Chief Resident, Internal Medicine

Medical School: Sidney Kimmel Medical Center
Residency: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center 

Q: What makes you excited to teach residents?
A: I view teaching in any field as the cornerstone to the experience of the learner and their future performance. There are numerous instances in my life, including in my medical career, where I was taught the academics of a given problem, but this didn’t usually stick unless I had either experience with that specific problem or unless it was taught in a practical manner (as one would see this problem presented for the first time).

I would like to teach residents both the academics of medical conditions, as well as some of the practical approaches and clinical pearls to the diseases they will encounter during their medical journey.

Q: What interested you to come work for St. Clair Health?
A: St. Clair’s brand-new residency program provides the opportunity to make a significant impact on the learning of new residents. I am deeply passionate about teaching in the medical field, and joining the founding class of St. Clair’s IM residency program as chief resident provides the perfect opportunity to teach others and help them on their medical journey.

Q: What sparked your interest to focus in this particular service line?
A: My family history and research interests. My grandfather passed away in 2007 from metastatic pancreatic cancer and my father was diagnosed in 2013 with CLL, which led me to work on several research projects pertaining to a wide range of oncology topics.

One of the many reasons for my interest in malignant hematology includes the development of CAR-T cell products, as well as BiTE products, which are now being expanded to solid malignancy due to their remarkable success in the malignant hematology world.

Q: Who was your role model growing up and helped you along the way to get to where you are today?
A: My grandfather. He was a professor of engineering at Universite Paris-Sud, and he was deeply devoted to teaching others. Although I ended up choosing a different career path from him, he taught me to understand the mechanism behind every problem one encounters so that one can make a more educated decision on how to address it, rather than learning solutions by heart.