Choosing a residency program can be difficult. Each promise to train you, make you a better physician, give you experience with research, help you develop a career plan. But our residency program at the Bronx VA also give makes you feel proud every day by serving those who have served our country. It’s a unique opportunity that gives our trainees an immense satisfaction at the end of every day, knowing they helped our veterans in their time of need.
Why Choose the Bronx VA?
Welcome to Bronx: Forget what you saw in the movies from the 80s and 90s. The Bronx has been transforming and it is right now the most diverse of the five boroughs! Located between lively and exciting Manhattan and the residential area known as Yonkers, the Bronx has upscale neighborhoods with great school districts such as Riverdale, the folkloristic Little Italy, City Island, famous for its beaches and seafood restaurants and South Bronx, one of the poorest areas in NY, home to the Yankees.
Parks and the Outdoors: The Bronx is also the greenest borough in NYC with several public parks: Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, and Riverdale Park which offers spectacular views along the Hudson river. And let’s not forget about the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo!
Food and Music: Given the multiple migratory waves of immigrants who have made the Bronx their home over the decades, the borough represents a melting pot of vibrant cultures, music festivals and cuisines, from Latino to African American, from Caribbean to Italian, from Vietnamese to Eastern European. Don’t miss the Bronx restaurant week, and the Italian Ferragosto festival. Your stomach will thank you.
Transportation and Accessibility: Finally, the Bronx is easily accessible from the other boroughs as well as suburban New York, with both MTA subway (4, 5, 6, D, 1, 2, A and C trains), Metro North trains and highways north and south bound. Free shuttle transportation is also available for our residents to and from the Upper East Side in Manhattan where the main Mount Sinai Campus is located
The James J. Peters VA Medical Center is the oldest VA in New York City, celebrating over 75 years of service to veterans. The Medical Center is situated on a historic site in the borough of the Bronx. Located on the highest point in New York City, the site served as a strategic vantage point during the Revolutionary War. In 1847 William H. Bailey bought 26 acres of land, where the hospital now stands, as a country home for his bride. Bailey was partners with P.T. Barnum of the Barnum and Bailey Circus fame. In 1889 Bailey's heirs sold the estate to the Sisters of Charity Archdiocese of New York, who constructed an orphanage on the site. The Boy's Chapel built at that time remains on our campus today.
In 1921 the Treasury Department purchased the property from the Archdiocese of New York for use by the U.S. Public Health Service as a hospital for ex-service patients suffering from mental and nervous disorders. The purchase was turned over to the newly formed U.S. Veterans' Bureau by Executive Order on April 20, 1922. By adding several buildings throughout the years, the Bureau made the Bronx hospital the second largest VA facility in the nation, with a total of 1,663 beds, and the first veteran's hospital in New York City. In 1981 new construction produced a modern, well-equipped facility, and in 1986 a newly constructed 120-bed nursing home care unit was opened.
James J. Peters VA Medical Center Today
Today, the James J. Peters VA Medical Center is a multilevel health care Center of Excellence, fully accredited by JCAHO, and composed of 331 authorized beds and a 120-bed Nursing Home Care Unit. It provides tertiary services to a veteran population from the Bronx, Westchester and Rockland Counties, Northern New Jersey, and the New York City metropolitan area.
The James J. Peters VA Medical Center serves as a comprehensive cancer center; a national center for Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and alcohol abuse; a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) center; and a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) center. The Medical Center provides secondary and tertiary services to the Montrose (32 miles) and Castle Point (54 miles) VAs and is a member of the Mount Sinai Health System Health System.
An excellent feature of our residency program is that we have both community medicine and large system opportunities available. Our residents are trained at two main sites: James J Peters VAMC which serves veteran population and North Central Bronx Hospital which is a part of New York City Health and Hospitals system. We also have an opportunity to rotate during our electives through Mount Sinai Health System network of hospital throughout New York City.
VA Hospital: The VA Medical Center in the Bronx is classified as tertiary care facility and is the oldest VA facility in New York City, celebrating over 75 years of service to veterans. It is a teaching hospital, providing a full range of patient care services, with state-of-the-art technology as well as education and research. Comprehensive health care is provided through primary care, tertiary care, and long-term care in areas of medicine, surgery, psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, oncology, dentistry, geriatrics, and extended care. Bronx VAMC has 311 authorized hospital beds and 120 nursing home beds and operates several regional referral points including Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) unit. CPRS electronic medical record provides comprehensive access to patients’ health records throughout VA system in United States allowing for interrupted continuity of care. Our residents are empowered by unique VA training and coaching in patient-centered communication skills that promote patient engagement, health behavior change and self-management. Interdisciplinary team-based care along with access to the latest technologies (telemedicine, connected health, etc) help prepare our residents for whatever future opportunities arise after residency is completed.
North Central Bronx: North Central Bronx represents the best that a community hospital has to offer: quality care in a friendly and familiar setting. It is a fixture in the Norwood community: a reliable, familiar and trusted source of medical care for the patients it is proud to serve. Our residents gain vast experience treating patient population with diverse ethnic and socio-economic background.
NCBH is a part of New York City Health and Hospital System (NYC HHC) which is the largest public health system in the country, including total of 11 acute care hospitals within Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. All NYC HHC hospitals including NCBH have joined EPIC EHR since the beginning of 2019. This so far has unified 40,000 users in more than 70 patient care sites.
We are very proud of the educational experience in our Program. We constantly aim to enrich our education sessions with cutting edge internal medicine and subspecialty lectures. We leverage the latest new learning strategies in an effort to provide our resident outstanding education.
We are Streaming Live! In order to make our daily noon conferences available to all our residents we are using an online sharing platform that allows all the residents and faculty members to join the conferences, no matter where they are by simply connecting with their personal tablet, laptop or even smartphone. Anyone can join the conversation remotely, ask question, share their screen and other educational material. All the conferences are structured following the latest ABIM blueprint and they are yearly adjusted based on the latest requirements and hot topics. Beside traditional conferences, our residents are involved in daily small-group teaching sessions with their attendings with in depth discussions on interesting clinical cases, and review of fundamental skills needed in daily practice.
Transition of Care Rotation: We always try to find new ways to further improve education in our Program, as well as exposure to variety of innovative types of medical care. Transition of Care (ToC) rotation was established in 2016 with the goal to give our resident exposure to the modern model of care of patients with complex medical history. Rotation follows medical ward and gives our resident opportunity to follow patient’s journey during the transition from in-hospital to outpatient setting. Moreover, the scope of the rotation goes well beyond simple observation, residents are able to meet, speak and even examine their patients, either in person or by using video calls and state of the art online examination tools. Under close faculty observation we are able to assist the patients, alter their medical management and further improve one of the most critical points of patient care.
Simulation Labs: Our residents participate in many sim labs sessions both at the VA Medical Center and at North Central Bronx Hospital. Held by critical care Attendings and Fellows, Sim labs are constructed to build up and improve essential clinical skills suck as paracentesis, thoracentesis, joint aspiration, lumbar puncture, air way management, intravascular and intraosseous line placement, use of ultrasound in several clinical scenario. Additionally, in collaboration with Jacobi Medical Center and Albert Einstein School of Medicine, our residents have access to the Institute for Medical Simulation and Advanced Learning (iMSAL), one of the most advance simulation centers on the East Coast. At iMSAL, critical medical situations such as cardiopulmonary arrest codes are simulated to help our residents build confidence, improve their medical skills and promote teamwork interaction.
At the James J. Peter Veterans Affairs Medical Center, we are committed to training physicians to not only become excellent clinicians but also leaders of change in medicine and biomedical sciences. Our residents and faculty share one thing in common: the desire for continuing medical education and research to deliver the best patient care possible. Research opportunities are available in all our departments and includes basic science, clinical and quality improvement. Residents have the opportunity to do research at both the Bronx VA and throughout the Mount Sinai Health System. During the past year alone, our residents have published more than 75 manuscripts or abstracts and have presented at prestigious national and international meetings including CHEST, ATS, SCCM, Sleep, ASCO, DDW, NFK, JACC, etc. Below you will find a breakdown of the various research activities underway at our center.
Telehealth Based Transitional Care Research Program: Keeping up with advancements in digital health services, the James J Peters VAMC has integrated novel telehealth-based care and research in optimizing patient care in the high-risk VA population. The program is designed to improve patient access to care and at the same time equip trainees with the emerging concept of tele-health. Trainees at the James J. Peter VAMC have the unique opportunities to familiarize themselves with research in this mode of care as well as in understanding the complexities of the system. The focus of this research is reduce readmission rates and costs of care while still providing optimal patient care.
Hematology/Medical Oncology Research Program: In collaboration with Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC)/ New York Presbyterian (NYP), the Hematology/Oncology program at the James J. Peter VAMC is focused on delivering state of the art cancer therapy to Veterans combating cancer. A variety of clinical and laboratory research opportunities are available. The area of focus for clinical trials are Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Head & Neck Cancer, Colon Cancer and Pancreatic Cancer and precision medicine for targeted cancer therapy including immunotherapies.
Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine: The Spinal Cord Damage Research Center at the James J. Peter VAMC is currently exploring the use of medications and mechanical devices to improve the respiratory discomfort and health risks among patients with spinal cord injury. The areas of research interest include mechanisms underlying non-specific airway hyper-reactivity, prevention of disorders of breathing and disordered sleeping patterns. Residents have the opportunity to learn about PFTs, spirometry, lung volumes, full body plethysmography, impulse oscillometry, exhaled breath condensate etc.
Critical Care and Sleep/ICU Research Committee: Founded by a group of residents, the ICU research committee has successfully evolved into a coaching/mentoring service which helps residents define their personal career goals and pursue research projects aligning with their aspirations. Furthermore, the research committee helps in learning research methodology, implementation of data analysis and manuscript writing. The ICU sleep committee; a subgroup of the ICU research committee was also founded in 2017 and successfully implemented sleep time in the ICU as a part of quality improvement projects.
Quality Improvement Projects: The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai puts special emphasis on patient safety and quality assurance. Residents are required to complete a quality improvement project during their intern year. Residents are provided with resources to help them understand fundamentals of key quality improvement concepts and methodologies, including plan-do-study-act, six-sigma, and lean strategies as a part of their curriculum. These projects are presented at our annual Department of Medicine, North Central Bronx Hospital (NCBH) Research Day.
Annual Research Day: Residents participate in annual NCBH research day and annual Mount Sinai GME Consortium research day. These events are a showcase of case reports, quality improvement and other research projects and also include multiple oral presentations. The presentations are judged by a panel of experts from the medical faculty and awards are given of the best presentation within the different research categories.
Medical Library Resources: Residents in our Internal Medicine Residency program have access to the following resources:
- VA online Library.
- Levy library (Mount Sinai).
- Remote access to a number of E-resources though an open Athens account.
- Pubmed and Up-to-Date.
- Dynamed, Visual diagnosis and Micromedex
Spinal Cord Damage Research Center: Our residents have a unique opportunity to be a part of Spinal Cord Damage Research Center group. The mission of the National Center for the Medical Consequences of Spinal Cord Injury is to improve quality of life and increase longevity of individuals with SCI by identifying and intervening to reduce or prevent the secondary medical consequences and to improve functional outcomes. Many of the limitations to function and social integration are the result of barriers imposed by the secondary medical consequences of SCI. A few of the scientific and clinical accomplishments of the programs that have improved clinical SCI care are provided and initiatives that have provided relevant new knowledge that are anticipated to be transferred to the clinic.
Our goal is not only to train you to be the very best physician you can be, but also to help you find and develop a career in medicine that will be fulfilling, regardless if you choose to do a specialty fellowship or go directly into practice after residency. We do this through:
Mentorship Program: Our program encourages every resident to have a mentor established starting early in the Residency so that they have adequate guidance and support throughout their course.
The program provides assistance in choosing mentors from several different specialties that are available depending on every residents’ professional goals.
Meet the Sub-Specialist Sessions: These sessions are organized by the chief residents every year and revolve around introduction of our residents to the various sub-specialty options that are available.
During each session we have faculty from different specialties coming in to share their experience in the field beginning from how they had decided to choose the field themselves to the current scope of the field for new generation of physicians.
This we believe has been a wonderful opportunity for our residents to gain knowledge that will eventually help in the decision-making process regarding future career options. It has helped some residents to choose a career path and some to reaffirm their choice.
Morchand Center: By hiring trained actors to simulate the signs and symptoms of an illness and to provide feedback to the medical student learners who provide their care, the Morchand Center emphasizes the importance of thoughtful and sensitive patient care. The Morchand Center, one of the nation’s first such training centers, is dedicated to training today's medical students to become tomorrow's compassionate physicians.
Here is a list of the faculty with whom our residents train:
| General Internal Medicine | Kimberly Lam, MD Samira Manji Khan Meenakshi Zaidi, MD Rachel Sherman, MD |
| Gastroenterology | Mark Korsten, MD Alan Rosman, MD Kristel Hunt, MD Tae Hoon Lee, MD |
| Infectious Disease | Sheldon Brown, MD Juan C Bandres, MD Norbert Brau, MD Michael Gelman, MD |
| Cardiovascular Medicine | Calvin Eng, MD Steven Atlas, MD Lawrence Baruch, MD Clive Rosendorff, MD Sandra Soler, MD Mahjabeen Rashid, MD |
| Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism | Terry Davies, MD Pietra Greenburg, MD William Bauman, MD Shira Saul, MD |
| Hematology and Oncology | Imtiaz Patel, MD Yeun-Hee Park, MD Prabhjot S. Mundi, MD |
| Pulmonary and Critical Care | Robert Siegel, MD Joon Woo Kim, MD Roberta Lenner, MD Bindu Raju, MD Gregory Schilero, MD Eugenio Guzman, MD David Shabaz Ally Eshak, MD Sherif Latef, MD Moses bachan, MD Zinobia Khan, MD |
| Renal-Electrolyte and Hypertension Division | Ayesha Shaikh, MD James Post, MD Etti Zeldis, MD Eric Langhoff, MD Jeremy Leventhal, MD Rubin Zhang, MD Rebecca Louise Kent, MD |
| Geriatrics and Palliative Care | Ellen Olson, MD Allen Andrade, MD |
| Rheumatology | Kelly Della Steed, MD Elana Jaye Bernstein, MD |