prevention quality indicators to a national cohort of veterans with diabetes” (Diabetes Care 2003), and “Dual-system utilization affects regional variation in prevention quality indicators: The case of amputations among veteran with diabetes” (American Journal of Managed Care 2004). He sees patients in ambulatory care clinic and at the War-Related Illness & Injury Study Center.

Dr. Drew A. Helmer
   



Affiliated Schools