Department of Medicine Administration
Chair
David McManus, MD, ScM
Dr. McManus, the Richard M. Haidack Distinguished Professor, chair of Medicine and founding director of the Program in Digital Medicine. Dr. McManus completed an internal medicine residency at the University of California San Francisco and then returned to UMass Chan Medical School (UMass Chan), where he completed a cardiovascular medicine fellowship and a clinical cardiac electrophysiology fellowship. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Clinical Investigation from UMass Chan and was named Dr. Marcellette Williams Scholar in 2018.
Dr. McManus served as the department of medicine's vice chair for clinical affairs and as principal investigator for Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx grant). The goal of this grant, awarded by the National Institutes of Health, is to bring innovative ideas and strategies for testing amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
As the director of Anticoagulation Services, he led a design team to develop and implement a best practice advisory to enhance guidelines supporting anticoagulation prescription. He has also designed novel software applications and hardware to detect and manage atrial fibrillation.
As the director of the Atrial Fibrillation Program, Dr. McManus worked to improve the quality of care for patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. His work contributed to UMMC Receiving the AHA Get with the Guidelines Gold Award from the American Heart Association.
Dr. McManus' research has focused on the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence for the diagnosis and management of heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders.
Executive Vice Chair for Education and Clinical Affairs, Vice Chair Faculty Affairs
Richard Forster, MD
As executive vice chair, Dr. Forster oversees the vice chairs for Education and Clinical Affairs. As chief of Hospital Medicine, he directs one of the largest clinical programs in the department with 50 faculty and 25 affiliate practitioner providers. In addition, Dr. Forster is a LEAN/Six Sigma Black Belt and Chairs the Medical Center’s Acute Care Operations Committee. He is a recipient of numerous teaching and process improvement awards, including the department’s prestigious “Best Teacher” award.
Dr. Forster’s interests include Graduate Medical Education, Clinical Reasoning Strategies, Career Mentorship, LEAN Management Systems, Patient Flow, and Process Improvement.
Dr. Forster received his BA degree from Colby College and his MD from UMass Chan Medical School. He continued his residency and chief residency training at the UMass Chan/UMass Memorial Health and has been an active faculty member since 1991.
Vice Chair for Research
Kate Fitzgerald, PhD
Dr. Fitzgerald directs an internationally recognized laboratory focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling the inflammatory response in both health and disease. Her group is interested in determining how the immune system distinguishes friend from foe in order to protect the host from infection and avoid damaging inflammatory responses that lead to a wide range of inflammatory diseases. Her lab uses multifaceted approaches including immunology, biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics to understand the role of inflammasomes, nucleic acid sensing pathways and long non-coding RNAs in the inflammatory response. The long-term goal of her work is to determine how inappropriate activation of innate immunity underlies the pathogenesis of infectious, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in humans.
Dr. Fitzgerald is a member of the National Academies of Science and Medicine and has received several awards including the Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Scholarship at UMass Chan (2019), a MERIT award from the NIH, the Saint Patrick’s Day Medal, from the Irish Government and Science Foundation Ireland, the Milstein Award for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine research (from the International Cytokine and Interferon Society), the Eli Lilly and Company Elanco Research Award (from the American Society of Microbiology) and the BD-Biosciences Investigator Award (from the American Association of Immunologists). She is ranked amongst the top 1% most cited researchers for Immunology for the last three years (Thompson Reuters, 2014-2019) and also now serves as President of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society (2019-2021).
Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs
Kimberly Eisenstock, MD
Dr. Eisenstock currently serves as the clinical division chief for Hospital Medicine, associate chief medical officer for UMass Memorial Medical Center, and the vice chair for Clinical Affairs in the Department of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School. In these roles, she is an advocate for acute clinical care and is leading clinical practices with multi-disciplinary approaches in advocating for patients and fellow healthcare providers.
A graduate of UMass Chan and the internal medicine residency program, Dr. Eisenstock is a widely respected leader who consistently demonstrates excellence in medicine. Clinically, she actively cares for patients within the hospital setting and has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19.
Vice Chair for Education
PY Fan, MD
Vice Chair for Ambulatory Affairs
Deborah Blazey-Martin, MD, MPH
Dr. Blazey-Martin is vice chair for Ambulatory Affairs, chief of General Internal Medicine, and associate professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Blazey-Martin earned her medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her residency in Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and holds a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University School of Public Health.
Dr. Blazey-Martin joined UMass Chan in January 2023. Before arriving at UMass Chan, she was at Tufts Medical Center, where she served as chief of General Internal Medicine from 2013-2022. She served as the Quality Medical Director for the Tufts Medical Center Local Care Organization from 2021-2022 where, under her leadership, the group rapidly improved from last to first in the network for quality. She has also served on the boards of the New England Quality Care Alliance from 2014-17, the Wellforce Medicare (2014-2017), and MassHealth (2015-2022) accountable care organizations (ACOs). She was a co-founding member and inaugural chair of the Tufts Physicians Organization Women in Medicine and Science Committee, and served on the PO Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Dr. Blazey-Martin has held multiple academic and educational appointments including the associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and the director of Resident Education for General Internal Medicine, both at Tufts Medical Center. She was the recipient of the Castle Connelly Exceptional Women in Medicine award, 2017-19, and the Kritzman Primary Care Teaching Award at Tufts Medical Center in 2017.
In her role in the Department of Medicine at UMass Chan, Dr. Blazey-Martin oversees the Division of General Medicine and the Department’s ambulatory strategy and operations. She also supports ambulatory physician leads and works closely with Medical Center and System leaders in this capacity to provide high-quality ambulatory care, access, and a positive work experience for ambulatory physicians, advanced practitioners, and clinic staff.
Chief Administrative Officer; Department of Medicine, Neurology, Dermatology and Tri-River
Maureen Bresee-Ferreira, MBA
Senior Administrator for the Department of Medicine, Neurology, Dermatology & Wellstone
