Sunita Dodani

Professor of Medicine & Founding Director, Healthcare Analytics and Delivery Science Institute, Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) and Sentara Healthcare system

Location: United States

Consulting Services
Areas of Interest
Professional Narrative
Referees
Employment
Education
Publications
Awards,Grants & Prizes

Consulting Services

Grant Submission Journal Manuscript Scientific Writing Research Consulting Biostatistics Career Advice and Mentoring Data Science-Bioinformatics Conferences Pharma-CRO-Device

Areas Of Interest

Cardiovascular Diseases Hypertension Obesity Implementation Science Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Professional Narrative

Dr. Sunita (Soni) Dodani is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS). She holds a secondary appointment as a Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Health Professions, EVMS. She is the Founding Director of the EVMS-Sentara Healthcare Analytics and Delivery Science Institute (HADSI). Dr. Dodani's tenure as a leader in higher education has been characterized by her unwavering dedication to equity, mentorship, innovation, and collaboration. Her significant contributions to the public health sector have been a source of inspiration for healthcare professionals, especially women.

She earned her medical degree from Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. She completed her residency in Family Medicine with further training in Preventive Cardiology. Later, she completed her Master's in Epidemiology and Community Health from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, followed by a Ph.D. in Epidemiology (major cardiovascular diseases) from the University of Pittsburgh. She was honored with 2 Fulbright scholarships to complete her Master’s and Ph.D.

Dr. Dodani has been in executive-level leadership for over 23 years and has vast experience in research management and expertise in creating innovative health promotion models. She has held senior research (including clinical research infrastructure building) leadership and administrative positions detailed on the CV. A synopsis is provided below.

A Poised Administrator and Leader: For more than two decades, Dr. Dodani has been in research leadership and administrative positions, both in academia and healthcare systems. Her current position as the Founding Director of EVMS-Sentara Healthcare Analytics and Delivery Science Institute (HADSI) has been an exceptional experience of building an Institute for Sentara, the largest healthcare system in Virginia in partnership with academia (EVMS). From writing the vision, mission, and goals to developing the HADSI organizational structure; and building the clinical and health disparity research infrastructure, HADSI stands as a role model providing critical research support to reduce regional health disparities. Since its inception in 2017, HADSI has been effective in reducing regional health-related disparities with tangible outcomes.

As we know, health systems are under constant pressure to improve patient outcomes while also improving the efficiency of resources and the productivity of providers and staff. Monitoring these activities requires the synthesis of extensive amounts of data. Organizations require highly competent analytics teams to discover insights and inform decisions to remain competitive. Dr. Dodani’s expertise in research informatics made it possible to make use of EMR data to develop the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP), a common data model. The OMOP integration has revolutionized the versatility of EMR data for comprehensive and outcome-oriented clinical research, thus improving the value of care proposition for health.

Please see the HADSI 2021 Annual Report attached. More details showing HADSI achievements since its inception in 2017 are provided on the HADSI website www.evms.edu/hadsi, as well as under her HADSI portfolio https://www.evms.edu/directory/profiles/sunita-dodani.php.

Dr. Dodani was recently (February 2023) invited to take part in a three-day healthcare leadership development workshop organized by Columbia University. During the workshop, she had the opportunity to lead one of the teams, which provided positive feedback on her leadership skills. As a result, she has been selected for the American Council of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)'s Thomas C Dolan Executive Diversity Program, which will run from May to December 2023. This program is specifically designed for individuals in senior executive positions or those in C-suite roles who are looking to take on more significant responsibilities or higher-level. The program will be fully funded by ACHE.

Similarly, her other senior research leadership roles with previous employers have resulted in many measurable outcomes, including two major NIH grants within the two years of joining the Medical College of Georgia (now called the Augusta University), the NIH-Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) at Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, to name a few.

Dr. Dodani strongly believes in collaboration and partnerships. She has been extremely successful in building partnerships with all the major healthcare systems and academic institutions in Virginia in a short period of time. These achievements clearly speak of her leadership and trust-building skills. Soon after the COVID pandemic, not only did she start a COVIDsmart registry in partnership with George Mason University (GMU) and Vibrent Health, Inc (https://www.covidsmartstudy.org/en/covidsmart), but also established an 62-member Health Equity Collaborative of Virginia. Through this collaborative, Dr. Dodani brought 12 academic institutions and seven major healthcare systems of Virginia on one platform, to work together towards reducing regional health disparities (particularly rural-urban disparities) and associated health inequities. A recent collaborative retreat video is provided below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzurAepmCRE

https://vimeo.com/694951698 password is evms

Her leadership style is that of a Golf Caddy; providing support, vision, and needed resources/infrastructure to be successful. She believes in shared governance. Some of her leadership skills, attributes, and principles are -

Lead with transparency.
Build, strengthen, and sustain infrastructure for clinical/health disparity-health equity research to provide opportunities and encourage faculty and staff to engage in health equity/health disparity research, education, clinical services, and community-outreach.
Building strong partnerships.
Shared vision.
Allow team members to have a voice and build consensus when possible.
Separate personal research interest from the leadership role.
Consider diversity and health equity when making decisions at the organizational level.
Keep community needs first.

A Seasoned Nationally & Internationally Renowned Researcher: Dr. Dodani is an implementation-effectiveness scientist with over 23 years of experience developing and implementing disease prevention and management programs at the community level. She is a successful NIH-funded researcher, and one yardstick of her success is that she secured 2 NIH grants (NHLBI R15 and NIDDK R18) within two years of her Ph.D. completion. Her goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate health disparities among racial/ethnic minorities. Her health disparity research work involves working with South Asian (SA), African American, Filipino/Latinx, and Hispanic communities on programs related to cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including diabetes and hypertension. While working in Pakistan, Dr. Dodani successfully initiated community-based research projects related to CVD in SAs. Further, she conducted the first community-wide national survey in Pakistan, investigating coronary artery disease (CAD) prevalence and risk factors among adult Pakistanis in an urban community setting. Continuing work on SAs in the United States, she studied the effects of acculturation on CAD and diabetes in SAs and published exciting results. She also completed an NIH-NHLBI grant to understand the association of dysfunctional HDL as a non-traditional risk factor for CAD.

Recently (September 2022), after two years of teamwork, she organized and facilitated an International Conference on cardiovascular diseases among South Asian immigrants in New Jersey in partnership with Rutgers University, St. Peters University Hospital, and the SKN Foundation (https://sknfoundation.org/conference-2022/). The conference led to tangible outcomes, including Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr passing a bipartisan South Asian Heart Health Awareness Act to promote heart health research and awareness of heart disease that disproportionately impacts South Asians in the US https://pallone.house.gov/media/press-releases/pallone-leads-passage-south-asian-heart-health-awareness-and-research-act.

Dr. Dodani’s implementation science research work in the African American communities received national-level recognition. Her team was among the first to translate the NIH-funded diabetes prevention program into a community-based, culturally tailored program for African American churches called “Fit Body and Soul,” funded by the NIH (NIDDK-R18). Her current hypertension control program called HEALS-(Healthy Eating And Living Spiritually) Med-Tech was one of the top-rated science abstracts at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Session 2022 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYr7anxknno). The program was not only implemented in Kansas and Florida but is currently ongoing in primary care clinics in Virginia and will soon be offered to Filipinos in Eastern Virginia and South Texas with a PCORI grant awaiting funding decision.

She is a grant reviewer for the NIH, PCORI, and VA Health Service and Health Service & Research Development (HSR&D) Study Sections. Her contributions to these study sections and review panels are in implementation science, hypertension management in healthcare settings, obesity, diabetes comparative effectiveness research, and lipid management. Further, she represents as a member on the National AHA Research Committee and National AHA Outcome Research Council.

A Successful and Proud Mentor: Dr. Dodani is highly skilled in building research-training infrastructure using the “Train the Trainer” concept. She has trained more than 100 physicians, nurses, allied healthcare professionals, researchers, post-docs, and other healthcare professionals/managers. She was recruited by Mayo Clinic primarily to mentor Mayo Clinic physicians and researchers. The success record of previous and current mentees is provided on the CV. She is not only recognized within the United States but has also mentored physicians and researchers internationally (details on CV).

Employment

Founding Director, EVMS-Sentara Healthcare Analytics and Delivery Science Institute (HADSI), Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) and Sentara Healthcare System 2017

Education

PhD, Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh 2006

MD, Aga Khan University 1992

MSc, Epidemiology, Dalhousie University 2000

Referees

Publications

Bartholmae M, Roess A, Renshaw KD, Levy, BL, Karpov MV, Sill JM, Dodani S. "Evaluation of Recruitment Strategies on Inclusiveness of Populations at Risk for Health Disparities in the Statewide Remote Online COVIDsmart Registry," (2022). Virginia Journal of Public Health: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Al Rifai M, KIanoush S, Jain V, Joshi P, Cainzos-Achirica M, Nasir K, Merchant A, Dodani S, Wong S, Samad Z, Hehta A, Chunara R, Kalra A, Virani S. Association of U.S. birth, duration of residence in the U.S., and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk factors among Asian adults. Preventive Medicine Reports. Oct 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101916.
Dod R, Rajendran A, Kathrotia M, Clarke A, Dodani S. Cardiovascular Disease in South Asian Immigrants: A Review of Dysfunctional HDL as a Potential Marker. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. Apr 2022 doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01306-6.
Kianoush S, Al Rifai M, Jain V, Samad Z, Rana J, Dodani S, Jia X, Lee M, Khan SU, Gupta K, Lavien CJ, Wong S, Kanaya A, Virani S. Prevalence and predictors of premature coronary heart disease among Asians in the United States: A National Health Interview Survey Study. J of Preventive Cardiology (Under Publication) 2022 Feb 26 doi: 10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101152.
Lapiz-Bluhm, MD, Romero, C, EL Moudden, I, Clarke, A, Dodani, S. Call to Action: Community

Health Screening Data Highlights the Need to Address Hypertension among Filipino Americans.

J Nursing Practice Applications & Reviews of Research, Vol12, No1, Jan 2022.

6. McCune TR, Toepp AJ, Sheehan BE, Sherani MSK, Petr ST, Dodani S. High dose intravenous vitamin C treatment in Sepsis: associations with acute kidney injury and mortality. BMC Nephrol. 2021 Nov 20;22(1)

:387. doi: 10.1186/s12882-021-02599-1

Al Rifai M, Jain V, Khan S, Nasir K, Zhu D, Vasudeva R, Lavie C, Dodani S, Petersen L, Virani S. Social

Vulnerability and COVID-19: An Analysis of CDC Data. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2021 Sep 22; 09(6).

Dodani S, Sealey-Potts C, Arora S. A Faith-Based Hypertension Control Program for African American

Communities: Program. Am J Biomed Sci & Res. 2021 Sep 9; 14(2).

Visaria A, Islam S, Polamarasetti P, James J, Raju P, Sharma A, Khangura K, Thawani R, Dodani S.

Hypertension, Diabetes, and Corresponding Annual Clinical Testing Utilization: Comparison between

Asian Indians and Other Races/Ethnicities. Preventive Medicine. 2021 Aug 1; 153:106761.

Marik P, Dodani S. Gender-based disparities in COVID-19 patient outcomes. J Invest Med. 2021;

69:814-818.

Ahmed Q, DePerrior S, Dodani S, Edwards J, Marik P. Role of inflammatory biomarkers in the prediction

of ICU admission and mortality in patients with COVID-19. Medical Research Archives. 2020; 8(12).

Kandula N, Ahmed M, Dodani S, Gupta L, Hore P, Kanaya A, Khowaja A, Mathur A, Mehta D,

Misra R, Paracha M, Bharmal N, Aghhi M, Leng J, Gany F. Cardiovascular Disease & Cancer

Risk Among South Asians: Impact of Sociocultural Influences on Lifestyle and Behavior. J Immigr

Minor Health. 2019 Aug; 21(Suppl 1):15-25.

Guirgis F, Dodani S, Leeuwenburgh C, Moldawer L, Bowman J, Kalynych C, Grijalva V, Reddy S,

Jones A, Moore F. HDL inflammatory index correlates with and predicts severity of organ failure

in patients with sepsis and septic shock. PLoS One. 2018; 13(9):e0203813.

Bharadwaj P, Sheehan BE, Dodani S, von Gunten CF. Pain Management: Time to Minimize

Variations in Practice. Palliat Care. 2018 Feb 20; 11.

Dodani S, Kaeley G, Arora S., Reddy S, Coronary Artery Disease in High-Risk South Asian

Immigrants: Role of Dysfunctional HDL in Risk Prediction. Indian Heart J. Jan-Feb 2018; 70(1):50-55.

Dodani S, Sharma G. Presence of Coronary Artery Disease in Diabetic and Non-Diabetic South

Asian Immigrants. Indian Heart J. 2018 Jul; 70(1): 50-55.

Guirgis F, Dodani S, Moldawer L, Leeuwenburgh C, Bowman J, Kalynych C, Jones A,

Reddy S, Moore F. Exploring the Predictive Ability of Dysfunctional High-Density Lipoprotein

for Adverse Outcomes in Emergency Department Patients with Sepsis: A Preliminary Investigation.

Shock. 2017 Nov; 48(5):539-544.

Guirgis F, Donnelly J, Dodani S, Howard G, Safford M, Levitan E, Wang H. Cholesterol levels

and long-term rates of community-acquired sepsis. Crit Care. 2016; 20(1):408.

Guirgis F, Williams D, Hale M, Bajwa A, Shujaat A, Patel N, Kalynch C, Dodani S, Moore F,

Jones A. The Long-term Burden of Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock: Sepsis Recidivism and Organ

Dysfunction. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2016; 81(3):525-32.

James D, Harville C, Whitehead N, Stellefson M, Dodani S, Sears S. Willingness of African

American women to participate in e-Health/m-Health Research. Telemed J E Health. 2016;

22(3):191-7.

Dodani S, Ruktanonchai C, Kaeley G, Vaddiparti K, Striley C, Cottler L. Chronic Diseases

and Clinical Characteristics among Cocaine users Screened in the Community through HealthStreet.

Health Behav Policy Rev. 2016; 3(1):54-61.

Velarde G, Sherazi S, Kraemer D, Bravo-Jaimes K, Butterfield R, Amico T, Steinmetz S,

Guzman M, Martin D, Dodani S, Smith B. Clinical and Biochemical Markers of Cardiovascular

Structure and Function in Women with the Metabolic Syndrome. Am J Card 2015 Dec 1; 116(11):1705-10.

Guirgis F, Williams D, Hale M, Bajwa A, Shujaat A, Patel N, Kalynch C, Jones A, Wears R,

Dodani S. The Relationship of Intravenous Fluid Chloride Content and Volume to Serum Creatinine

in Patients with Severe Sepsis or Septic Shock. Am J Emerg Med. 2015 Mar; 33(3):439-43.

Mehrotra N, Ramagopal M, Dodani S. Cultural factors impacting asthma management in Asian Indian

children. Indian J Allergy Asthma Immunol 2014; 28:63-7.

Dodani S, Dong L, Reddy S. Carotid Intima Media Thickness, and low HDL in South Asian

immigrants: Could Dysfunctional HDL be the missing link? Arch Med Sci. 2014; 10(5):870-9.

26. Guirgis F, Williams D, Kalynych C, Hardy M, Jones A, Dodani S, Wears R. End-tidal carbon

dioxide as a goal of early sepsis therapy. Am J Emerg Med. 2014 Nov; 32(11):1351-6.

Dodani S, Arora S, Lynch S, Mahin C. HEALS- A Hypertension Control Program for African Americans:

Focus Groups. 2014. Health Behavior and Policy Review. 2014 Mar; (2):103-110(8).

Sanders K, Schnepel L, Smotherman C, Livingood W, Dodani S, Antonios N, Lukens-Bull K, Balls-

Berry J, Johnson E, Miller T, Hodges W, Falk D, Wood D, Silliman S. Assessing the Impact

of Health Literacy on Stroke Patient Education Retention. Prev Chronic Dis. 2014 Apr 10; 11:E55.

Dodani S, Songer T, Ahmed Z, Laporte R. Building research capacity in developing countries:

Cost-effectiveness of an epidemiology course taught by traditional and video teleconferencing

methods in Pakistan. Telemed J E Health. 2012 Oct; 18(8):621-8.

Dodani S, Henkhaus R, Dong L, Butler M. Apo lipoprotein A1 gene polymorphisms predict cardio-

metabolic risk in South Asian immigrants. Dis Markers. 2012; 32(1):9-19.

Patel J, Dodani S. Considerations for equity in cardiovascular healthcare: The South Asian example.

Int J Clin Pract. 2012 Mar; 66(3):234-7.

Dodani S, Chotani R. A tale of devolution, abolition, and performance. Lancet. 2012 Feb 4;

379(9814):410.

Henkhaus R, Dodani S, Manzardo A, Butler M. APOA1 gene polymorphisms in the South

Asian immigrant population in the United States. Indian J Hum Genet. 2011 Sep-Dec; 17(3): 194–200.

Grants,Awards and Certifications

Grants :

Only Selected as list is very long

Current Support

ONE School of Public Health Pilot funding ($40,000) 2022-2023

Application of Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Forecasting COVID-19 Future Trends Using

Copula Function Algorithm.

Role: Co-I (PI: Dr. Anna Jang, Professor- Old Dominion University)

CDC (RFA-OT21-2103) $3.3M/ 2 years ($480,432 – HADSI) 2021-2023

“National initiative to address COVID-19 health disparities among high-risk and underserved populations.

Role: Site PI (20%) (PI: Virginia Health Department (VDH) - Dr. Parham Jaberi)

EVMS-Donor Funded - $40K / 1 year 2021-2023

Effectiveness of SilverCloud, an e-Cognitive Behavior Therapy-Based Digital Program to Reduce

Anxiety and Depression in COVIDsmart Study Participants

Role: PI

NIH-NCI P30 Administrative Supplement - $10K / 9 months 2018-2019

“Population Health Assessment in Cancer Center Catchment Areas”

Role: Co-PI (PI: Dr. Fuemmeler- VCU)

Hampton VA Medical Center - $30K / 9 months 2018-2019

“Assess the feasibility and efficacy of HEALS hypertension control program in Hampton VA clinics.”

Role: Site PI (PI: Dr. McLennan-Hampton VA Medical Center), Funded but as project IRB approval

took more than a year, funds were rescinded

Mayo Clinic-CTSI-Community Engagement & Office of Health 2017

Disparity Research, Mayo Clinic-Rochester, MN

Dodani time effort-10%

University of Florida CTSI KL2 Career Award - $238K / 5 years 2016-2021

“Effect of dysfunctional HDL on sepsis Prognosis.”

Role: Mentor (Trainee: Dr. Guirgis- University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL)

NIH-NIGMS K23 Award - $829K / 5 years 2016-2021

“Assessing role of dysfunctional HDL in Sepsis management - A prospective study”.

Role: Advisor (PI: Dr. Guirgis-University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL)

NIH-NINDS R13-NS101706 2016-2017

Grant award for YoungStroke 2016 Conference, Jacksonville, FL

Role: Key Personnel (PI: Dr. Raghavan-NYU)

Society of Critical Care National Grant Award - $50K / 1 year 2015-2016

“Dysfunctional HDL role in sepsis prognosis.”

Role: Mentor and Co-I (PI: Dr. Guirgis - University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL)

University of Florida Deans Grant - $10K / 1 year 2014-2016

“Association of dysfunctional HDL with coronary artery calcium score and intima media thickness

in high-risk South Asian Immigrants.”

Role: Co-PI (PI: Dr. Kaeley-University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL)

Mayo Clinic Office of Health Disparity Research- 2015-2016

Faculty Support (5% effort) from Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Florida, FL (On contract)

University of Florida Deans Grant - $10K 2014-2016

“Role of dysfunctional HDL in Sepsis”.

Role: Co-I & Mentor (PI: Dr. Guirgis- University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL)

University of Florida (UF) - PCORI Tier 1 grant - $25K / 1 year 2014-2015

“Multi-disciplinary Academic-Community Symposium Series to Build on Obesity Disparities

Research Infrastructure and Agenda”.

Role: Co-PI (PI: Dr. Tucker- University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)

University of Florida Deans Grant - $10K / 1 year 2014-2015

“Arterial Stiffness in cocaine drug users”.

Role: Mentor & Co-I (PI: Dr. Ramataour- University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL)

University of Florida CTSA Grant (UL1 RR029890)

Dodani time effort on Community Engagement Core (5%) 2012-2016

University of Florida, College of Medicine, Jacksonville- Start-up funds - $115K 2012-2015

“HEALS hypertension control program for African American churches- A feasibility study”.

Funds provided by the University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL

Role: PI

NIH-NIMHD R13 - $50K / 1 year 2012-2014

“R13- Conference grant on South Asian health”.

Role: Steering Committee Member. (PI: Dr. Gany- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY)

University of Kansas Medical Center Funds - $50K 2009-2011

“Modification of faith-based hypertension control program HEALS (Healthy Eating and

Living Spiritually) in African American churches”.

Role: PI.

NIH-NIDDK R18 - (DK R18 DK094314) - $3.5 / 5 years 2008-2016

“Fit Body & Soul: A lifestyle intervention for diabetes prevention conducted through

African American churches”.

Role: PI. Submitted from the Augusta University, Augusta, GA.

NIH-NHLBI R15 - (NH R15 HL091476) - $450K / 2 years 2009-2012

“Sub-clinical CAD in South Asian immigrants: Determination of dysfunctional HDL

and Apo A-I polymorphisms”.

Role: PI. Submitted from the Augusta University, Augusta, GA.

Abbott Pharmaceuticals - $36K 2008-2009

“Health Disparity Conference Grant”.