Illinois Medicine

I L L I N O I S M E D I C I N E | 47 ER DOCTOR SHARES KNOWLEDGE AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL IN INDIA OST OF THE TIME, Sanjay Bhatt '02, MD '07, works as an emergency medicine physician as well as an assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. But he also has a background in international medicine and translational science, and earlier this year, Bhatt traveled more than 8,000 miles from USC with his wife and two young children to India, to share his knowledge at the grassroots level. With the support of a Fulbright-Nehru grant, Bhatt has been working at the NHL/VS hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the home state of his and his wife's families. He has observed the growing population, resource limitations and practices at the hospital, and he also has seen the need for emergency medical education on a national scale. To address these needs, Bhatt has helped develop a hospital- wide program, Enhanced Quality and Improving Patient Safety (EQUIPS), which focuses on safe patient care at the hospital. He has also helped develop the Indian College of Emergency Physicians to promote emergency medicine education in India. With assistance from other organizations, including the USC Medical Center, the group created 132 PowerPoint lectures for open-source educational use. Bhatt has been well prepared for his current experience. In the last eight years at the Los Angeles County Medical Center-University of Southern California, he has played an important role in training hundreds of resident physicians and serving thousands of patients. He also has conducted research on a variety of topics, including mechanisms of trauma in India and the United States. At the same time, he also reflects on his days as a medical student at the COM. "UIC provided me with the initial steps to pursue a career of service in medicine and international development," he says. "Throughout my career, I have been regularly reminded that this requires hard work that is driven by idealism, passion and the goal to make a difference." — Dan Baron officer of Yale New Haven Health Northeast Medical Group and a senior vice president at Yale New Haven Health. Varkey also is an adjunct professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. A nationally recognized expert in quality improvement, she is president and a board member of the American College of Medical Quality and the editor of two textbooks. She earned her MBBS (MD equivalent) from Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, and completed her internal medicine residency at the Hospital of Saint Raphael and a preventive medicine fellowship at Mayo Clinic. She has a master's in public health from Harvard School of Public Health and an MBA from the University of Minnesota. Syed Abutalib, MD, Res '08, is the lead associate editor of Practical Medical Education & Science at www. mededscience. com, an educational website. He served as the online update editor of the seventh edition of the Hoffman "Hematology" textbook. Abutalib also recently edited a series on advances and controversies in hematopoietic cell transplant. Neil Patel '06, MD '10, has joined Spine Team Texas, a comprehensive spine center specializing in the treatment of back and neck pain. An orthopaedic surgeon, Patel specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery techniques. He completed his residency training at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he served as chief resident for the orthopaedic surgery residency program and as resident surgeon in the department of orthopaedic surgery. Patel later completed a fellowship in spine surgery at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and served as a clinical instructor for USC's department of orthopaedic surgery. Patel also serves as a reviewer for The Global Spine Journal and has contributed to articles in leading publications such as Neurosurgery Focus, Journal of Arthroplasty and The Spine Journal. Anna Sokolowski '06, MD '11, practices family medicine at Kaiser Permanente's Maui Lani medical office. She completed her residency through the Advocate Illinois Masonic Family Medicine Residency program with a focus on women's health. She is board-certified in family medicine. Monica Vora, DO, Res '11, has joined the neurology team at OhioHealth in Marion, Ohio. After receiving her MD from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, Pa., Vora completed her residency in neurology at the COM Chicago. Board-certified in general neurology, her areas of expertise include multiple sclerosis, headache, stroke, seizure and dementia. Rupa Sharma MS, MD, Res '12, Fel '16, was featured in The Leading Physicians of the World, a publication of The International Association of HealthCare Professionals. A gastroenterologist, Sharma has been in practice for more than 11 years and currently serves patients of the Concorde Medical Group in New York City. She is also affiliated with New York University Langone Medical Center. Board- certified in internal medicine, Sharma has a special focus on nutrition with a background in complementary medicine. Sharma holds a master's degree in physiology and biophysics from Georgetown University. Amber Thompson '06, MD '15, was selected as one of four psychiatry residents to serve as a fellow on the Psychiatry Resident-In- Training Examination Editorial Board for the American College of Psychiatrists. A second-year general psychiatry resident at the University of Massachusetts Medi- cal School in Worcester, Thompson, a Rockford alum, also is one of two adult psychiatry residents on the board. PRITE Fellows participate in the ques- tion-writing process for the exam. Sanjay Bhatt M '08 '10 Syed Abutalib Prathibha Varkey Anna Sokolowski '11 Monica Vora '15 Rupa Sharma '12

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