Professional Interests

Viraj Patel, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, is a clinician-investigator in the Division of General Internal Medicine and on faculty in the Primary Care/Social Internal Medicine residency program. His research centers around innovative community engaged approaches to HIV prevention with sexual minority men and gender minority communities in the U.S., India, and Rwanda. His current research focuses on developing and testing technology based behavioral interventions (e.g., social media and mobile apps) to reach and engage underserved communities, as well as leveraging online social networks to improve health outcomes. He also is focused on implementation and scale-up of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for preventing HIV in clinical and community settings.

As Co-Director of the Montefiore Prevention Program, Dr. Patel oversees PrEP implementation across Montefiore's primary care health centers and directs community outreach efforts for  linkage to primary care for LGBTQ+ communities. He is also core-member of Montefiore's Transgender Health Working Group and Einstein's Global Health Center..  Dr. Patel directs the resident scholarly projects in the Primary Care/Social Internal Medicine residency program and teaches medical students and residents on the care of gender and sexual minority populations.

Dr. Patel has been engaged in community based initiatives and serves in an advisory capacity for non-governmental organizations that works to promote the health and human rights of gender and sexual minority communities in India, and has served on various civic committees related to improving the health of LGBTQ+ communities in New York City. 

Dr. Patel received his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina and completed his residency training at Montefiore in the Primary Care/Social Internal Medicine program. He then completed a clinical and public health research fellowship in the and obtained a Master’s in Public Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine focusing on community-based participatory research. His work is supported by grants from the NIH, CDC, HRSA, and NY State Department of Health.

Selected Publications

Updated List of Peer Reviewed Publications: 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/viraj.patel.1/bibliography/public/

Patel VV, Ginsburg Z, Golub SA, Horvath KJ, Rios N, Mayer KH, Kim RS, Arnsten JH. Empowering With PrEP (E-PrEP), a Peer-Led Social Media-Based Intervention to Facilitate HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis Adoption Among Young Black and Latinx Gay  and Bisexual Men: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR research protocols. 2018; 7(8):e11375.

Patel VV, Dange A, Rawat S, Arnsten JH, Piña C, Golub SA, Pujari R, Trivedi A, Harrison-Quintana J, Mayer KH. Barriers to HIV Testing Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in India Reached Online: Implications for Interventions. Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes. 2018; 78(4):e30-e34.

Lankowski AJ, Bien-Gund CH, Patel VV, Felsen UR, Silvera R, Blackstock OJ. PrEP in the Real World: Predictors of 6-Month Retention in a Diverse Urban Cohort. AIDS and behavior. 2019; 23(7):1797-1802.

Adedimeji A, Sinayobye JD, Asiimwe-Kateera B, Chaudhry J, Buzinge L, Gitembagara  A, Murenzi G, Mugenzi P, Patel VV, Castle PE, Mutesa L, Palefsky J, Anastos KM. Social contexts as mediator of risk behaviors in Rwandan men who have sex with men (MSM): Implications for HIV and STI transmission. PloS one. 2019; 14(1):e0211099.

Hassan I, Mansour M, Narayan L, Browder C, Patel VV, LeFrancois D, Shapiro L. Addressing social determinants of health in an ambulatory setting: quasi-experimental controlled study of a curricular intervention for residents. Journal of general internal medicine. 2018; 33(7):996-998.

Hannaford A, Lipshie-Williams M, Starrels JL, Arnsten JH, Rizzuto J, Cohen P, Jacobs D, Patel VV. The Use of Online Posts to Identify Barriers to and Facilitators of HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Among Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Comparison to a Systematic Review of the Peer-Reviewed Literature. AIDS and behavior. 2018; 22(4):1080-1095.

Piña C, Dange A, Rawat S, Jadhav U, Arnsten JH, Chhabra R, Patel VV. Antiretroviral Treatment Uptake and Adherence Among Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender Women With HIV in Mumbai, India: A Cross-Sectional Study. The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care : JANAC. 2018; 29(2):310-316.

Hill BS, Patel VV, Haughton LJ, Blackstock OJ. Leveraging Social Media to Explore Black Women's Perspectives on HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis. The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care : JANAC. 2018; 29(1):107-114. Blackstock OJ, Patel VV, Felsen U, Park C, Jain S. Pre-exposure prophylaxis prescribing and retention in care among heterosexual women at a community-based comprehensive sexual health clinic. AIDS care. 2017; 29(7):866-869.

Bien CH, Patel VV, Blackstock OJ, Felsen UR. Reaching Key Populations: PrEP Uptake in an Urban Health Care System in the Bronx, New York. AIDS and behavior.  2017; 21(5):1309-1314.

Banik S, Patel V. HIV vulnerability among South Asians in the United States. in Health of South Asians in the United States: An Evidence-based Guide for Policy and Program Development. Chicago: Routledge; 2017. [book chapter]

Blackstock OJ, Moore BA, Berkenblit GV, Calabrese SK, Cunningham CO, Fiellin DA, Patel VV, Phillips KA, Tetrault JM, Shah M, Edelman EJ. A Cross-Sectional Online Survey of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Adoption Among Primary Care Physicians. Journal of general internal medicine. 2017; 32(1):62-70.

Gupta S, Lounsbury DW, Patel VV. Low Awareness and Use of Preexposure Prophylaxis in a Diverse Online Sample of Men Who Have Sex With Men in New York City. The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care : JANAC. 2017; 28(1):27-33.

Patel VV, Masyukova M, Sutton D, Horvath KJ. Social Media Use and HIV-Related Risk Behaviors in Young Black and Latino Gay and Bi Men and Transgender Individuals in New York City: Implications for Online Interventions. Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine. 2016; 93(2):388-99.

Blackstock OJ, Patel VV, Cunningham CO. Use of Technology for HIV Prevention Among Adolescent and Adult Women in the United States. Current HIV/AIDS reports. 2015; 12(4):489-99.

Karasz A, Raghavan S, Patel V, Zaman M, Akhter L, Kabita M. ASHA: Using Participatory Methods to Develop an Asset-building Mental Health Intervention for Bangladeshi Immigrant Women. Progress in community health partnerships: research, education, and action. 2015; 9(4):501-12.

Karasz A, Patel V, Kabita M, Shimu P. "Tension" in South Asian women: developing a measure of common mental disorder using participatory methods. Progress in community health partnerships : research, education, and action. 2013;7(4):429-41.

Patel VV, Mayer KH, Makadon HJ. Men who have sex with men in India: a diverse population in need of medical attention. The Indian journal of medical research. 2012; 136(4):563-70.

Patel VV, Rajpathak S, Karasz A. Bangladeshi immigrants in New York City: a community based health needs assessment of a hard to reach population. Journal of immigrant and minority health. 2012; 14(5):767-73.