Our Faculty

Bio

Administrator Info
Mail: Institute for Health Informatics
420 Delaware St. SE
MMC 912
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Colleen Doyle
Email: doyl0050@umn.edu

Summary
Dr. Aylward went to New York University School of Medicine and then completed his internal medicine and pediatric residency training at the University of Minnesota. He spent a year as chief resident at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System where he oversaw residents and ran teaching conferences. He currently is the Program Director for the Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency program. His academic interests include the practical application of technology to patient care, medical education, advocacy, and writing.

Clinical Summary

• Treatment of opioid use disorder, medical education, advocacy, health equity, and racial justice
• Medical Education
• Community Health
• Quality and Process Improvement
• Medical Informatics

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Colleen Doyle
Email: doyl0050@umn.edu

Summary
Dr. Barnes is an associate professor and licensed clinical psychologist specializing in eating and weight disorders. Her programmatic line of research focuses on designing and testing the dissemination of specialty care weight-loss and eating disorders treatments into primary care, including nutrition counseling, motivational interviewing (MI), and cognitive-behavioral therapy, and interrelated studies examining individuals struggling with overweight/obesity, disordered eating, and related sequelae such as body image, metabolic syndrome, mood and anxiety, and weight loss surgery. Prior to her current appointment, she was an associate research scientist with the Program for Obesity, Weight, and Eating Research at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Barnes provides outpatient clinical services to the Primary Care Clinic, the Multidisciplinary Weight Management team, and inpatient consultation on medical units at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. She has served as a peer-reviewer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and numerous journals.

Research Summary

• overweight
• obesity
• binge-eating disorder
• loss of control eating following weight loss surgery
• metabolic syndrome
• body image

Teaching Summary

• General Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology

Clinical Summary

• overweight
• obesity
• binge-eating disorder
• loss of control eating following weight loss surgery
• metabolic syndrome
• body image
• anxiety
• weight loss surgery assessment

Bio

Administrator Info

Name: Shannon Sawyer
Phone: 612-625-9995
Email: sawy0076@umn.edu

Dr. Benson currently serves as Chief Academic Officer for the MHealth-FV Academic Health System reporting to the Dean of the Medical School. He is a graduate of the Vanderbilt University Medical School and is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He completed training in Med-Peds here at the University of Minnesota and subsequently served as Residency Program Director of his former program for the 10 years spanning 2002-2012. During that time he led the national Med-Peds Program Directors' Association as its President from 2008-9. Dr. Benson served as the Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine from 2009 to 2018, during which time the Division grew from 25 to 60 faculty members with major expansion of the research and scholarship portfolio. Additionally, in 2011, he started the Hospital Medicine Program and served as the Executive Medical Director here until 2018. Dr. Benson's interests include Hospital Medicine; Primary Care for adults and children; care of adolescent and adult survivors of childhood cancer; and Milestone based competency assessment across the continuum of medical education; and integration of clinical research into a Learning Health System framework.

Creative Activity Summary

Community Engagement
1. Advisor for Leadership Strike Team and Volunteer Physician, Medical Reserve Corps, University of Minnesota
a. MN Lifeline – Katrina Deployment Wave 1 – 2005
b. 1-35 Bridge Collapse Response – 2007
c. Large Regional Full-Scale Exercise - test response capabilities following a structural collapse in downtown Minneapolis - 2013
2. Volunteer Preceptor, Phillips Neighborhood Clinic, Minneapolis, MN.
a. Precepted at student run clinic
b. About every 2-3 months between 2002-2009
3. Volunteer Disaster Relief Physician
a. Haiti Earthquake, 2010

Clinical Summary

Primary Care; Long-Term Follow-up Care After Childhood Cancer; Hospital Medicine; Evidence-Based Medicine; Medicine on the Internet

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Colleen Doyle
Email: doyl0050@umn.edu

Summary
I’ve been working for the past 6 years at the Fairview Wyoming clinic in primary care and as the pulmonary rehab program medical director. My special clinical interests include hormone therapy for transgender and nonbinary patients, pharmacogenetic testing mostly for psychiatric medications, and medical cannabis certification. Before medical school, I went to graduate school for genetics, which remains an area of research interest for me. I haven’t been too involved in research while working in community practice, but I did participate in a clinical study looking at pharmacogenetics of hypertension medications. I’ve precepted a handful of medical and NP students in clinic over the past few years, and I look forward to getting more involved in teaching in my new position.

Teaching Summary

Expanding education on care of transgender patients

Clinical Summary

Care of LGBT patients; Women’s Health

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Colleen Doyle
Email: doyl0050@umn.edu
Mail: 420 Delaware Street SE, MMC 603, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Jill Charles
Phone: 612-624-0468
Email: jcharles@umn.edu

Summary
Dr. Bramante's research focuses on remotely delivered interventions to improve health in children and adults with overweight and obesity. This research includes remotely delivered clinical trials that assess interventions that may prevent severe COVID-19 and Long-COVID (covidout.umn.edu). Dr. Bramante also researches ways to assist daily health management at home, such as weight management interventions for children and adults seeking obesity treatment. Dr. Bramante sees patients in the comprehensive pediatric and adult weight management clinics. The M Health Fairview Comprehensive Weight Management Clinic treats each patient individually, acknowledging that obesity and weight loss are very complicated. Both clinics offer medication management, which is often indicated to address dysregulated pathways in the energy-regulatory systems that lead to excess weight so that lifestyle changes can be effective.

Teaching Summary

Medical student and resident teaching

Clinical Summary

Obesity Treatment and prevention; Anti-obesity pharmacotherapy