Michael Simoni always knew he would be a doctor.
The Haitian-Italian from South Florida, raised by a single mother, knew his strengths were science and math, he told AFROTECH™. In high school, he received a push from a high school biology teacher to become a tutor, which further solidified his interest in STEM. These topics informed his career pursuit, which he initially envisioned in the fields of psychiatry or brain surgery.
Simoni attended Dartmouth College and earned a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience in 2008, his LinkedIn states. He spent a couple of years working at a hospital in a neurosurgery lab before enrolling at Harvard Medical School. However, Simoni admitted, in conversation with AFROTECH™, that by his third year, he was not content.
“It was just so sad in the hospital all the time. And I was not ready for that…I was a first-generation college student…No one in my family was a doctor. Nobody could tell me what to expect,” Simoni explained.
Despite the challenges, Simoni enjoyed his first rotation in the second year of medical school in the OB/GYN department. It merged his passions for science and math, and gave his the opportunity to operate.
Following his time at Harvard, Simoni completed his OB/GYN residency at the Yale School of Medicine. a reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
“This is considered one of the strongest research-oriented infertility practices in the country,” Simoni told AFROTECH™.
“They’ve been doing research since infertility was a thing way back when, and so the people there, the history there was just awesome. Really got to do some basic science research instead of just clinical research, which was really good,” Simoni continued.
Today, Simoni is a reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey. His responsibilities include evaluating patients with ultrasounds and blood work, performing morning surgeries for egg retrievals, and conducting minor gynecologic procedures such as polyp removals.
He also researches pregnancy loss, miscarriages, and health disparities as they relate to diagnosis, treatment, reproductive care, reproductive immunology, and insurance.
Additionally, Simoni is the vice chair of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s Health Disparities Special Interest Group and a member of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Task Force, according to information shared with AFROTECH™.
AI
As many other industries incorporate AI technologies, Simoni shared that AI agents are used in his practice to communicate with patients, which helps reduce employee burnout while increasing patient satisfaction. Additionally, he told AFROTECH™ that AI is installed in lab cameras to detect what’s happening with the embryos.
“A lot of fertility treatment is pattern recognition. So we can use artificial intelligence to find those patterns because we may not see them because the hormones are going up and down, left and right. So we can use artificial intelligence to kind of corral all that to make our jobs easier,” Simoni mentioned.
AFROTECH™ Conference
Simoni will be a speaker at the 2025 AFROTECH™ Conference. His session will be held on Oct. 30, from 2:45–3:15 p.m., in the Discovery Stage, Room 320
If you would like to attend this year’s conference, which will return to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX, from Oct. 27-31, you can check out the full conference schedule and secure your ticket.
