Whole-Person Internal Medicine Leaders Around Dunbar Broadway
Browse more Physicians - General in Dunbar Broadway, Baltimore
The Dunbar Broadway area of Baltimore sits near a remarkable concentration of internal medicine expertise—physicians who look beyond single symptoms to the full picture of a person’s health. From chronic disease and genetics to palliative care and infectious disease, these leaders connect cutting-edge research with day-to-day care needs in profoundly human ways.
Below is a closer look at physicians in and around Dunbar Broadway whose work spans whole-person internal medicine, complex chronic illness, and the social and emotional context of care.
Chronic Disease, Hypertension, and Genetics
Whole-person care often starts with understanding how genetics, metabolism, and lifestyle intersect over time to shape chronic disease.
Hunter Young, MD is an associate professor of medicine and assistant professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His clinical expertise includes genetic epidemiology, hypertension, insulin resistance and general internal medicine, emphasizing how inherited risks and environmental factors combine to affect conditions like high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
With a joint appointment in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Young connects insights from population-level research with individual patient care. His research interests—insulin resistance, hypertension, novel risk factors for cardiovascular disease and genetic epidemiology—support a more tailored approach to risk assessment and management. This type of work underpins whole-person strategies that consider long-term trajectories, not just immediate lab values.
Hal C. Dietz III, MD brings a powerful genetic lens to internal medicine from his role as professor of pediatrics, associate professor of medicine, and assistant professor of neurological surgery at Johns Hopkins. As the Victor A. McKusick Professor of Genetics and director of the William S. Smilow Center for Marfan Syndrome Research, he has focused extensively on Marfan syndrome and related conditions.
Dr. Dietz’s work in genomic mapping and therapeutic strategies for deficiencies in fibrillin—a genetic protein linked to Marfan syndrome—has made diagnosis much more precise and patient-specific. With hundreds of peer-reviewed publications, textbook chapters, and lectures, and decades of mentoring predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers, his leadership in genetics helps inform internal medicine care for patients with heritable disorders that affect the heart, vessels, eyes, and skeleton over a lifetime.
Internal Medicine Across the Life Span and Complex Needs
Whole-person internal medicine is also about seeing patients in the context of their life stage, developmental history, and evolving needs over time.
Sara Elizabeth Mixter, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine whose expertise includes internal medicine, pediatrics, and primary care for adults with developmental disabilities and other complex childhood-onset conditions. As director of the Hopkins PACT (Pediatric-informed Adult Care and Transition) Clinic, she focuses on the often-challenging transition from pediatric to adult care for individuals with special healthcare needs.
Dr. Mixter also serves as medical director of the Pediatric Complex Care Collaborative (PC3) for the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Her research interests—transitions of care for adolescents with special healthcare needs and education for residents and medical students in primary and complex care—speak directly to continuity, coordination, and patient-centered planning. Her roles within the Osler Medical Housestaff Training Program and in ambulatory education further extend this whole-person mindset to the next generation of clinicians.
Palliative Care and Serious Illness Support
Whole-person internal medicine includes not only diagnosis and treatment, but supporting quality of life and aligning care with patient values when living with serious illness.
Ambereen Kurwa Mehta, MD, MPH, FAAHPM, is an Associate Professor of Palliative Care in the Departments of Medicine and Neurology at Johns Hopkins. After residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, she went on to leadership roles in palliative care at the University of Virginia and the University of California, Los Angeles, including serving as Medical Director of an inpatient hospice unit and initiating an embedded specialty palliative care program in an ALS clinic.
Since 2020, Dr. Mehta has been the only palliative care expert in the Johns Hopkins Center for ALS Specialty Care, leading multiple studies through the ALS Clinical Trials Unit and publishing extensively on increasing access to specialty palliative care and improving quality of life for people with neurological illnesses such as ALS. Her work includes education for neurologists and contributions to national and international organizations in neuropalliative care. This integration of symptom management, communication, and psychosocial support exemplifies whole-person care for those facing complex, progressive disease.
Infectious Disease, HIV, and Cancer-Related Care
The Dunbar Broadway area is also home to internists whose focus on infectious disease, HIV, and cancer-related complications requires looking at immune function, long-term therapies, and social context together.
Natasha Chida, MD is the Director of the Osler Medical Residency and the Myron L. Weisfeldt Professor of Medicine, as well as an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases. Her clinical work centers on HIV care and general infectious diseases, supported by extensive experience in medical education and training.
Dr. Chida’s background—including directing fellowship training in infectious diseases and co-directing a medical education pathway—highlights her interest in career development for physicians-in-training and the advancement of women in medicine. A key part of her focus is on how best to train residents and fellows in HIV care, ensuring that a holistic, person-centered approach is embedded in the education of future internists who will treat complex infections across diverse communities.
Christine Durand, MD is an associate professor of medicine and oncology and a member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Her clinical and translational research concentrates on people living with HIV and hepatitis C who require cancer and transplant therapies—patients whose care sits at the intersection of infectious diseases, oncology, and transplant medicine.
Dr. Durand’s current research includes studying outcomes of hepatitis C treatment after solid organ transplant, exploring the potential use of organs from HIV-infected donors for HIV-infected transplant candidates, and investigating HIV cure strategies involving bone marrow transplantation. This work reflects a deeply integrated view of health, where viral infections, immune status, organ function, and cancer care all must be considered together to support long-term outcomes.
Health Disparities, Maternal Health, and Transitions of Care
Whole-person internal medicine does not stop at physiology—it also includes the social, racial, and systemic dimensions of health.
S. Michelle Ogunwole, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, a health disparities researcher, a social epidemiologist, and a General Internal Medicine physician. With advanced training in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Science, she focuses on racial disparities in maternal health outcomes among African American women.
Her interests include the role of general internists in optimizing chronic conditions before pregnancy, postpartum chronic disease and long-term outcomes related to pregnancy complications, and African American women’s experiences with the healthcare system, particularly racial discrimination and barriers to primary care follow-up after pregnancy. She also works on creating equitable, community-driven quality improvement interventions around transitions of care from obstetrics to primary care for racial and ethnic minorities who experience medically complicated pregnancies. This blend of primary care, epidemiology, and equity is central to whole-person medicine.
Mental Health, Technology, and Chronic Disease
Chronic disease rarely occurs in isolation from mental health, sleep, and the realities of everyday life. Several leaders around Dunbar Broadway are bridging these domains.
Daniel E. Ford, MD is a professor of medicine with joint appointments in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, health policy and management, and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and senior associate dean for clinical and translational research, he has been widely recognized for work on the interrelationships between mental disorders and chronic medical conditions.
Dr. Ford’s clinical studies have documented depression as an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease and explored the long-term health risks of sleep disturbances. He has also been a pioneer in using the Internet for clinical research, collaborating on electronic systems for research oversight and focusing on ways to improve chronic disease treatment through information technology. His emphasis on viewing research participants as partners underscores a human-centered, respectful approach that aligns with whole-person care.
Zack Berger, MD is a Professor in the Johns Hopkins Division of General Internal Medicine and core faculty at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, with a joint appointment in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. In his primary care internal medicine practice, his clinical, educational, and research work centers on shared decision making in the doctor–patient encounter, particularly where it may be in tension with medical evidence or the political, social, and psychological realities of the patient.
Dr. Berger teaches residents and medical students, contributes to bioethics education across specialties, and serves as a staff physician at a free clinic for undocumented Spanish-speaking immigrants. He has authored books for the public on doctor–patient communication and patient preferences in the context of medical evidence, highlighting the importance of listening, understanding patient goals, and navigating complexity together.
Pulmonary and Critical Care in Internal Medicine
For many patients, whole-person care involves managing serious respiratory illness and critical care episodes as part of a larger health story.
Catherine Simpson, MD is an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins whose clinical expertise spans internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine, and pulmonary vascular diseases. With training that includes residency, fellowship in pulmonary and critical care, and an M.H.S. degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she bridges bedside care and population-level thinking.
By working at the interface of general internal medicine and advanced lung and vascular conditions, Dr. Simpson’s practice reflects the need to see acute respiratory crises in the context of a patient’s overall health, chronic conditions, and long-term goals.
Together, these physicians around Dunbar Broadway represent a wide spectrum of whole-person internal medicine—from genetics and chronic disease to maternal health equity, palliative care, mental health, and infectious disease. Each, in their own way, contributes to a model of care that recognizes patients as more than diagnoses, integrating science, lived experience, and long-term wellbeing.
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