Karthik Sivashanker, MD
Dr. Karthik Sivashanker is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine and currently serves as a staff consultation-liaison psychiatrist and innovation specialist in VA Boston Healthcare. He is also a second-year fellow in the HMS fellowship for Patient Safety and Quality. Dr. Sivashanker has conducted research in various domains, including a one-year Fulbright Fellowship in Venezuela studying the vertical transmission of HIV-AIDS in rural mountain communities. He has written or published on topics, including: quality and safety, opioid use disorders, schizophrenia, ketamine treatment, and cyberbullying. His current interests include quality and systems improvement, addiction psychiatry, and the diffusion of innovation. He is developing a safety net for incidental lung nodules, a system-wide training for unconscious bias and racism, a virtual assistant to reduce opioid misuse in chronic pain patients, and a new program (MIT-Catalyst) that brings together researchers from MIT and the VA.