Program Curriculum

“Provided applicable consults and admissions to aid in teaching. As well as good feedback with plans.”

“Dr. Wegrecki is an incredible physician. She is a very strong teacher, and she has a warm, welcoming approach to teaching and to patient care. She remains up to date on the most recent diagnostic and treatment modalities, and it was a pleasure to work with and learn from her.”

“Dr. Withers is a gem! Loved working and learning from him during street medicine. He taught a lot about the homeless and how medicine has evolved in Pittsburgh. Privileged to have got to spend some time with him during this rotation.”

“Dr. Khan is excellent. Her weight management clinic is such a great idea and learning opportunity for us.”

“Dr. Kiazand is an excellent physician. She has a warm, welcoming approach to teaching and to patient care. She remains up to date on the most recent diagnostic and treatment modalities. It was a pleasure to work with and learn from her.”

“Dr. Ward is an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher who uses both his experience and evidence-based knowledge to teach his residents. He took many opportunities to teach on everything from EKGs to Echo's to bedside exam. The more we were interested, the more he taught. I truly appreciated his zeal for instruction and patient care. Dr. Ward and his colleagues demonstrated how to be both great cardiologists as well as internists while approaching their patient's myriad of medical issues."

“Cardiology was an amazing rotation! Despite being a very busy service, all the attendings would take time to teach the residents and also genuinely do the best for every single patient, which is admirable. I enjoyed every moment of it and I learned a lot. They take residents very seriously and teach, treat and respect them much. The morning meetings are a great experience as well. Loved this rotation!”

“Dr. Firas Abdulmajeed was always very enthusiastic about teaching at the bedside, as well as discussing developments in literature/research which has direct impacts on the patients we treat every day in the ICU. He was extremely approachable, knowledgeable and skilled in the way he supervised even seasoned residents such as me on the basics on critical care management. I consider him a friend after this rotation, and I believe I owe him a debt of gratitude. I look forward to working with him next year!”

“Dr. Butcher continues to be a great role model and teacher. He is well organized, willing to listen to suggestions and provide constructive feedback/teaching.”

“Dr. Siedsma is a valuable asset to UPMC Mercy and I am honored that I got a chance to grow as a physician under his guidance. I look forward to work with him in future!”

“One of our best attending! with dedication to teaching and great bedside manner. Always advocating for the best that needs to be done for the patient or the ICU unit with the best plan and management. She is a great team leader, very organized. At the same time takes the time to chart review and examine patients herself and teach the residents as well. I have learned so much from Dr. Donadee and I am very grateful for the chance I had to work with her. Great role model!”

“Thoroughly enjoyed the DEM rotation, if not the best rotation I have had till date. I learned a lot from seeing all different cases and presentations. The faculty were extremely approachable and very nice, taught and treated me like a colleague. I wish I had another rotation of DEM sometime during the remainder of residency.”

“Dr. Willard is enthusiastic about teaching and is very approachable. She prepped lectures and questions to help us understand concepts better.”

“Dr. Sobel is a fantastic teacher and has amazing bedside manner with her patients. I appreciated that she set time aside to be able to teach different topics each day. She is very approachable and encourage discussion about patients throughout rounds. Along with the other attendings, she provided a good level of autonomy during the rotation and trusted our judgement, which in the end made me much more comfortable with the field. I also think she did an excellent job prioritizing patients that would provide good learning opportunities for us as residents.”

“Dr. Selk was great to work with, learned a lot. She taught a lot and gave scenarios that were useful for what to do next. She really cares and works with you.”

“Dr. Singh is an excellent physician. He remains up to date on the most current diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations. He takes time to teach residents and has a warm approach to patients. He is efficient and skilled in procedures, and it was a pleasure to work with and learn from him.”

“Amazing teacher, is 100% dedicated to the development of the Mercy IM residents and we all appreciate how hard Dr. Tadic works to mentor us."

“I worked with Dr. Scandrett and Dr. Visoui during my first week. Dr. Scandrett was very patient, enthusiastic about teaching and spent time with patients and their families. Dr. Tadic is an excellent clinician always energetic and a good mentor. I enjoyed this rotation and it helped me expand my knowledge in taking care of geriatric patients.”

“Provide independence to help grow as a clinician, available to answer questions. Learned from Dr. Patel's work ethic. Discussed topics of private care, pitfalls and advantages.”

“Awesome teacher. Loves to teach. Solid knowledge base. Very respectable to patient's, staff and residents. Enjoyed working with Dr. Hasan. Learned a lot!”

“This is my second rotation with Dr. Philbin. He is a phenomenal educator and doctor. He loves to teach and expects you to integrate what he teaches into your daily rounds. He has taught me to be accountable for my pts and the studies that I order. I hope to one day be as thorough as Dr. Philbin.”

“What a phenomenal physician and person. She is kind, smart, teaches and is great with patient care. Dr. Conroy is a pleasure to work and staff patients with. She treats us with respect, but also expects us to present quality plans and participate heavily in patient care. Again, what a great hospitalist to work with!”

“Hands down one of my favorite preceptors. She shows you the medicine as well as the social aspects of how to run a service. She is competent and stays calm under stressful situations. I hope to be at least half as great as Dr. Foust. She loves to challenge your opinions and help you form plans.”

“I enjoyed learning from all three attendings (Dr. Safyan, Dr. Krauze, and Dr. Yee), however we spent most of our rotation seeing consults with Dr. Yee. All of the attendings were very open to answering questions and providing teaching points in relation to the patients we saw. Dr. Yee was very approachable and knowledgeable. I enjoyed the outpatient experience in Bethel Park as well and felt that this was very beneficial for seeing the follow-up and surveillance of cancer after it has been primarily treated.”

“Dr. Yassin continues to be a true role model, going the extra mile to make the diagnosis. He is one of the hardest working individuals I know, and he demonstrates how to deal with difficult patients and families. He also helped teach me a passion for staying up with current knowledge. I knew I could ask him for help, even on weeks where he was not working.”

 

“Dr. Arbulu is an excellent physician. He has a tremendous wealth of knowledge, and dedicates himself to the care of his patients, and to teaching information that is accurate, relevant, and up to date. It was a pleasure to work with him and learn from him.”

“I truly enjoyed the nephrology rotation. A lot of learning! Faculties are very involved with teaching on daily basis which was really helpful. We covered all the topic and I felt very comfortable answering MKSAP questions end of this rotation. Dr. Abramovitz is very approachable and willing to discuss the patients in detail. Very organized and Vey caring and really spend time with patients and staff to educate them as well. It was a great rotation.”

“Very enjoyable rotation. Dr. Z allowed us to see/examine patients on our own and present our own assessments and plans. She displayed professionalism with me, the other residents on service, and each patient we went and saw as a team. Spent time to teach about physical exam, workup, different medications, etc. Would love to work with Dr. Z again during my PGY3 year.”

“Dr. Pati is an excellent physician, and a great educator. He remains up to date on most recent guidelines and applies them well. He offers strong insight when answering questions about patient care. He demonstrates compassion and sincerity for his patients, and has a warm, welcoming approach to teaching. I consider myself lucky to be able to learn from him. It was a pleasure working with him.”

“Fantastic rotation. Great opportunity to expand communication skills in wide variety of clinical context. Dr. Thurston was quick to provide tips and wisdom on how to approach every situation. Really appreciate how much time he spends on teaching.”

“Dr. Soodalter would sit down and review topics almost daily. She was very approachable and able to answer all my questions.”

“Dr. Ghobrial is a role-model physician to get the opportunity to work with. Medical knowledge and patient care is outstanding. Allows residents the opportunity to read literature pertaining to patients seen in the clinic. Very enjoyable rotation.”

“Dr. Patel's primary care rotation is a very educational outpatient experience with many learning opportunities due to its diverse population and a wide variety of pathology.”

“I enjoyed working with Dr. Carrington. She assigned topics to review and adhered to our daily schedule. She dropped useful pearls with her patients and made sure that we had the best use of our team while on PC with her, which I greatly appreciated.”

“All of the preceptors were quite approachable, excellent teachers, and knowledgeable. Dr. Kreit in particular is patient, caring, and willing to teach. I especially appreciate all of the time spent reviewing imaging with everyone, which will suit me well in both Hospitalist and Hem Onc.”

“Overall, this is a very nice 2-week rotation that enhanced my patient interview skills. The whole team was amazing. Dr. Curci and Dr. Golden were both enthusiastic about teaching. They allotted time daily from their schedule to teach us interesting cases and scenarios in psychiatry.”

“Dr. Helfrich was a great mentor and modeled excellent professional behavior towards his patients as well as clinical science. He was always eager to discuss teaching points from every case, even if it was just how he approaches certain subjects of discussion with his patients. He was very enjoyable to work with.”