In this month’s Chair’s Spotlight, we highlight Terrell Johnson, MD, a physician in the Division of General Internal Medicine, and co-director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in the Department of Medicine. He joined UMass Chan Medical School/UMass Memorial Health this past August and has enthusiastically dived into a variety of activities across Medicine’s mission areas.

In addition to his roles as a clinician and educator, Dr. Johnson will be taking a new leadership role in the Pipeline for underRepresented Students in Medicine (PRISM) program, a program that introduces postgraduate students from diverse backgrounds who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM, to clinical research and healthcare opportunities. “I think there is a great opportunity to work with these students to make them so strong that they cannot be missed,” said Dr. Johnson. “Whether it is additional opportunities in research or in educational activities and exposures to experiences in the field, we want them to be prepared [for their future careers in medicine] and confident.”

In this month’s Fellowship Spotlight, we highlight Rina Modha, MD, a Rheumatology fellow in the Department of Medicine. Here, Dr. Modha describes her clinical interests, why she chose UMass for her fellowship, her favorite vacation spots, and more! 

“[I chose UMass for my fellowship because] the work environment was appealing, and the program's culture was extremely welcoming. I appreciated the clinical exposure fellows experienced with individual patient panels and the breadth of pathology in the community.”

In this month’s Resident Spotlight, we highlight Garrick Gu, MD, a second-year Internal Medicine resident. Here, Dr. Gu describes his clinical and research interests, his involvement with groups on campus, and his favorite place to eat in Worcester! 

"The students and residents are so impressive in their dedication to their patients and their communities, always reaching out to family members and communities to promote health equity and quality care."

Shahzad Khan Leads Cohorted Unit-Based Team for Pulmonary  

Over the last few months, we have featured patient flow initiatives in Medicine that aim to increase patient discharges by noon and 2 p.m. These initiatives are critical to improving quality of care, overall patient safety, and timely care progression.

This month, we are featuring the Cohorted Unit-Based Teams initiative that launched in early June 2023—specifically, the pulmonary medicine unit on 5 West led by Shahzad Khan, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine.  

One of the primary objectives of the Cohorted Unit-Based Teams initiative has been to establish effective flow for patients to be discharged in a timely manner through coordinated team care. This, in turn, allows for patients who are in the emergency room and need a bed to be transferred to the floor for care. On 5 West, Dr. Khan and his team accomplish this through multidisciplinary rounds which include meeting with individuals from the health care team (usually a second-year or senior resident), nursing management, case management, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, and a COPD nurse navigator. During these meetings, they discuss patients and establish a care progression plan together, rather than having what might be at least six or seven individual conversations with different team members. Dr. Khan and his team are able to identify what is needed to allow the patient to be discharged and coordinate a plan together. They aim to have the patient discharged during the day for a variety of reasons including ensuring they stay on track with medications (if they are discharged at night, the pharmacy might be closed and they could miss their medication for that day). It has also helped with various logistical factors in transitioning the patients home, including transportation. 

Overall, the initiative has seen positive results thus far. Prior to the initiative, the pulmonary service placed discharge orders before noon on 19% of discharges. The team is now discharging one-third of their patients before noon. By working closely with the nurse manager, Viet Le, and case manager, Steven Nordborg, who have been critical to the success of this initiative, Dr. Khan has also been able to steadily increase the number of patients discharged before 2 p.m. over the last several months. There has also been a steady trend in decreasing the length of stay on the unit.  

“It's been a big effort even though it seems like a small thing. It has taken a lot of work from hospital leadership and communicating with different services to come together and focus on this one thing and with all these moving parts,” said Dr. Khan. “It is impressive how quickly it has moved forward and how infrequent there are hiccups because everyone is willing to figure out the next step.” 

Weight Management Program Grows in Benedict Primary Care Clinic 

What started as a quality improvement project is now slowly growing into a well-received weight management program at the Benedict Primary Care clinic at UMass Memorial Medical Center.

Three years ago, Jeevarathna Subramanian, MD, associate professor of medicine, and Varun Ayyaswami, MD, assistant professor of medicine, both in the Division of General Internal Medicine, started a quality improvement project during Dr. Ayyaswami’s residency. Their project focused on overall obesity management in primary care and they found that very few patient appointments were made for obesity management. They surveyed providers on the primary challenges of managing obesity and although it was found to be a significant problem, the medical complexity of patients and resource limitations made it difficult for providers to appropriately address the issue. Many providers requested an embedded metabolic clinic to focus on weight management and weight stabilization for patients, leading to the development of today’s Weight Management Program. 

With encouragement and support from providers such as Nina Rosano, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Bruce Weinstein, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Deborah Blazey-Martin, MD, vice chair for ambulatory affairs and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, Drs. Subramanian and Ayyaswami developed the program with the goal of serving patients with weight issues and high blood pressure, along with other comorbidities. Additionally, they wanted to focus on how weight impacts the patient’s health and how they can work to maintain a healthier weight and lifestyle.  



Although the program is still in its beginning stages, work in the clinic is conducted on Monday mornings, where Drs. Subramanian and Ayyaswami alternate enrolling patients into the program, establishing a plan based on their medical history, and coordinating with other departments and services as needed, such as Behavioral Health and Endocrinology. The Weight Management Program has been well-received throughout the Benedict clinic. Dr. Subramanian explains that as the program expands, multidisciplinary collaboration between primary care providers and sub-specialists will be important. “Getting a nutritional aspect and an exercise aspect to this will be very important additions,” stated Dr. Subramanian. “[Additionally] having someone who has expertise in advocating for activity for these patients depending on their weight are all important aspects.”  

The team also hopes to provide the necessary resources to keep patients on a healthy track for the future. “Weight management and obesity are going to fall into the lap of primary care providers. The more primary care providers that [become] familiar with this [program] the better it is,” said Dr. Subramanian.  

Maria Khouri, MD, PGY1, Alex Ge, MD, PGY1, Jaewon Lee, MD, PGY1, Benyamin Yaniv, MD, PGY2, Benjamin Tanenbaum, MD, PGY3, and Chase Foster-Spence, MD, PGY2, presented their research and clinical vignette posters at the Massachusetts Society of Clinical Oncologist Meeting.

Dr. Khouri won first place for her original research poster titled, "Allogenic Stem Cell Transplantation (allo-SCT) in Patients with Myeloid Malignancies Harboring Cohesin Complex Gene Mutations" and Drs. Ge and Tanenbaum won second place for their clinical vignette titled, "A Case of COVID-19 Associated Idiopathic Multicentric Castleman Disease."

Katherine Cooper, MD, PGY2, Daniel Belza, MD, PGY2, Nick Hebda, MD, PGY3, Hau Nguyen, MD, PGY3, and Alessandro Colletta, MD, PGY4, presented nine research posters at the AASLD Liver Meeting.

Additionally, Dr. Cooper was honored as an "Emerging Liver Scholar," an honor awarded to residents and fellows who have excelled in liver-related research.

Laura Gibson Selected as Worcester Business Journal 2023 Champions of Health Care Award Honoree 

Laura Gibson, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, has been selected as a Worcester Business Journal 2023 Champions of Health Care Award honoree.

The award honors those who excel in helping others, promoting innovation, and improving access to care. Dr. Gibson's work on cytomegalovirus (CMV) and leadership in infectious disease and immunology research highlights her qualifications for the award. She will be honored at The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester on Wednesday, December 13, 2023.  

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Gibson! 

Anna Gubala Leads Thanksgiving Food Drive

Anna Gubala, MD, a third-year Internal Medicine resident, led a food drive this month to gather donations for the Thanksgiving holiday. Along with other residents, Dr. Gubala helped raise $1,580 and filled multiple cars of goods that were delivered to the Worcester County Food Bank.

We applaud Dr. Gubala and her colleagues for their hard work and service!

Members of the Department of Medicine are invited to this year's holiday party, on Wednesday, December 13, 2023, from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m., in the Faculty Conference Room.

Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served.

Please RSVP by clicking the button below.

Please Join Us in Celebrating Jeffrey Stoff

The Department of Medicine invites members of the UMass community to join us for a retirement celebration in honor of Jeffrey S. Stoff, chief, and professor of medicine in the Division of Renal Medicine.

The celebration will take place on Thursday, February 1, 2024, from 4:30 - 7:00 p.m., in the Albert Sherman Cube, AS3-2119.

Light refreshments and hors d'oeuvres will be served.

Please RSVP by clicking the button below.

The Department of Medicine Grand Rounds series continued this past month with presentations from Drs. Milka Koupenova, titled "Maladaptive Immuno-Thrombotic Responses in Infection," Mary Hawthorne, titled "The Future of Primary Care - Can Lessons from the Past Help to Guide Us Towards a More Sustainable Future?", and from Anna Gosline, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, titled "What We Learn from Listening."

If you missed any of the presentations or would like to view them again, please click the button below.