Dr. Joaquin Barnoya received his medical degree from San Carlos University of Guatemala and his Master in Pubic Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. He then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Nutrition of the Harvard School of Public Health. After fellowship, Dr. Barnoya moved to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), as a Legacy Foundation fellow on Tobacco Control at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. His work focused on the tobacco industry in Latin America and reviewing secondhand smoke and the cardiovascular system which was selected by the American Heart Association as one of the Top 10 scientific advances of 2005. Currently Dr. Barnoya is Director of Research at the Cardiovascular Unit (UNICAR) of Guatemala, Associate Researcher at Landivar University and Research Director at Integra Cancer Institute in Guatemala. His current research is focuses on electronic and capsule cigarettes and, together with faculty and students at the Colorado School of Public Health, to underst the causality of chronic kidney disease epidemic in Central America. He has also served as a mentor for medical, anthropology, and nutrition students in Guatemala and the United States.
Education, Licensure & Certifications
- MD, Medicine, San Carlos University School of Medicine, Guatemala City, Guatemala, 1998
- MPH, Family and Community Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 2004
- Postdoctoral Fellow on Tobacco Control, University of California, San Francisco, 2004
Awards
- Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Young Scientist Award, Academy of sciences for the developing world, Guatemala National council of science and technology. [2011]
- “Outstanding Contribution to Tobacco Control”, World Health Organization, 2013.
- Distinguished faculty award Washington University in St. Louis [2016]
Affiliations
- Research Director, Unidad de Cirugia Cardiovascular de Guatemala and Integra Cancer Institute, Guatemala
- Associate Researcher, Universidad Rafael Landivar, Guatemala
- BMJ Journal "Tobacco Control", Senior Editor
- British Medical Journal Latin America Advisory Board, Member
Research Interest
- Chronic disease prevention
- global health capacity building
- Obesity prev
- Tobacco
Research
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, "Air pollutants, heat exposure, and kidney health: A longitudinal study in women in Central America" 04/01/2023-01/31/2028 Role: Consultant
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "Particulate exposure and kidney health" 03/01/21-2/28/26, Role: Consultant
- UKRI Medical Research Council, "Removing the marketing power of cigarettes: A multi-method study aimed at protecting the health of adolescents in Latin America." 01/09/2022 – 30/08/2025, Role: Co-Investigator
Publications and Presentations
- Butler-Dawson J, Barnoya J, Brindley S, Krisher L, Fan W, Asensio C, et al. Cross-sectional study examining the accuracy of self-reported smoking status as compared to urinary cotinine levels among workers at risk for chronic kidney disease of unknown origin in Guatemala. BMJ Open. 2021 Oct;11(10):e050374
- Reynales-Shigematsu LM, Barnoya J, Cavalcante T, Aburto TC, Romieu I, Stern MC, Barquera S, et. al.. Latin America and the Caribbean Code Against Cancer 1st edition: Tobacco and nicotine-related products, secondhand smoke, and alcohol and cancer. Cancer Epidemiol. 2023 Oct;86 Suppl 1:102413. doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2023.102413. Epub 2023 Oct 16. PMID: 37852726.
- Vidaña-Pérez D, Mus S, Monzón J, Dávila G, Fahsen N, Barnoya J, Thrasher JF. Factors Associated With the Changes in Smoking and Electronic cigarette use in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Analysis. J Adolesc Health. 2024 Jan 10:S1054-139X(23)00980-1. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.11.399
- Moodie C, Thrasher JF, Barnoya J, Mejia R, Barrientos-Gutierrez I, Zavaleta A, Chaloupka F. Tobacco Industry Claims About Transformation are Inconsistent With Combustible Cigarette Innovations: The Case of Flavor Capsule Cigarettes. Nicotine Tob Res. 2023 Nov 22;25(12):1891-1895. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntac224
- Rohloff P, Miller AC, Barnoya J, Montano CM. Indexing Estimates of GFR to Body Surface Area in Low-Resource Settings With a High Burden of Malnutrition: Evidence From Guatemala. Kidney Int Rep. 2022 Apr 11;7(7):1707-1710. doi: 10.1016/j.ekir.2022.04.007
- Monzón J, Islam F, Mus S, Thrasher JF, Barnoya J. Effects of tobacco product type and characteristics on appeal and perceived harm: Results from a discrete choice experiment among Guatemalan adolescents. Prev Med. 2021 Jul;148:106590. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106590.