Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program

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Message from Program Director
Program Overview and Curriculum
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Message from Program Director

Welcome to the Westchester Medical Center Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. It is my great pleasure to serve as the Fellowship Program Director at WMC since July 2020, the principal University Hospital affiliated with New York Medical College (NYMC).

Our fellowship program provides excellent training for the next generation of clinicians, educators and researchers in the field of Infectious Diseases. The fellowship is a two-year program fully accredited by the ACGME. Two fellows are accepted each year for a total of four fellows.

Westchester Medical Center, the main training site for the program, is a 415-bed quaternary referral center and flagship hospital for a large healthcare system. It is also the primary teaching hospital for NYMC. Westchester Medical Center is known for having one of the highest case mix indices in the United States, meaning that its patients are among the most clinically complex of any hospital in the country providing the best opportunities to learn and care for a population spanning all medical and surgical subspecialties, including solid organ and bone marrow transplantation, HIV, tick-borne diseases, critical care medicine including ECMO and LVAD, burn patients, neuro and level 1 trauma ICU patients. Our program also has an antimicrobial stewardship team that provides guidance and clinical pathways for best antimicrobial use.

For a contrasting community-based experience, the fellows rotate also at Metropolitan Hospital Center, an affiliate site that is part of the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation that provides primary care for outpatients and inpatients with a diversity of infections including HIV, HCV, STDs and tropical diseases. We believe that this combination of complementary training sites offers the broadest possible clinical scope, preparing fellows for practice in any environment upon graduation.

As part of a program based at an academic medical center and closely affiliated with NYMC located on the same campus, the fellows are granted four months of research time during their second year to pursue diverse projects with the encouragement and mentorship of the faculty. The fellows also interact with NYMC medical students in multiple settings. There is an extensive list of conferences, journal clubs, board review sessions, and Grand Rounds in which there are both faculty and fellows presentations.
We greatly value our fellows’ contributions to the ID Division and are very proud of their consistent accomplishments in clinical care, research, and teaching activities during the fellowship. Our fellows are committed to lifelong learning and most remain in close contact with us personally and professionally for years after completing their fellowship.

Our fellowship participates in ERAS and invites applications from candidates interested in its mission of providing premier clinical training in an environment conducive to scholarly productivity. I hope that the information on this website provides you with a helpful overview of our training program. As you consider your choice of fellowship programs, we hope that your individual goals and priorities will find a good fit here. If you have any questions about our program please feel free to contact me or our program coordinator, Lisa Giarratano (Lisa.Giarratano@WMCHealth.org or 914.493.6612) at any time.

Sincerely,

Marc El Khoury, MD Fellowship Program Director, Division of Infectious Diseases at Westchester Medical Center and Associate Professor at New York Medical College

Program Overview

The Infectious Diseases (ID) Division has a responsibility to provide care for patients with a wide assortment of infections. They include tertiary care patients with solid organ (kidney, liver and heart) or bone marrow transplants; oncology, HIV/AIDS, high-risk obstetrics, level 1 trauma and burn patients; and critical care and post-surgical patients. The ID Fellowship Program is based at Westchester Medical Center, but also includes College-affiliated Metropolitan Hospital Center in New York City. There currently are four fellows in the program who interact with up to 10 different adult and three pediatric ID physicians. A highlight of our program is the Lyme Disease Diagnostic Center that was established to provide clinical care and conduct research studies on regional tick-borne infections. Focusing on prevention, treatment, diagnosis, pathogenesis and co-infections, cutting–edge research is conducted in collaboration with other departments at New York Medical College such as Microbiology and Immunology. Funding primarily comes from the NIH, CDC, New York State and private industry.

Research interests also include other tick-borne infections such as human granulocytic anaplasmosis and babesiosis, as well as Powassan virus encephalitis. Other area of research involve HIV/AIDS, infection control interventions, antibiotic resistant bacteria, Mpox, and infections in transplant recipients and novel T.pallidum strain responsible for painful chancre. Our faculty had been involved in some pharmaceutically-funded clinical trials involving the use of experimental antimicrobial, antifungal and antiviral agents.

Program Curriculum and Schedule

Curriculum

Our curriculum offers our fellows immense flexibility, with a total of four months of research (two weeks in the first year and three-and-a-half months in the second year) in addition to two-and-a-half months of elective time (two weeks in the first year and two months in the second year). Fellows have the opportunity to do research during the year with dedicated academic time every Tuesday afternoon after clinic.

Electives

Can comprise any of the following: Tropical and Travel Medicine with the internationally renowned Christina Coyle, MD, at Jacobi Hospital Tropical Medicine Clinic, Solid organ transplant, Infection prevention and control, Antimicrobial stewardship, Critical care elective, Wound care, Pediatrics, HIV.

Outpatient Infectious Diseases

The outpatient continuity practice is a key component of the education of our Infectious Diseases fellows. Fellows spend one half-day per week caring for a panel of outpatients that they will follow throughout their fellowship training. The fellows see patients under the supervision of an attending. One-on-one mentoring in a superb environment allows our fellows to develop the skills they need to practice outstanding patient-centered outpatient Infectious Diseases and HIV medicine.

On-Call

Our fellows are on call from home during weeknights. The weekend call will be divided equally among the four fellows. Fellows will be rounding during the day on-site with a faculty attending at Westchester Medical Center and by phone covering Metropolitan Hospital. At all times, faculty members are available for phone or in-person support.

Research Opportunities

All fellows are expected to formulate and complete at least one research project during the two-year fellowship, supervised by a faculty member of their choice. Formal submission and presentation of the fellow's work in a format suitable for publication is required. Travel is supported for fellows to present their work at regional and national meetings. The Senior Research Mentor for our Infectious Diseases fellows is Gary Wormser, MD, one of the most widely respected and prolific clinical researchers in the world with more than 1,000 publications and abstracts, several book chapters, and books. Under his tutelage, our fellows have had tremendous success in the research arena, with presentations at all major national venues. In addition, almost every fellow in the past 20 years has authored at least one publication during or following their training,

Quality Improvement Projects

All fellows are required to participate in a quality improvement project during their fellowship, which often leads to a dedicated research project and a publication. Projects will be presented during one of the ID grand rounds.

Conferences

Tuesdays
– Core curriculum lecture or 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
– Board review Sessions or 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.
– Journal Club 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Wednesdays
ID Grand Round 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Case management rounds 10 am. - 10:30 a.m.

Inter-City Rounds every 3-4 months

Microbiology Rounds

With the help of Dr. Keller Marina our fantastic clinician and microbiology expert, fellows have the opportunity to have multiple stops in the microbiology labs during the week to review gram stains and interesting bacterial and fungal cultures, in addition to reviewing blood parasite smears and buffy coat smears. Fellows also will have monthly dedicated lectures with Dr. Chaturvedi Vishnu our microbiology lab director, who is a national expert in fungal diseases.

Lyme Disease Diagnostic Center

Under the mentorship of Dr. Gary Wormser, our world renowned tick-borne diseases expert and researcher, during the summer, the fellows have the opportunity to see patients in the Lyme Diagnostic Center and become experts in diagnosing and treating patients with Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis or any other tick-borne disease and learn from the best in the field. In addition they will have a chance to learn to identify different ticks with the help of an entomologist when available on-site. Fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in research in this field.

Vacation

Each fellow is allotted four weeks of vacation and four personal days during each year of training.

Sample Rotation Schedule

Class of 2026

Kelsey McManus, M.D. PGY5
Medical School: Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland School of Medicine, Ireland.
Residency: Westchester Medical Center, NY.

FNU Sonia, M.B.B.S. PGY5
Medical School: Peoples University of Medical & Health Sciences for Women, Pakistan.
Residency: Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Wakefield Campus) Program, NY.

Class of 2027

Kushal Gautam, M.B.B.S., PGY4
Medical School: Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences, Nepal,
Residency: Bronxcare Health System, Bronx, NY.

Nahid Elbaggari, M.B.B.S., PGY4
Medical School: University of Gadarif Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sudan
Residency: King Faisal Medical Center, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Graduating Class of 2025

Maria Cochran, MD (7/1/2023-6/30/2025)
Full time Infectious Diseases, Genesis Program at Sun River Health, Bronx, NY

Thomas Pustorino, MD (7/1/2023-6/30/2025)
Internal Medicine-ID, New York Health Outpatient Department. Smithtown, NY

Alumni

Class of 2024

Chinwe Anekwe, MD
ID specialist, Reading Hospital (Tower Health) West Reading, PA

Kuldeep Ghosh, MD
Pulmonary Disease/Crit Care fellowship - Westchester Medical Center (7/1/2024-06/30/2027), NY

Class of 2023

Marie Barbara Bastien, MD
ID specialist, St Elizabeth 1 Medical Village Drive, Edgewood, KY

Rachel Gnanaprakasam, MBBS
ID specialist, ID Doctors, PA, Bedford, TX

Class of 2022

Thai Ngyuen, MD
ID specialist at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona, FL

Maria Rosa Velasquez Espiritu, MD
ID Faculty at NYC Health and Hospitals, Metropolitan Hospital, New York, NY

Class of 2021

Tarun Popli, MD
ID specialist at Marshal University School of Medicine, Huntington Medical Center, Huntington, WV

Anthony Tran, MD
Critical Care Fellowship, Oregon Health & Science University, OR

Class of 2020

Julieta Sanchez Ruiz, MD
Full time ID specialist, Dignity Health St. Rose Dominican, 8280 West Warm Springs Road, Las Vegas, NV

Adam Ferin, MD
Full time ID specialist at Virtua Infectious Diseases, Mount Laurel, NJ

Class of 2019

Luis Tatem, MD
ID-Critical specialist. Swedish Hospital Infectious Diseases Division & Critical Care Medicine Division. Seattle. WA.

Class of 2018

Piotr Kapinos, MD
Locum Tenens, ID specialist

Arturo Pascual, MD
ID specialist in West Nyack, NY, Group practice

Class of 2017

Sarosh Khan, MD
ID specialist in Morristown, NJ

Quarat Ul Ain Mudassar, MD
Full-time ID specialist at White Plains Hospital, NY

Class of 2016

Eliana Lopez, MD
ID specialist at Metropolitan Hospital, New York City, NY

Praveen Sudhindra, MD
ID critical care specialist, in UnityPoint Health, Peoria, IL

Class of 2015

Alfonso Llosa, MD
ID specialist, Phelps Memorial Hospital, NY

Irida Molla, MD
ID specialist, Richmond, KY

Faculty