INTERNAL MEDICINE RESIDENCY
resident TESTIMONIALS
The testimonials below are from current and past interns and residents at Valley Medical Center.
What do Categorical, Preliminary and Transitional Year graduates of Valley say about their training?
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Here is updated career information on the SCVMC graduates featured in the above video:
- Narges Alipanah-Lechner, MD – UCSF, San Francisco CA
- Tim Dang, MD – UCSD, La Jolla CA
- Belal Hakim, MD – Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose CA
- Eloka Ikebudu, MD – Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center, Harbor City CA
- Nuriel Moghavem, MD – Los Angeles General Medical Center, Los Angeles CA
- Tim Muldoon, MD – UC Davis, Davis CA
- Chris Rombaoa, MD – Sutter Health, San Francisco CA
- Anthony Sawyer, MD – Stanford, Palo Alto CA
- Paula Song, MD – Piedmont Physicians Rheumatology, Atlanta GA
- An Vo, MD – Valley Homeless Health Program, SCVMC, San Jose CA
- Kellie Young, MD – Northwest Gastroenterology, Portland OR
I would describe Valley as a place of support and inclusion. At Valley, we have the privilege of caring for patients from various socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures. While learning how to provide excellent care as a trainee, I felt constant support from my co-interns, residents, chief residents, and program leadership. I was hoping to find a program with a collaborative, caring, healthy culture and Valley is exactly that. I also appreciate the program’s emphasis on excellent medical education— didactics are tailored to residents’ level of training and the attending physicians really enjoy teaching. This program trained me well and I am excited to use the skills and knowledge I have gained to provide excellent care to my patients.
Janae Chatmon, MD
UCLA
SCVMC Preliminary class of 2024
Stanford PMR class of 2027
As an almost entirely hands-on learner, I wanted to be trained at a place that provided high volume and high complexity, with a strong balance of autonomy and supervision. In my 3 years at SCVMC, I could not have asked for a more educational experience. The patient diversity, the tremendous variety in disease and acuity (ICU being my favorite), working closely with passionate, driven hospitalists and experts in almost every field, were opportunities that have been monumental in my development as a physician. I graduated feeling very confident about my skills and abilities as an Internist. With that being said, my true passion has been in Primary Care and working with the underserved. The Social Medicine ILP was a fantastic experience. I had the opportunity to FEEL what is was like to help people living on the margins. I had the opportunity to explore severe mental illness, addiction and the incredible complexity of needs that define chronic homelessness. I worked alongside an impressive network of people committed to caring for the most vulnerable people in the community and developing solutions to end homelessness. I was very fortunate to be mentored by a team that was brilliantly enthusiastic which has fueled my drive to continue working with this population.
Todd Fong
VCU School of Medicine
SCVMC class of 2016
VHHP Primary Care
When applying to residencies, I knew that I wanted to train at a place that serves the patients that I know I want to take care of - to understand directly how to care for a wide variety of vulnerable communities and help patients navigate the US's complex medical system for those who are un- and under-insured. At the same time, I also wanted to train at a place with strong academic rotations so that I can practice the best possible medicine to support my patients. Valley's culture and bidirectional affiliation with Stanford certainly allowed for this.
Given my background in health policy, I also thoroughly enjoyed the Social Medicine ILP, whereby I was able to see clinicians advocate in real time and participate in meeting local policymakers to advocate for our patients. This ILP also broadened my clinical horizons by allowing me to see care provided in many different settings with the Valley Homeless Healthcare Program (where I now work!). Valley's affiliations also allowed for me to rotate in rural medicine at IHS Shiprock in New Mexico through the Stanford/Yale Global Health Scholars Program, a setting that reaffirmed the excellent clinical training I had received during residency.
The patient-oriented and supportive environment of not only the residency program but the system in general has led me to stay in our system at the Valley Homeless Health Program in primary care where I know that there is always a friendly voice on the other end of any consult and where I feel confident our patients are being cared for by people who truly want to work with marginalized communities.
Isaure Hostetter, MD
UC Irvine
SCVMC class of 2023
VHHP Primary Care
It's a privilege to train at Valley, where our incredibly diverse patients teach us daily about the wide-ranging medical pathology that exists here in our community, often with unusual presentations and challenging social situations -- all of which shape me to become a culturally-sensitive doctor who knows medicine inside and out, and can serve as an advocate on our patients' behalf. Furthermore, with our partnership with Stanford's Johnson & Johnson Global Health Program, I'm provided with the amazing opportunity to take my clinical skills abroad in working towards improving the health of underserved communities abroad.
Jessica Liu, MD
UC Davis
SCVMC class of 2018
Primary Care, Lifelong Medical Center, Berkeley CA
I would describe Valley as a place of love and compassion. My co-interns and co-residents treat each other with love, and support one another. Every patient we meet, from truly the most vulnerable, and systematically disadvantaged populations may it be folks who are undocumented, homeless, recent refugees or immigrants and so much more, we treat with compassion. And our attendings teach us how to be excellent clinicians, patiently and compassionately- may it be while teaching how to place a central line, or while clinical reasoning of extremely complicated cases. Lastly, the culture if togetherness with the united goal of serving underserved patients shines at VMC, from our program leadership, to staff! Valley is a place to thrive, knowing that it takes a village to get one through residency, and that the village is there for you.
Hedieh Matinrad, MD
UCSD
SCVMC class of 2020
Palliative Care Faculty, UCSF, San Francisco CA
One of the reasons I chose to come to VMC is to have the opportunity to serve the most vulnerable patients in Santa Clara County. As a safety-net hospital, we treat all patients that come through the door and never refuse to treat regardless of ability to pay. We are a busy county program and are provided with enough autonomy to feel prepared as clinicians as we transition each year through the program. The best part of matching at VMC is getting to know and work with a diverse group of co-residents which makes coming in to work fun and exciting.
Anabel Ortiz, MD
University of Washington
SCVMC class of 2019
Hospitalist, Kaiser Permanente Fremont, Fremont CA
Valley is a special place to train. There are so many things that drew me to this program. The clinical training, thanks to the diversity of patients and fact that it is a true safety net and county system, means residents learn to manage and triage sick patients with a wide range of pathology, exposure you would not get at other programs. In addition, the program leaders and attendings are passionate teachers, patient advocates, and role models. Most importantly, my co-residents were fun to work with and there really is a team approach; you are never on your own. I have such fond memories of my days on wards at Valley, and look back on my preliminary year as a special time where I learned to be a doctor and had fun while doing it. This program trained me well, with a broad knowledge base not just about medicine, but about the doctoring and humanistic side of medicine, which I will be forever grateful for.
Katie Ransohoff, MD
Stanford
SCVMC Preliminary class of 2017
Stanford Dermatology class of 2020
Sutter Health, Palo Alto CA
One of the best measures of quality I've encountered in my career is the feedback I get from seasoned physicians. There have been numerous occasions when either my boss or a patient relays the praise given to me from a sub-specialist whom I highly regard and respect. The attendings at VMC are truly a breed unto their own. Their dedication, passion, and energy for medical education has no equal. The rigors and case diversity at VMC has undoubtedly given me a solid foundation to build my medical knowledge for my career. Being in the community hospital setting, I work alongside hospitalists trained from around the nation and still PCPs and Sub-specialists ask for me by name to manage their patients in the hospital.
David Reinert, MD
West Virginia University School of Medicine
SCVMC Class of 2016
PAMF Hospitalist, Mountain View CA
SCVMC is a great place to train for residency. Our patient population is invariably complex, often coming from low resource backgrounds with little support, and it is an honor to care for this population. SCVMC offers a variety of rotations that introduces trainees to various healthcare programs offered by Santa Clara County, including Valley Homeless Health Program, Re-entry Clinic, Medical Respite, and Refugee Clinic. These rotations have been eye-opening and have offered me new perspectives onto how medicine can be practiced to better serve our most vulnerable communities.
I also commend SCVMC for its dedication in training its residents to becoming self-sufficient and competent physicians. I can confidently say that by the end of my training I will feel prepared to practice medicine anywhere. Part of this is due to our rigorous ICU experience, which starts during intern year, along with our complex patient population. The wide range of disease we care for, along with the hands-on approach of our training, including running rapid response calls and code blues throughout all three years of training, lends itself to producing strong physician leaders.
Lastly, our program is incredibly supportive. We are well- known by our faculty and are always given the opportunity to be heard and implement changes where needed. For those interested in fellowships, this program is conducive to building connections with subspecialists on a variety of rotations and electives, many whom are associated with Stanford. Given our unique connection to Stanford, we are also given the opportunity to rotate at Stanford, along with hosting their medicine residents and medical students at SCVMC.
Lucy Studemeister, MD
Ponce Health Sciences
SCVMC class of 2025
