Internal Medicine Residency

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The size of the Garnet Health Residency Program provides a unique opportunity for a tailored educational plan to meet your individual needs. Our goal is for you to maximize your strengths and work on areas of improvement.

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Internal Medicine Residency

ACGME Initial Accredited program

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine Partnership

Tailored Educational Plan

Stipends

Medical, Dental, Vision Plans

Malpractice Insurance

Apply with ERAS®

Internal Medicine Residency Program

Thank you for your interest in Garnet Health Medical Center’s Internal Medicine Residency Program.

Garnet Health Medical Center boasts seven floors of state-of-the-art technology and provides 383 beds and employs over 2,400 healthcare professionals. More than 600 doctors have privileges at the hospital and treat thousands of area families, friends and neighbors. We are a Heart (STEMI) Center and a Stroke Center. We utilize EPIC for our electronic health record system. The Internal Medicine Residency Program was granted ACGME Initial Accreditation status in 2018 and received Continued Accreditation status in 2021.

Our medium size residency program (30 residents) at Garnet Health provides a unique opportunity for a tailored educational plan to meet your individual needs. The faculty, curriculum, resources, diverse patient population, and close partnership with Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Middletown provides an ideal environment for residency training. Our goal is for you to maximize your strengths and work on areas of improvement.

Our residents are committed to improving the healthcare of our community just as we are committed to training excellent physicians and fostering their success.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to train the next generation of physicians to provide compassionate, evidence-based, high-quality patient care to the community in the Mid-Hudson region. We are committed to fostering a culture of clinical excellence and professionalism in a supportive, diverse, and collegial atmosphere that promotes life-long learning as well as personal and professional well-being.

Program Aims

Provide an intensive educational environment with a diversity of clinical settings to promote professionalism, progressive responsibility, graduated autonomy, and team-based collaborative care.
Cultivate a collaborative academic environment that emphasizes clinical skills, scholarly activity, and intellectual pursuit.
Respond to the dynamic healthcare needs of patients and society across all cultural and socioeconomic boundaries in our community.
Maintain a culture of wellness where resident support, camaraderie, and mentorship are top priorities.

For More Information & To Apply

Thank you for your consideration of our Internal Residency Program! Please explore our site for more information about our program - from our didactic schedule, resident benefits, and frequently asked questions.

If you have additional questions about the program, please contact:

Johanna Toledo-Tyson
Internal Medicine Residency Coordinator
845-333-1756
IMResidency@garnethealth.org

Applications to Garnet Health Medical Center’s Residency Programs will only be accepted through ERAS, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Electronic Residency Application Service.

Explore Our Residency Program

Applying to our Program

Thank you for your interest in our Internal Medicine Residency Program. The application process is conducted exclusively through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Please visit the ERAS site to apply.

All interviews for the 2023-2024 interview season (residency starting July 2024) will be conducted virtually and held from October through January.

Application Information

We do not set minimum score requirements and we evaluate each application individually, however passage of USMLE Steps 1 & 2 and/or COMLEX Levels 1 & 2 on the first attempt is preferred.
The program’s general cut-off date from graduation of medical school to application to residency is 3 years - Applications received from recent medical school graduates will be considered first.
Minimum of two Letters of Recommendation are required.
- At least one LOR from an internal medicine faculty member strongly suggested.
- A department of Medicine Summary Letter of Evaluation is also suggested.
U.S. experience required. (For international medical graduates, 6 months of U.S. clinical experience working directly with patients is required.)
We do NOT currently sponsor visas (H-1 or J-1).
We do NOT offer observerships or externships.

Didactics & Conferences

The Internal Medicine Residency Program offers a robust conference series covering acute care, primary care, board review, and evidence-based medicine, including:

Educational Resources:

MKSAP - The program purchases a digital MKSAP subscription for all residents during their PGY-1 year.
UWorld - The program purchases UWorld for all PGY 3 residents for board preparation.
John Hopkins Physician education and Assessment Center (PEAC) Ambulatory modules - Online modules from this nationally recognized resource are utilized during ambulatory months and for the continuity clinic curriculum.
Annual In-Training Exam - All residents take the ACP In-Training Exam (ITE) every year as an opportunity to simulate a board exam and track test-taking skill and acquisition of medical knowledge.
Intern Ambulatory QI curriculum – Introduction to Quality Improvement with IHI Open School modules.

Simulation Lab:

The hospital has a state-of-the-art SIM Lab where IM residents practice management of mock codes, mock rapid responses, and other emergencies they may encounter in the inpatient setting as part of the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT).

Curriculum

The program follows a 3+1 rotation format. 1 week of ambulatory clinic rotation is followed by 3 weeks of other rotations (ICU, inpatient floors, night medicine, electives etc.) During these 3 weeks, while the rotations may vary, resident will not attend clinic. This provides for a separation between the inpatient and outpatient experiences, thus enhancing the education in both settings and permitting the residents to focus on the task at hand.

Curriculum
Rotation	PGY-1	PGY-2	PGY-3
Inpatient Medicine	14	10	6
Day Medical Admitting Team (DMAT)	4	2	2
Night Medicine	4	4	4
Intensive Care Unit (ICU)	6	8	8
Ambulatory	14	14	14
Cardiology	2	0	0
Geriatrics	0	0	4
Neurology	0	2	0
Hospice and Palliative Care	2	0	0
Emergency Medicine	0	0	2
Electives **	2	8	8
Vacation	4	4	4
Total	52	52	52

* Inpatient medicine includes 2 week Rural Medicine experience at our Catskills campus and 2 week Graduated Responsibility in Resident Training (GRIT) experience.

* *Subspecialty electives are in blocks of 2-4 weeks duration

Resident Benefits

Stipends

You will be offered the following stipends:

PGY-1:
- $750 educational/exam stipend
- $1500 food stipend
- 2 lab coats
PGY-2:
- $750 educational/exam stipend
- $1500 food stipend
- 1 lab coat
PGY-3:
- $1500 educational/exam stipend
- $1500 food stipend
- 1 lab coat

Other

Medical, Dental, Vision Plans
Malpractice Insurance
iPads are given to all new Residents

Yearly Salary:

PGY-1: $62,885
PGY-2: $65,086
PGY-3: $76,545

Internal Medicine Graduates

GHMC Fellowship Match List

Hospice and Palliative Care - Nuvance Health (2023)
Rheumatology - Wake Forest University (2023)
Critical Care - Cooper University Hospital (2022)
Palliative Care - Yale University (2022)
Sleep Medicine - SUNY University at Buffalo (2022)
Endocrinology - Lehigh Valley Health Network (2021)
Gastroenterology – Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital (2021)
Infectious Disease - Mount Sinai (2021)
Nephrology/Critical Care - Westchester Medical Center (2021)
Cardiology – Deborah Heart and Lung Center (2020)
Endocrinology - Lehigh Valley Health Network (2020)
Gastroenterology – Kent Hospital (2020)
Palliative Care - Advent Health (2020)
Clinical Informatics - Geisinger Health System (2019)
Gastroenterology – Hackensack UMC Palisades (2019)
Pulmonary/Critical Care– Westchester Medical Center (2019)

Residency Retention

We aim to create a working environment that promotes a sense of community and joint purpose. We take great care and pride in training our residents to be great physicians with the goal of having some join the team and academic mission as attendings.

Since 2019, we have been fortunate to have 10 of our graduates join the Hospitalist Department and 3 graduates join the Primary Care Department.

Scholarly Activity

Our residents have presented their scholarly activity (notably research, case reports, and quality improvement projects) at the regional, national, and international conferences, including:

ACP Annual National Meeting
ACOI Poster Contest
American College of Cardiology Annual Conference
Annual Digital Congress of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine
American Thoracic Society
CHEST Annual Meeting
European Society of Cardiology
Endocrine Society
Garnet Health Medical Center Annual Poster Competition
Medical Society of the State of New York Poster Symposium
New York ACP Scientific Meeting
New York State Osteopathic Medical Society Experimental Research Scientific Poster Competition
Northern NJ SHM Abstract Competition.
Society of Critical Care Medicine Critical Care Congress
Society of Hospital Medicine Conference

Medical Student Audition Rotations

All students interested in completing an audition rotation (2 or 4 weeks in duration, depending on availability) in Internal Medicine at Garnet Health Medical Center may email our Program Coordinator, Elaina Burton, at IMResidency@garnethealth.org with:

Dates you are requesting for your rotation.
Copy of your CV
IM Visiting Student/Audition Application form (click link and complete)
Letter of Intent

Audition rotations are limited, so please submit your request early. Applications must be received a minimum of 60 days prior to your requested rotation date. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. All applications will be evaluated in the order in which they are received. You will generally be notified within 2 weeks of your submission of our decision. All acceptance letters will be sent via email to the address provided on your application. Please allow a minimum of 10 business days before contacting the program for a response. Once your completed application is approved and you are notified by our program coordinator, you will have 1 week to accept the rotation.

All rotating students are given access to electronic library resources, wireless internet, and free on-site parking. Housing is not provided by hospital, but the hospital has discounted rates for nearby hotels available.

Virtual Tour for Prospective Residents

Please enjoy a short virtual tour video for prospective residents showcasing our our facilities:

Ryan Punsalan, MD

Program Director

Ayfer Ekiz, MD

Associate Program Director

Gabriel Purice, MD

Core Faculty, Hospitalist

John Park, MD

Core Faculty, Hospitalist

Emmanuel Nketiah, MD

Core Faculty, Cardiology

Samer El-Zarif, MD

Core Faculty, Pulmonary/CC

Kaushal Shah, MD

Core Faculty, Primary Care

Serio Obligado, MD

Core Faculty, Nephrology

Alexandra DePastene, MD

Chief Resident

PGY-3

St. George's University School of Medicine

Kevin Joseph, DO

Chief Resident

PGY-3

Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine at New Mexico State University

Jeffrey Eric Penny, II, MD

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Internal Medicine Residency

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Internal Medicine Residency

Internal Medicine Residency Program

For More Information & To Apply

Explore Our Residency Program

Stipends

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Yearly Salary:

Residency Retention

Internal Medicine Residency Program Leadership and Core Faculty

Ryan Punsalan, MD

Ayfer Ekiz, MD

Gabriel Purice, MD

John Park, MD

Emmanuel Nketiah, MD

Samer El-Zarif, MD

Kaushal Shah, MD

Serio Obligado, MD

Our Residents (PGY-3)

Alexandra DePastene, MD

Kevin Joseph, DO

Jeffrey Eric Penny, II, MD

Erica Brown, MD

Hamid Ali Jafri, MD

Czariavna Javed, MD

Yuliya Levkiavska, MD

Kenneth Lumbrazo, Jr., MD

Farah Sahibzada, DO

Our Residents (PGY-2)

Nadia Abdulwahab, MD

Swokiya Bhandari, DO

Fariha Chowdhury, MD

Yusif Hasan, MD

Shilpa Mathew, DO

Nishath Rahman, DO

Ajith Saju, DO

Krishna Sheth, DO

Brian Van Doren, DO

Zola Wilkerson, DO

Our Residents (PGY-1)

Qais Dawod, MD

Ghussan Ghanem, MD

Hannah Mathew, MBBS

Abdullah Mayan, DO

Stephanie Mazo, MD

Hebah Najib, DO

Krunal Patel, DO

Samad Rhaman, MD

Muhammet Saglam, MD

Mofi Sasore, MD

Nasar Shah, MBBS

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