Department of Medicine faculty honored for National Doctors’ Day

In recognition of Doctors’ Day, the Emory School of Medicine Recognitions Committee sent out a call for nominations for doctors across the School of Medicine who go above and beyond. More than 184 Emory faculty members were nominated by their peers and colleagues for their dedication to improving the health and well-being of our patients and community through the care they provide, the research they conduct and their efforts to teach and inspire learners.

Please join us in congratulating the following Department of Medicine faculty who were chosen to be honored:

Nader Aboujamous (ESJH)

Dr. Aboujamous is a recent addition to our team at ESJH, however, in this very short period of time, he has already demonstrated what an excellent clinician and human being he is, his patients absolutely love him!

Every time I inherit a patient from him, I always hear only positive input about him, his patients always remember his name even after he is off clinical duty.

Dr. Aboujamous truly goes above and beyond to care for his patients, he is deeply devoted to not only his patients but also our ESJH Physician family and is always the first one to jump in when anybody in the group needs help! We are very lucky to have him on our team!!

Monee Amin (Atlanta VAMC)

Dr. Amin is an advocate for her patients, ensuring they have everything they need for the best medical care possible.

She is passionate about teaching residents to provide exemplary care.

She is a great colleague and helps think through patients’ issues, ensuring patients all over the hospital receive quality care.

Arpita Basu (EUH)

Dr. Basu goes above and beyond to care for patients.

She has a great work ethic.

She listens to her patients.

Sivan Ben-Moshe (The Emory Clinic)

Dr. Ben-Moshe is thoughtful and thorough, and serves a true champion of patients and their families.

She is as strong an advocate for her patients as they come – she spends incredible time not seen by many, behind the scenes, ensuring that her patients navigate the complexities of modern health care with ease and care.

She is an extraordinary mentor for trainees and colleagues, spending time explaining everything from care coordination to how to approach the patient with multiple comorbidities to polypharmacy. Her lessons about effective care management have benefited so many, even in fields vastly different from Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine.

Hila Calev (EUH)

She routinely searches the literature for updates in clinical practice recommendations and shares them with her colleagues to improve our group practice.

She is known to be extremely thorough and thoughtful in her patient care.

She is a beloved member of the interdisciplinary care team on our geographic medical units.

Nikulkumar Chaudhari (Emory Decatur Hospital)

Dr. Chaudhari is a true example of the SOM mission by providing the most complete and current clinical care to patients in their time of greatest need in the Intensive Care Unit at EDH.

Dr. Chaudhari is a champion of teamwork and having integrity by always teaching colleagues at all levels to be the best caregivers and providers of patients.

Dr. Chaudhari is a vital role model of a newer unit and first to volunteer to help when needed whether going to the Hillandale ICU before it was staffed or calling families to discuss difficult cases; he is first in line to support the patient and team.

Saurabh Chawla (ESJH)

Dr. Chawla has been an outstanding colleague, who has shown remarkable dedication to the school and to the division.

He served at Grady for years and is now leading and developing our Therapeutic Endoscopy program for Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital – delivering remarkable care to patients with pancreaticobiliary disease. He has also been significantly involved with the Georgia GI Rountable group – bringing critical colon cancer screening across Georgia.

His dedication is further characterized by his recent appointment as the program director for Digestive Diseases for Emory and his selection as a fellow for the current Woodruff Leadership Academy.

Shen Chen (EJCH)

Dr. Chen is very organized and always willing to educate our hospitalist group.

She has excellent communication with patients and patients’ families.

Jennifer Christie (The Emory Clinic)

Dr. Christie is incredibly smart and knowledgeable.

She is very caring.

She is very committed to her patients.

Tammy Chuang (EUHM)

Dr. Chuang is a fierce advocate for her patients.

She will always fight for what she thinks is right for her patients!

She is regularly found staying after hours to coordinate a procedure for the next day, coordinating between consultants and keeping family members informed.

Javan Ferguson (EUHM)

Dr. Ferguson is an excellent clinician and colleague.

Dr. Ferguson deeply cares about patients and families.

Dr. Ferguson is an attentive, skillful and knowledgeable doctor.

Monica Gavaller (The Emory Clinic)

Dr. Gavaller provides excellent patient care.

She provides great communication with staff and family members.

She is leading a quality improvement project for fragility fracture management in long-term care facilities in Wesley Woods.

Bashir Geer (EUHM)

Dr. Geer has led several procedure workshops for the hospitalists to become trained in bedside procedures. He is always willing to step up and assist in any procedures that need to be done for our patients.

Dr. Geer is attentive and has excellent bedside manner.

Dr. Geer is always willing to step up especially during the busy times of COVID.

Lauren Gensler (Grady Memorial Hospital)

Dr. Gensler is committed to taking care of patients with serious mental illness and is a fierce advocate for her patients at Grady Hospital.

Dr. Gensler has worked to get medications approved on the Grady formulary, impacting thousands of patients and improving access to care.

Dr. Gensler is a colleague that you can count on and is always willing to help care for the most challenging patients.

Aaron Gluth (EUH)

He has consistently gone the extra mile when caring for patients with COVID, including stepping in to work extra. During this last surge, he covered for several hospitalists when they had to call out sick.

He has been an incredible resource for our group as our local COVID expert. He is always available to help us all stay on top of recent updates in COVID management.

He has been the primary physician running the COVID stepdown unit at EUH, helping open vital ICU beds for patients with COVID.

Allie Goins (EUHM)

As a brand new attending, Dr. Goins has been a team player to step up and assist during the busy times of COVID.

She is an incredible educator already, participating in our division journal club.

Dr. Goins is attentive and spends countless hours with patient’s families at the bedside and on the phone.

Harika Gorti (Atlanta VAMC)

Dr. Gorti takes time to talk with her patients and their families – she puts in the extra effort to make sure everyone understands the plan of care and feels as though they are heard.

Her intelligence is evident when she is caring for patients and shares her knowledge with colleagues by participating in “morning report” style conference.

She handles complex cases well, talking to many different specialists and ensuring everyone is on the same page when caring for her patient.

Minh Hang (Atlanta VAMC)

Dr. Hang is persistent in his care for his patients, not stopping until he has completed what needs to be done.

He is patient with his patients and their families, allowing them to express their concerns and ensuring that they understand what is happening in the hospital – the patients clearly appreciate his care.

He works well with other members of the care team in order to ensure his patients get the best care possible.

Nadine Harris (Atlanta VAMC)

Dr. Harris is incredibly empathetic and kind with all of her patients.

Dr. Harris is always willing to step up and help cover other clinics and colleagues.

Dr. Harris is a trusted expert in ID.

Patricia Hwang (EUHM)

Dr. Hwang is a key member of the diabetes task force at EUHM through which she helps to improve care of patients with diabetes during hospitalization. She has worked to improve our use of insulin and continuous glucose monitors through interdisciplinary efforts with colleagues in endocrinology and pharmacy.

During handoffs in hospital medicine, it is a privilege to continue to care for her patients as her management is always thorough. Her patients often express that they have full faith in her work and trust her to improve their health as much as possible.

She goes above and beyond with not just being an excellent hospitalist but being involved in system-wide quality improvement initiatives such as being the co-lead on the diabetes task force and also co-leading the Division of Hospital Medicine Clinical Vignettes competition.

Kyle James (EUHM)

Dr. James is a phenomenal hospitalist who goes above and beyond in caring for his patients. He is well respected by his colleagues, staff members along with patients and families.

He is involved in multiple hospital committees at EUHM and quality improvement projects and was an abstract poster competition finalist at the national Society of Hospital Medicine meeting

He is the accountable care unit director of the renal-based units at EUHM and also the Journal Club coordinator for the local hospital medicine team at EUHM.

Deniece Johnson (EUHM)

Dr. Johnson is dedicated to patients care.

Saved the patient’s life by providing bedside procedure, leading the team to successful resuscitation.

Nikhil Kadle (Atlanta VAMC)

Dr. Kadle is an outstanding physician, always putting the needs of his patients first.

Dr. Kadle is a great team player, he is ready to help out his colleagues at any time.

He is an excellent endoscopist and brings many new and innovative ideas to the unit.

Rachel Mather (Grady Memorial Hospital)

Dr. Mather is the director of the Orthopedics – Medicine Co-management team and created this service line to collaboratively manage our Grady Trauma patients with medical problems. Dr. Mather has been our collaborative bridge for medical and surgical services and masterfully runs this service while mentoring our entire team on the best peri-operative care for our patients.

Dr. Mather is a kind hearted, empathetic person. Although an experienced hospitalist, she truly is a life long learner, always sharing tough management dilemmas with colleagues and asking questions.

Dr. Mather is a fantastic educator and mentor for hospitalists in the region, delivering workshops for regional conferences as well as teaching a multitude of medical and surgical residents on peri-op medicine. We are grateful for her contributions to Grady, Emory and to hospital medicine.

Collins Mbonu (EUHM)

Dr. Mbonu has excellent bedside manner. Patients and their families enjoy having him as their physician.

Dr. Mbonu spends extra time daily talking with patient’s families and making sure they have the information they need for their loved ones.

Dr. Mbonu is an excellent team player.

Lesley Miller (Grady Memorial Hospital)

Dr. Miller is an incredible mentor and role model to faculty.

She has created a unique and state of the art HCV treatment clinic for the underserved population at Grady.

Her patients love and respect her and always speak extremely highly of her.

Jessica Nave (EUH)

Dr. Nave is a superb physician in all areas.

Dr. Nave goes above and beyond for her patients.

Dr. Nave is a role model for other hospital medicine faculty.

Sneha Neurgaonkar (Atlanta VAMC)

Dr. Neurgaonkar has a great bedside manner, explaining to patients what she is doing and what she finds on her exam.

She helps run the POCUS team, teaching colleagues, residents, and even patients about anatomy and pathologies.

She is a wonderful role model for the residents and her colleagues when it comes to patient care and how to treat patients as complete humans.

James O’Keefe (The Emory Clinic)

Excellent clinician, caring and takes his time with patients. Also is very good at thorough primary care evaluations – what is recommended and not for a patient.

Very good diagnostician, helps diagnose and refer appropriately.

Did extensive work for the initial COVID-19 Emory pandemic. Helped build the virtual clinic and did research on virtual outpatient management clinic. Guidelines developed by him were used on national ACP website.

Prathima Pangular (EUHM)

Dr. Pangulur is a phenomenal team player and goes above and beyond in caring for her patients.

She is very involved in several committees at Emory University Hospital Midtown in efforts to improve patient care delivery in an interdisciplinary manner.

She is well-respected by her peers and other staff members who easily recognize her passion in taking care of patients.

Catherine Park (EUHM, The Emory Clinic)

She is always thinking about what is best for her patients.

She is very impressive at collaborating with her specialty colleagues in order for patients care to be optimized.

She is very thorough when working with residents and making sure their learning needs are met.

William Clyde Partin Jr. (The Emory Clinic)

Very accommodating and flexible in multiple ways and really steps up when needed including nights and weekends.

Has a very calming presence yet takes matters seriously.

Consistently visits his patients when they are in the hospital.

Jorge Isaac Pena Garcia (ESJH)

Impressive ratings and reviews “Number one doctor!! He is great!”

Dr. Pena provides excellent geriatrics care to his patients at his practice location and also at home through the domiciliary program.

Always improving patient care with impeccable professionalism and standard of care, evidence-based medicine.

Ingrid Pinzon (EJCH)

In her role as Medical Director, Dr. Pinzon assists with care coordination for our most vulnerable and complex patients. She is always available to help support the Physicians and Case Managers. She provides on the ground support and expertise that allows us to successfully navigate complex situations.

Many times, she has delivered difficult messages and updates to families and patients, all while providing a calming and compassionate presence. She takes the time to listen, understand, and research each patient as an individual. She has called countless families to answer questions and to provide support to them post discharge.

When she is rounding as a hospitalist, her patients and families are up to date and informed during each step of their journey. She takes the time to communicate and explain their care in a meaningful way.

Sahebi Saiyed (The Emory Clinic)

Medical Directorship to skilled nursing facility

Loved by staff and patients

Leading long term care providers

Amanda Sanders (Grady Memorial Hospital)

Dr. Sanders has had a consistent dedication to the development of the hospital medicine program while serving as the associate site director for Grady Memorial Hospital, during a time when the group has grown by over 100% to approximately 35 physicians and has managed being in the trenches of the covid pandemic. She has designed innovative staffing models, role modeled and mentored others in engagement in quality improvement and systems based care as well as overall career development. She is actively engaged in innumerable committees to help with designing solutions to every day problems.

Dr. Sanders has recently taken on the role of a unit medical director at Grady Memorial Hospital and has been the co-leader of transition of the health care system to a unit-based care model to improve the interdisciplinary care and quality of care for patients.

Gabriel Santamarina (Grady Memorial Hospital)

Dr. Santamarina is a podiatrist at Grady Memorial Hospital.

He has transformed care for our patients with diabetic foot ulcers by bringing innovative techniques coupled with excellent patient care.

He works in an interdisciplinary manner to provide comprehensive care to our patients with diabetic foot ulcer.

Anand Shah (Atlanta VAMC)

Dr. Shah is an advocate for our veteran with advance liver disease who need transplants, TIPS, and HCC therapy.

He goes above and beyond caring for our veterans that’s why our veterans and their families love and TRUST him.

He started a weekly Fibroscan Clinic to identify veterans at risk for advance liver disease, and improved the vaccination of our liver patients by developing a wallet size vaccination passport.

Dimple Shah (The Emory Clinic)

Dr. Shah connects with patients and staff to make them feel welcome and heard.

Dr. Shah’s clinical and interpersonal skills with her patients are so noteworthy that I have entrusted her to care for my family members.

Dr. Shah is invested in the care of her patients.

Chrisinte Stoltz (The Emory Clinic)

Goes above and beyond for her patients, over and over again from calling patients for a rapid follow up to reaching out to consultants to collaborate.

She is a fantastic mentor and teacher with abundant patience.

She is a team player, going out of her way to appreciate every member and doing her part.

Toby Terwilliger (Grady Memorial Hospital)

Toby, one of our newer colleagues, has had an immediate impact for our team of Grady Hospitalists. He steps up every time we need more hands on deck for surges and staffing and does it with a smile and the most positive attitude.

Dr. Terwilliger is patient centered, thoughtful compassionate and dedicated to providing the best care to our patients. He has excellent clinical intuition. When I hand off my patients to him, I know they are getting the best possible care. You can also trust him to take care of emergencies and critical situations in a composed and thoughtful manner.

Dr. Terwilliger is education focused and constantly working on mastering education skills. He has already taken the Stanford course offered at Grady and is involved in teaching initiatives for our division. Truly a phenomenal colleague to have!

Alvaro Velasquez (EUHM)

Takes a lot of time with his patients and is very thorough and explains things extremely well

He is very understanding and compassionate and a real patient ally and advocate. He is very authentic in all his clinical encounters.

He goes the extra mile for his patients in countless ways and is available and accessible.

Ravi Vora (EUH)

Excellent patient care

Great interpersonal skills with peers

Great role model for learners

Gayle Wong (ESJH)

Dr. Wong consistently goes above and extremely beyond when taking care of patients and ensuring family members are well-informed of their loved ones’ care.

She always ensures that her coworkers feel supported and cared for, both in the workplace and outside of work.

Dr. Wong is a perfect example of a doctor who gives 100% to her patients, often staying late past the end of her shift to ensure that her patients are well taken-care-of and ancillary staff are up-to-date on the patients’ care.

Cherry Wongtrakool (Atlanta VAMC)

Dr. Wongtrakool has recently taken over as Section Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the VA. In this leadership role, she has spent an inordinate amount of time trying to improve the quality of patient care in the pulmonary and home oxygen clinics and in the MICU. These efforts have included patient safety protocols, patient visits and scheduling improvements, and coordination of care with other specialty care services. Her work has been transformative for veterans.

Dr. Wongtrakool doesn’t let her administrative duties get in the way of providing excellent patient care. She attends in the ICU and on the inpatient and outpatient pulmonary services far more than she needs to. When she is attending in the ICU, she is always the last person to leave the hospital (most times after 9 or 10pm!) where she is attending to the critical care needs of all our veterans and their families. She is an inspiration to residents and all her colleagues as a compassionate and caring physician.

Dr. Wongtrakool is also a gifted educator and teacher. She takes the time to teach her team, staff and colleagues even on her busiest days. She does all of this with a gracious smile and a self-less attitude!

Jennifer Zreloff (EUH, The Emory Clinic)

Jenni is extremely dedicated and will do anything necessary for her patients and for Emory, as well as for her students and staff.

She will never say no, and doesn’t really understand when others may, as it’s foreign to her desire to help whenever she can.

She contributes not only by her exceptional care, but through her leadership the Medical Director of Seavey Clinic General Internal Medicine Clinic, but as the Assistant Director of Innovations and Operations.

About the Author

Emory Department of Medicine
The Department of Medicine, part of Emory University's School of Medicine, promotes excellence in education, patient care, and clinical and basic research.

Be the first to comment on "Department of Medicine faculty honored for National Doctors’ Day"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.




Share(s)