Who We Are

The leadership of the iNSPIRe initiative includes seasoned investigators with multi-year experience in clinical and health services research and an established track record of excellence, as indicated by continuous, multi-million peer-reviewed funding.

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Sherene Sharath, PhD, MPH 
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery
Director of Clinical and Health Services Research
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Dr. Sharath is an epidemiologist with a special focus on biostatistics. Her research interests are related to the nonoperative management of intermittent claudication, health care disparities among vulnerable groups, and the cohort-specific, systematic assessment of postoperative risks. Most notably, she has extensive expertise in managing and analyzing big datasets, typically consisting of several millions of observations, using advanced statistical coding techniques.

Dr. Sharath is the principal investigator for multiple studies, both funded and unfunded of varying design types. She is also the national clinical trial coordinator for the TOP trial, a multi-center, randomized controlled trial examining the effects of permissive anemia on postoperative adverse events after major operations in high cardiac risk patients. Dr. Sharath has authored and co-authored multiple papers, serves as peer-reviewer on multiple journals, and has a record of mentoring residents and medical students in research methodology and interpretation.

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Panos Kougias, MD, MSc, FACS
Chair, Department of Surgery

Dr. Kougias is a nationally and internationally known clinical researcher, scientist and trialist. His research interests center around a) outcomes after complex vascular surgery interventions, b) optimization of the operating room efficiency, and c) analysis of big data in medicine. His research has significantly contributed to the understanding of risks after technically complex vascular interventions in physiologically vulnerable cohorts.

Dr. Kougias is the national Principal Investigator and Study Chair for TOP trial, a multi-center, randomized controlled trial examining the effects of permissive anemia on postoperative adverse events after major operations in high cardiac risk patients. In addition, he has been the PI of a randomized trial that demonstrated that a statistically-driven operating room scheduling methodology can improve the throughput of the operating room without compromising patient safety; and the PI of a randomized trial that compared cognitive function after carotid endarterectomy and stenting. He has authored, co-authored, and senior authored numerous papers, received uninterrupted multimillion dollar grants from federal, peer-reviewed funding agencies, has mentored numerours trainees and junior faculty members, and serves on the editorial boards of multiple journals. 

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David H. Berger, MD, MHCM
Chief Executive Officer, University Hospital at Downstate

Dr. Berger is Professor (tenured) of Surgery and Public Health at Downstate.  Between 2019-2020, Dr. Berger served as the Chief Operating Officer at the University of Florida – Central Florida. 

Dr. Berger is an expert in patient flow, operating room throughput, quality and patient safety.  He has extensive experience identifying cutting edge health care technology and implementing the technology effectively in hospitals.  Dr. Berger previously served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chief Medical Officer of the Baylor College of Medicine McNair Facility and Operative Care Line Executive of the Michael. E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. 

Dr. Berger is a native of New York, where he received his medical degree (1984) from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn.  Dr. Berger completed a General Surgery residency at SUNY-Brooklyn and fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.  Dr. Berger completed a Master of Science in Health Care Management at Harvard University in 2007.  Dr. Berger has over 200 publications.  He is the Founding Editor of Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management, a multidisciplinary Elsevier journal.   Dr. Berger is Past-President of the Association for Academic Surgery and the Association of VA Surgeons.   He is a member of the medical honor society Alpha Omega Alpha

Dr. Berger is married to his wife of 38 years Adrianne Saffir-Berger.  David and Adrianne have four children Stephanie, Rachel, Daniella, and Isaac.  He serves on the board of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of New York City and the Association for Academic Surgery Foundation.

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