About Dr. Ugo

We are in the middle of a global pandemic.  The other one.  The one best described simply as one of Health Misinformation.  With the internet we get exposed to viral information continually, but much of the sound bites sweeping across the globe are wrong, at best unhelpful, and at times, outright dangerous.  Dr. Ugo Iroku (@realdoctorugo), a Harvard Medical School trained, NYC based physician and public health expert, has a long-standing passion for combating health misinformation and for raising public health literacy. Demystifying scientific and medical issues through accessible conversations and educational approaches he has engaged community organizations, schools, podcasts and social media outlets including his own Instagram platform.   During the current viral pandemic, he has been sought for this expertise and has been featured on a number of news channels including FOX, NBC, Sirius XM, Dash Radio, Cosmopolitan, Livestrong.com, Rolling Out, and other morning shows and news outlets.

Dr. Ugo is a board-certified gastroenterologist who graduated from Harvard Medical School and then returned to his family home of New York City following 9/11 to serve as an internal medicine resident (Weill Cornell Hospital) and then a gastroenterology fellow (Columbia University). As New York has faced its most recent challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ugo has continued to serve NYC as a specialist in the city’s premiere private practice gastroenterology group, New York Gastroenterology Associates; and also as a voluntary faculty at Mount Sinai Hospital often covering emergency room patients and performing urgent and emergent lifesaving procedures as needed.

Dr. Ugo, a child of Nigerian immigrants and educators, draws from his experience including working in a basic science research laboratory developing novel treatments for HIV; vaccine development research; clinical research in HIV and Hepatitis C treatment; and research in diseases of the immune system including Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis. In addition to his extensive medical and research training, he received a master’s degree in public health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and leadership training at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.