Michael M
- Research Program Mentor

MD at New York University

Expertise

Increasing Value in Healthcare, Health Innovation, Public Speaking, Medicine, Health Disparities, Molecular Biology

Bio

Dr. Michael J Martinez is a firm believer that nurturing a student’s academic potential involves a continual commitment to learning, especially outside the classroom. That’s why he strives to help students grow their passion projects from pipe dreams into tangible, successful endeavors. As a current resident physician in Internal Medicine and Dermatology at Harvard, his ability to intersect Finance and Healthcare both in and outside of the classroom started long ago. He graduated with two BS degrees in Finance and Biology and a minor in Economics Summa Cum Laude at the University of Illinois at Chicago on a full cost of attendance scholarship. While at UIC, he became a nationally recognized competitive public speaker and started UIC’s first ever Speech and Debate team. After pitching his business proposal to the Provost, the UIC Speech team was institutionalized and awarded yearly funding for staffing, travel, and recruitment. In 2018, the two-year old program ranked amongst the top 10 teams at nationals. He then completed his medical degree (MD) at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where his research focused on intersecting finance and healthcare to improve the delivery of medicine. Dr. Martinez has published in the nation's top journals, including his work on inspiring innovation in healthcare centers, which was published in JAMA Network Open. As Dr. Martinez continues to develop his craft and work for his patients, his research specializes in developing novel ways to maximize value in healthcare by reducing costs, improving efficiency, and eliminating waste. Naturally, he also continues to mentor students across many fields and areas of interest, sharing his experiences and breadth of knowledge to nurture their passions while creating long-lasting and impactful projects.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

What Drives Healthcare Innovation?

The intersection between AI, technology, big data, and medicine draws increasing attention amongst health care leaders. With massive advancements in health data for prophylactic management, telemedicine, and robotic surgeries, healthcare innovation centers are in high demand. Housed in either private industry or academic research universities, healthcare innovation centers drive cross-sector collaboration to advance the art and science of medicine; however, not all innovation centers succeed. In this project, you will interview healthcare leaders from innovation centers across the country, uncovering which factors drive centers to successful innovation and which factors leave centers unable to change the status quo.

Patient Reported Motivations for Elective Cosmetic Surgery

The desire to undergo elective cosmetic surgeries is rising exponentially. Botox, fillers, sculpting, and augmentation have attracted mass media attention, dominating the entertainment landscape. Underlying the desire for these procedures are a breadth of motives: gaining an advantage at work, increasing confidence, and feeling more like one's authentic self. Elective cosmetic surgeries are a new, lucrative source of revenue for health centers, but they pose an enormous cost to patients. In this project, you will contribute to important literature which uncovers why people are willing to spend so much money on enhancing their bodies.

Languages I know

Spanish

Teaching experience

Though I tutored my first student in middle school, I first fell in love with mentoring while working as a coordinator of Peer Health Exchange, a non-profit where college students teach, advise, and mentor Chicago Public School 9th graders about living healthy lives. Since then, I have continued to tutor and mentor high school students, helping them showcase their talents and maximize their success on their undergraduate college applications. For the past 2 years, I’ve also grown my practice to advise undergraduate students on their medical school applications. In addition to helping them craft the final products in their last year, I also work with students earlier in their undergraduate careers to shape their paths and interests while building them into competitive candidates for admission into the nation's top medical schools, such as Harvard Medical School, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.