Damara Gutnick, M.D.

Dr. Gutnick is a change agent passionate about providing culturally competent, high-quality, patient-centered care delivered in a way that addresses what matters most to each patient. She has championed the international spread of the “What Matters to You?” (WMTY) movement to over 30 healthcare organizations in New York's Hudson Valley and the Bronx.  (https://theberylinstitute.org/wmty/)

As Senior Director in the Montefiore Medical Center’s Office of Community and Population Health, Dr. Gutnick is ardent about using co-design processes to incorporate the patient and community voice into health care delivery redesign, and leads, and researches community engagement efforts. She developed the Bridging Research, Accurate Information and Dialogue (BRAID) model, and adopted it to build trust in science and vaccine confidence in the Bronx. (www.BRAIDers.org)

Dr. Gutnick is the Associate Director of the Community Collaborative Core of the Albert Einstein Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and co-leads the Community Engagement Collaborative.  She is also a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), a certified PROSCITM Change Management Professional, a past President of the Westchester Board of the American Heart Association and the cochair of the AHA’s Community Impact Committee. She also completed the GNYHA and UHF Clinical Quality Fellowship.

An internist by training, Dr. Gutnick formerly served as the Medical Director or the Montefiore Hudson Valley Collaborative; one of 25 Performing Provider Systems in the New York State Delivery System Redesign Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program. In that role she guided health system and practice transformation efforts to support the transition toward Value Based Payment and also managed a diverse portfolio of innovative projects focused on improving health equity. Dr. Gutnick collaborates with multiple diverse medical and social care partners to improve the quality-of-care delivery, expand access to care, reduce costs and health disparities, address the social determinant of health needs of the population, integrate behavioral health into primary care, and improve patient and staff experience. 

1. Gutnick DN, Reims K, Davis C, Gainforth H, Jay M, Cole S. Brief Action Planning to Facilitate Behavior Change and SupportPatient Self-Management. J Clin Outcomes Management. Vol 21(1):17-29 January 2014
2. Gerchow L, Squires A, Tagliaferro B, Nicholson J, Savarimuthu S, Gutnick DN, Jay M. Latina Food Patterns in the UnitedStates: A Qualitative Metasynthesis. Nursing Research. May/June 2014 - Volume 63 - Issue 3 - p 182-193
3. Jay M, Gutnick D, Squires A, Tagliaferro B, Gerchow L, Savarimuthu S, Chintapalli S, Shedlin MG, Kalet A. In our country tortilla doesn't make us fat: cultural factors influencing lifestyle goal-setting for overweight and obese Urban, Latina patients. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2014 Nov;25(4):1603-22. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2014.0165. PubMed PMID: 25418230; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8325933.
4. Houlihan BV, Everhart-Skeels S, Gutnick D, Pernigotti D, Zazula J, Brody M, Burnett S, Mercier H, Hasiotis S, Green C, Seetharama S, Belliveau T, Rosenblum D, Jette A. Empowering Adults With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury to Prevent Secondary Conditions. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2016 Oct;97(10):1687-1695.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2016.04.005. Epub 2016 Apr 30. PubMed PMID: 27143581.
5. Christianson A, Lowry K, Ryan R, Asche C, Gutnick DN, Ariza A. Pediatric Obesity Prevention in Primary Care: EmployingBrief Action Planning with Obesogenic Behavior Screening. Pediatrics 137(Supplement 3):113A February 2016
6. Gutnick DN, Siegal C, Laska E, Wanderling J, Cogen Wagner E, Haugland G, Conlon M. Making the Cut: Depression Screening in Urban General Hospital Clinics for Culturally Diverse Latino Populations. General Hospital Psychiatry. February 2017
7. Staines A, Coelho V, Gutnick DN, Mattelet A, Louiset M. “What matters to you?” A question to facilitate partnerships with patients and families.« Qu'est-ce qui est im port ant pour vous ? » Amorcer le partenariat avec le patient et ses proches. Risques & Qualite 2020;(17)3;137-142
8. The Healing Communities Study Consortium. The HEALing (Helping to End Addiction Long-term SM) Communities Study: Protocol for a cluster randomized trial at the community level to reduce opioid overdose deaths through implementation of an integrated set of evidence-based practices. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2020 Dec 1;217:108335. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108335. Epub 2020 Oct 17. PubMed PMID: 33248391; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7568493.
9. El-Bassel N, Gilbert L, Hunt T, Wu E, Oga EA, Mukherjee TI, Campbell ANC, Sabounchi N, Gutnick D, Kerner R, Venner KL, Lounsbury D, Huang TTK, Rapkin B. Using community engagement to implement evidence-based practices for opioid use disorder: A data-driven paradigm & systems science approach.Drug Alcohol Depend. 2021 May 1;222:108675. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108675. Epub 2021 Mar 18. PubMed PMID: 33757707; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8058324.
10. Wittleder S, Smith S, Wang B, Beasley JM, Orstad SL, Sweat V, Squires A, Wong L, Fang Y, Doebrich P, Gutnick D, Tenner C, Sherman SE, Jay M. Peer-Assisted Lifestyle (PAL) intervention: a protocol of a cluster-randomised controlled trial of a health-coaching intervention delivered by veteran peers to improve obesity treatment in primary care. BMJ Open. 2021 Feb 26;11(2):e043013. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043013. PubMed PMID: 33637544; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7919589.
11. Telzak A, Chambers EC, Gutnick D, Flattau A, Chaya J, McAuliff K, Rapkin B. Health Care Worker Burnout and Perceived Capacity to Address Social Needs. Popul Health Manag. 2022 Jun;25(3):352-361. doi: 10.1089/pop.2021.0175. Epub 2021 Oct 8. PMID: 34637633; PMCID: PMC9232233.
12. Chatterjee A, Glasgow L, Bullard M, Sabir M, Hamilton G, Chassler D, Stevens-Watkins DJ, Goddard-Eckrich D, Rodgers E, Chaya J, Rodriguez S, Gutnick DN, Oga EA, Salsberry P, Martinez LS. Placing Racial Equity at the Center of Substance Use Research: Lessons from the HEALing Communities Study. Am J Public Health. 2022 Feb;112(2):204-208. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306572. PubMed PMID: 35080947; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8802575
13. Stephenson-Hunter C. Yusuf Y, Larson R, Campanella J. Gutnick DN.  ​​“What Matters to Us”: Bridging Research and Accurate Information through Dialogue (BRAID) to Build Community Trust and Cultivate Vaccine Confidence. Preventive Medicine Reports. 2023 Aug;34:102253. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102253. PMID: 37252070; PMCID: PMC10199752.
14. Gutnick DN, Stephenson-Hunter C, Spurell-Huss E, Byrene-Zaaloff, Shuman S, Rapkin B. Bridging Research, Accurate Information and Dialogue (BRAID): A novel strategy to build community trust.  Accepted to Progress in Community Health Partnerships May 30, 2023 https://preprint.press.jhu.edu/pchp/preprints/bridging-research-accurate-information-and-dialogue-braid-novel-strategy-build-community 
15. Gutnick DN, Lozano P, Rodriguez-Martinez S, Wang KW, Williams D, Rapkin B, Gonzalez-Lepage N.Research protocol for bridging research, accurate information and dialogue (BRAID)—clinical trials: a mixed-methods study of a community-based intervention to improve trust and diversify participation in clinical trials.  Frontiers in Public Health. 2024
16. Gutnick DN, Lutz C, Mani K, Weldon C, Trosman J, Rapkin B, Jinnett K, Kaur S Jariwala S.  Right Information, Right Care, Right Patient, Right Time: Empowering community members with 4R self-management tools during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Applied Clinical Informatics October 2024
17. Ivantechenko M, and Akhter S, Gutnick, DN. Empowering Trusted Messengers with Communication Skills Training: A Practical Approach for Disseminating Accurate Public Health Messaging. Community Health Equity Research Partnerships (CHERP) November 2024
18. Gutnick D and McNeilly S. Motivational Interviewing is “Doing” What Matters: Integrating Motivational Interviewing Spirit and Skills into What Matters to You? Conversations. Journal of Patient Experience February 2025
19. McNeilly SM, Wang KW, Jacobs SJ, Yone NS, Williams DE, Rapkin BD, Gutnick DN. Toward a Learning Health Care Community in The Bronx: Evaluating the Bridging Research, Accurate Information, and Dialogue (BRAID) ModelBMC Health Research Policy and Systems. February 2025
20. Bell B, Hill S, Olivera J. Fong V, Schumacher M, Friedman-DeLuca, Cheung T, Jain C, Niderberg, T, Sinclair T,  Gutnick DN, Oki O, Stephenson-Hunter C. Understanding vaccine disparities in the Bronx, NY through a mixed methods analysis of community and provider perspectives. AJPM Focus. May 20205 doi.org/10.1016/j.focus.2025.100373.
21. Miller Sonet E, Tao A, Rapkin Gutnick DN "When ‘Doing it’ Matters to Patients”: Development and Evaluation of a Novel Aid to Identify Patients’ Personal Concerns that Bear on Cancer Treatment Decisions Cancer Medicine August 2025
22. Gonzalez N. Ivantechenko M, Perez A, Breslow A., Gutnick, D. “They don’t know me except that I’m crazy” Psychiatric patients’ perceptions of research and stigma. Accepted to Psychiatric Services January 2026.