Robert Smith, MD

Jenny X. Chen is an expert in the treatment of ear conditions including hearing loss, vertigo, vestibular schwannomas (acoustic neuromas), cholesteatomas, cerebrospinal fluid leaks and eardrum perforations. She is trained in minimally invasive, endoscopic surgical approaches to treating the ear and performs surgeries including cochlear implants, bone-anchored hearing aids and stapedectomy. She treats patients of all ages. Dr. Chen earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed residency training in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and advanced fellowship training in otology/neurotology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Chen’s research interests are in surgical education, competency-based medical education, as well as health equity for patients with hearing loss. She is the co-director of undergraduate medical education for the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. C. John Sperati is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His areas of clinical expertise include renal medicine. Dr. Sperati is Director of the Glomerular Diseases Fellowship Program since 2023 and formerly directed the Nephrology Fellowship Training Program from 2019 - 2025. He was the long-serving Firm Faculty Leader of the Barker Firm and has held leadership positions within the Osler Medical Residency training program. In addition, he co-directs the Johns Hopkins Osler Learning Initiative which brings the principles of medical residency training to executive education worldwide. He obtained his medical degree from The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and a Master in Health Science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by a year as an Assistant Chief of Service (chief resident). He subsequently pursued subspecialty training in nephrology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and joined the faculty in the Division of Nephrology. Dr. Sperati’s clinical interests are in thrombotic microangiopathy including atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), complement-mediated kidney diseases including C3 glomerulopathy, glomerular disease such as glomerulonephritis (e.g., IgA nephropathy, MPGN) and nephrotic syndromes (e.g., FSGS, membranous, minimal change, amyloidosis, and others), and secondary and resistant hypertension (e.g., fibromuscular dysplasia, atherosclerotic renal arterial disease, hyperaldosteronism, and genetic hypertensive syndromes). He is the site principal investigator for clinical trials in glomerular disease, serves on editorial boards, and chairs the approval committee of the Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment for nephrology for the American Board of Internal Medicine. His clinical acumen and educational contributions have been recognized by induction into the Miller Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence as well as the American Society of Nephrology Distinguished Educator Award in 2020. He has been recognized as a physician resource through the Atypical HUS Foundation, a NephCure glomerular disease specialist, an IgA Nephropathy Foundation specialist, and a Baltimore TopDoc. He is registered with the Florida Department of Health to perform telehealth services for patients in Florida.

Head and neck endocrine surgeon Kaitlyn Frazier specializes in the treatment of benign and malignant diseases of the thyroid and parathyroid glands. Her treatment philosophy is to partner with patients to find the right treatment option for each individual. She offers patients a range of surgical options, including traditional open surgeries as well as transoral or “scarless” thyroid surgery and nonsurgical ablation of thyroid nodules. She also treats advanced thyroid cancers as part of a multidisciplinary team that includes endocrinologists, airway surgeons, head and neck reconstructive surgeons, and speech-language pathologists. Her practice locations are in Baltimore and the greater Washington, D.C., metro area. After she earned her medical degree from the Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. Frazier completed her residency training in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she remained for advanced fellowship training in head and neck endocrine surgery. Prior to her clinical training, Dr. Frazier studied biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology before spending several years in management consulting at Bain & Company with a focus on organizational strategy/design and market research. Dr. Frazier’s research interests include clinical and quality of life outcomes for radiofrequency and microwave ablation of benign thyroid nodules, radiofrequency ablation of thyroid microcarcinomas, remote access surgery and advanced therapies for thyroid cancer. She also draws upon her consulting background with the use of analytics to inform parameters for clinical best practices and guidelines, as well as for quality and safety initiatives, including leading a multidisciplinary hospital-wide risk assessment on clinical communications tools. She is the principal investigator of several clinical trials studying the efficacy of new technologies to aid in treatment of thyroid and parathyroid disorders. As a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty member, she is an engaged teacher in the residency program, where she instructs residents on the fundamentals of thyroid and parathyroid surgery. She mentors both medical and undergraduate students, and is an annual medical school lecturer on clinical applications of head and neck anatomy. She is a member of the American Thyroid Association, the Endocrine Surgery Section of the American Head and Neck Society, the North American Society for Interventional Thyroidology, and the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery.