The funded research for the Health Equity Telehealth COVID-19 Innovation Program was used to train students and faculty on e-learning and telehealth best practices. The two recipients were: Maria Lame, MD and Peggy Bk. Leung, MD.

“Curriculum expansion of telemedicine training through the Center for Virtual Care and patient-centered education”

Maria Lame, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency
Medicine, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Dr. Maria Lame is an assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine and assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.  Dr. Lame is board-certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine and practices pediatric emergency medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.  She earned her medical degree from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, NY and completed her Pediatric residency training at Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx, NY.  Dr. Lame subsequently completed a fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at New York University School of Medicine/Bellevue Hospital Center.

Dr. Lame also plays a key role in both the Department of Emergency Medicine and Weill Cornell Medicine’s many diversity initiatives.  She has served as a mentor for both WCM’s Diversity Center of Excellence Mentorship Cascades Program and Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) pediatric residents.

“Identifying and Outreaching to High-Risk Ambulatory Patients during the COVID-19 Pandemic”

Peggy Bk. Leung, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Division of General Internal Medicine

Project description: Understanding the unmet medical and social needs and fears of complex primary care patients during the COVID-19 pandemic is critical for the provision of comprehensive care as recent studies have shown that adults with chronic conditions and non-COVID-related medical complaints who have avoided medical care and the hospital, are risking deterioration of their health. The primary goal of our cross-sectional study of established patients at an urban primary care practice is to determine the prevalence of and address in real time medical needs and structural vulnerabilities among our high-risk primary care patients during COVID-19.

Dr. Peggy Leung is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. She completed her Primary Care-Internal Medicine residency and served as the Ambulatory Chief Resident at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/ Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is currently a Co-Director of the Primary Care Internal Medicine residency track and an Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine residency program. Her interests lie in community medicine and medical education which also melds well with her other current roles as a primary care physician and the Site Director for the Long Island City Health Center (a Federally Qualified Health Center and a resident primary care practice site).

For more information, email dcoe@med.cornell.edu.