CIOR Faculty
P. Ravi Kiran, MBBS, MS, Msc, FRCS, FACS, Director
Dr. Kiran brings a wealth of expertise in outcomes studies, having directed the research section of the Department of Surgery at Cleveland Clinic from 2007 to 2013. He looks forward to integrating patient care, research, and quality metrics and to streamlining research workflow relative to databases and infrastructure at CIOR and the Department of Surgery.
Dr. Kiran also serves as Chief of the Division of Colorectal Surgery while overseeing CIOR. He is also Professor of Surgery in Epidemiology at Mailman School of Public Health.
Paul Kurlansky, MD, Associate Director
Paul A. Kurlansky, MD is the former Director of Research at the Florida Heart Research Institute in Miami, Florida. In 2003, he joined the Columbia HeartSource team as the Director of Research, Recruitment and Continuous Quality Improvement, where he was instrumental in guiding every HeartSource affiliate site that has a surgical program. In early 2014 he relocated to New Yorkto accept a dual faculty position at CIOR and as Professor of Clinical Surgery.
Dr. Kurlansky received his baccalaureate degree (cum laude) from Harvard University and his medical degree from Tufts University Medical School. He completed his post-graduate training at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center inNew York. Dr. Kurlansky is boarded in Surgery, Thoracic surgery and with the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review. He publishes extensively on cardiac surgery and quality outcomes and is an invited speaker at numerous international forums.
Yuming Ning, PhD, Senior Statistician
A native of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Dr. Yuming Ning received his Masters in Probablity and Statistics from Northern Illinois University and his Doctorate from SUNY Stony Brook. A 20-plus-year veteran statistician, Dr. Ning has focused on medical and population research. He has served as a research statistician for the Department of Population Medicine of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, an Assistant Professor at the New York University School of Medicine, an Associate Research Scientist for the Yale School of Medicine Aging Program, and, most recently as the Senior Biostatistician/Assistant Profession in the Division of General Internal Medicine of Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Dr. Ning is a reviewer for many peer review journals and has particular expertise in statistical informatics and data mining, hierarchical and mixed modeling and statistical computing and simulation. He joins the Center for Innovation and Outcomes Research as an Assistant Professor of Surgery and senior statistician.
Samantha Nemeth, MA, MPH, Statistician
Ms. Nemeth received her bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from William and Mary and her MPH and Masters in Statistics from Columbia University. With a background in health care management and biostatistics, she enjoys using data to effect meaningful change in hospital processes and clinical care pathways.
Since 2011, she has worked at Columbia HeartSource and now serves a dual role in both Columbia HeartSource and the Center for Innovation and Outcomes Research (CIOR.) As the Senior Analyst for HeartSource, Ms. Nemeth applies her expertise in the American College of Cardiology (ACC), Society of Thoracic Surgery (STS), and New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) registry data to develop reports and ensure data quality. As a biostatistician for CIOR, her extensive experience with these datasets (both structure and definitions) have allowed for a collaborative utilization of these resources for research purposes.
Ms. Nemeth is looking forward to expanding her work within the Department of Surgery, and is available to help with outlining how to best collect data, create posters and reports, analyze data, and write manuscripts.