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Program Leadership

Saba A. Hasan, MD, MACP
Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency
Associate Designated Institutional Official (DIO)

Saba A. Hasan, MD, FACPDr. Hasan has been the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director since 2008. Prior to becoming Program Director, she was Director of Medical and Subspecialty Clinics and Internal Medicine Residency Core Faculty at Capital Health since 2000. Dr. Hasan graduated from Sind Medical College in Pakistan in the top 5% of her class, and completed her Internal Medicine Residency training at Capital Health, followed by a Chief Resident year.

Dr. Hasan was the 2014 recipient of the prestigious ACGME Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award, presented to only 10 Program Directors of accredited residencies and fellowships nationally each year. She has presented at many national and regional conferences.

Dr. Hasan has served on the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM) committees and is the past governor for the ACP New Jersey Chapter. She is currently the Chair of the ACP Credentials Committee.

Dr. Hasan enjoys nurturing residents to achieve their full potential as they get ready to become the quality and safety physician leaders of tomorrow. She has brought many changes into the program to enhance resident teaching and create an environment of scholarship.

 

Daniel F. Goldsmith, MD, FACP
Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency

Dr. Goldsmith

Dr. Goldsmith graduated from Cornell University Medical College and trained in Internal Medicine at Boston University. After his training, he joined Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, a community-based Internal Medicine practice where he served as a firm leader for the resident practice for three years prior to joining Capital Health in 2001.

Dr. Goldsmith mentors the residents in submitting abstracts and other scholarly activities, resulting in numerous acceptances for presentations at National and Regional Conferences every year. He has a special interest in teaching bedside physical diagnosis. Dr. Goldsmith also has an academic appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine from Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is the Chair of the Institutional Review Board and Chair of the Continuing Medical Education Committee at Capital Health.

Dr. Goldsmith is very likely to ask you about the music you listen to, the restaurants you frequent, and what else you like to do outside of work.

 

Ekaterina Vypritskaya, MD, FACP
Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency

Ekaterina Vypritskaya, MD, FACP

Dr. Vypritskaya graduated from Kuban Medical Academy in Russia with honors. She was trained in Internal Medicine and Cardiology and worked in a regional emergency hospital, with concomitant teaching responsibilities at the Kuban Medical Academy. In 2000, Dr. Vypritskaya received her PhD in Arrhythmology. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency training at Capital Health in 2009 and served as Chief Resident the following year.

Dr. Vypritskaya enjoys working with residents on ward rotations and the fresh “outside the box” thinking they bring to the bedside. Currently, medical students from Rowan Osteopathic Medicine and Drexel Medical School, and Temple Medical School add their energy and intellectual curiosity to teaching rounds.

Dr. Vypritskaya has had several poster acceptances at national meetings over the past 5 years, most recently “Continuum Curriculum for First Year Residents: From Day 1 to Rising Senior”, presented at AAIM 2018, and “Teaching and Learning from Our Neighbors,” presented at SGIM 2021.

Dr. Vypritskaya is one of the Co-Chairs of the Patient Care Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council and is an active member of the Credentials and Medical Records Committees at Capital Health. She is passionate about Community Outreach; she and three senior residents received the 2020 Capital Women in Philanthropy Award for the project “Partnering with Patients and Families to Improve Health Literacy in Our Community”. This project aims to improve diabetes management of racial and ethnic minorities in the communities they serve.

Dr. Vypritskaya is Co-Chair and founding member of the Diversity, Patient Care Equity, and Inclusion Council at Capital Health. She is also a member of the Credentials and Medical Records Committees at Capital.

 

Delaram Moazami, MD, FACP
Director, Medical Clinics at Capital Health
Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Program

Delaram Moazami, MD, FACP

Dr. Moazami is a board-certified cardiologist from Tehran University of Medical Science. At the time of her graduation, she was the recipient of the Outstanding Performance Award. Dr. Moazami completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Capital Health, graduating in June 2008. She received the award for Best Research on “Guideline Adherence for Treatment of Systolic Heart Failure at Capital Health”.

In 2009, Dr. Moazami became the Director of Medical and Subspecialty Clinics at Capital Health. She models a holistic approach to patient care, emphasizing the role of the primary care physician in patient education and shared decision making between the patient, family and physicians.

Dr. Moazami leads the “Resident Well-Being” program, and is the coordinator for the resident continuity clinic quality improvement projects. She presented “A Team-Based Approach to Leveraging Performance Improvement Projects into Population Health at the Marvin R. Dunn Poster Reception at the 2019 ACGME Annual Educational Conference. This poster described how the unique process of organizing resident performance improvement projects has improved the health of our Clinic population.

 

Khadija Merchant, MD
Ambulatory Clinic Physician
Core Faculty of Internal Medicine Residency Program

Khadija Merchant, MDDr. Merchant graduated medical school from Dow Medical College and internship from Aga Khan University Hospital in Pakistan. She then worked in the Middle East before relocating to the United States. Before starting her residency, Dr. Merchant worked at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago as a Clinical Research Assistant, and later Physician Advisor at a healthcare consultancy firm.

Dr. Merchant graduated residency from Capital Health Regional Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency Program. She had an accepted poster presentation at the Society of Hospital Medicine 2020 Annual Meeting titled “Moyamoya Disease: A Rare Cause of Stroke in the Unexpected”.

In both her second and third years of training, Dr. Merchant received the Resident Recognition Award for “Best Exemplifying Caring, Compassion, Integrity, Respect, Service, and Team Work” as voted by Capital Health nursing staff.

Dr. Merchant has an interest in preventive care and obesity medicine. She is passionate about continuing to develop as an educator as well as inspiring growth.

 

Natalia Plotskaya, MD
Core Faculty of Internal Medicine Residency Program

Natalia Plotskaya, MDDr. Plotskaya graduated from St. Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University in Russia. Following graduation, she completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg. Dr. Plotskaya then continued at the Medical Academy as an Internal Medicine Physician before relocating to the United States.

Dr. Plotskaya completed her Internal Medicine Residency training at Capital Health, where she served as Chief Resident from 2017-2018. In her position as a Chief Resident, she worked as Junior Faculty, was actively involved in clinical rounds and board review teaching sessions with residents. In June 2020, she completed a fellowship in Nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. She returned to New Jersey and joined Capital Health Internal Medicine Residency as a Core Faculty member.

Her interests, in addition to practicing Internal Medicine and Nephrology, are resident education and curriculum development. Dr. Plotskaya’s special areas of interest are preventive medicine in chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and diabetic nephropathy. She actively works with residents on improving management of hypertension and preventive health screening amongst patients at the Family Health Center.

 

Khurram Zubair, MD, FACP
Internist with Capital Health Medical Group
Core Faculty of Internal Medicine Residency Program

Dr. Zubair

Dr. Zubair graduated from Liaquat Medical College in Pakistan, ranking in the top 5% of his class. After graduating, he received training at Jinah Postgraduate Medical Center, an 1100 bed hospital, where he was also involved in teaching medical students. He completed Internal Medicine Residency training at Capital Health, where he received the “Superior Resident” award as voted by the Nursing staff. At the time of his graduation, he was recognized by the Program as “Resident of the Year”.

Since 1997, Dr. Zubair has been intimately involved with resident training at Capital Health. He has received the “Best Clinical Attending” 10 times in his time with the Program. Dr. Zubair is a member of the Clinical Competency Committee. He is actively involved in resident scholarly activities and has served as a judge for several years for Capital Health’s annual Resident Research Day.

Dr. Zubair has been running a busy outpatient practice since 1997 and is currently a Lead Physician at the Capital Health Primary Care office in Lawrenceville, NJ.

 

Sarah I. Sordo, MD
Internist with Capital Health Medical Group
Core Faculty of Internal Medicine Residency Program

Dr. Sordo

Dr. Sordo graduated with a Gold Diploma from the Higher Institute of Medical Science in Havana, Cuba. She completed her Internal Medicine training at Capital Health and worked as a 4th year Chief Resident. She is the recipient of multiple awards from Attending physicians and Nursing staff during her training at Capital Health, recognizing her as a “Superior Medical Resident”. Additionally, her senior research presentation was recognized by the Program and received an award. Dr. Sordo also received an award for her “High Academic Attainment and Qualities that Characterize the Fine Physician”.

Dr. Sordo practices Primary Care medicine with Capital Health and is actively involved with resident education and training. Dr. Sordo has been a faculty member of the Internal Medicine Residency Program since 2001. Her areas of interest are preventive medicine and wellness, obesity and other metabolic disorders, and women’s health.

 

Sara L. Wallach, MD, MACP
Vice-Chair of Education, Department of Medicine
Core Faculty of Internal Medicine Residency Program

Sara L. Wallach, MD, MACPDr. Sara L. Wallach is the Vice-Chair of Education, Department of Medicine and Core Faculty of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Before joining Capital Health, Dr. Wallach was Chair of Medicine and Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, NJ.

Prior to joining the St Francis Medical staff in June 2013, she was Vice-Chair and Program Director for Medicine at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey for 18 years. She served on the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Council from 2009-2012 and is a former governor of the American College of Physicians New Jersey Chapter.

She is currently the co-facilitator of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Community Teaching Hospital Assembly. Her current academic rank is Professor of Medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Dr. Wallach is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and earned her medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center School of Medicine Brooklyn, NY. In addition to graduate medical education, her interests include thromboembolism, performance improvement, and patient safety.

 

Donald Christmas, MD
Core Faculty of Internal Medicine Residency Program

Donald Christmas, MDDr. Donald Christmas is a Core Faculty member in Capital Health Regional Medical Center’s Internal Medicine Residency Program. He is a graduate of Ross University School of Medicine and Seton Hall –St Francis Internal Medicine Residency Program.

Before joining Capital Health, Dr. Christmas was the Associate Program Director of the St. Francis Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency Program, the Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine, as well as the Institutional Review Board Chair. He enjoys working with the residents in the inpatient rotations as well as the ambulatory clinics to prepare them for the next phase of their lives. He exemplifies his work with this quote: "The art of medicine is to be properly learned only from its practice and its exercise." – Thomas Sydenham

 

Anand Kaji, MD
Director, East Trenton Clinic
Core Faculty of Internal Medicine Residency Program

Anand Kaji, MDDr. Anand Kaji is a board-certified Internist, Core Faculty of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Capital Health, and Director of the East Trenton Clinic. Before joining Capital Health Dr. Kaji was Director of the St. Francis Medical Center Clinic, as well as the Assistant Program Director for the St. Francis Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency Program. Prior to that, he was an academic hospitalist at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.

He has earned his MD degree from St. George's University School of Medicine and completed his residency at Drexel College of Medicine/Hahnemann University Hospital. His interests lie primarily in the residency education with focus on the teaching curriculum and board preparation. He also supervises the 3rd year medical students from Drexel College of Medicine both in inpatient and outpatient settings. Lastly, he is involved in the quality improvement projects particularly in the areas of patient satisfaction both within the Internal Medicine department and in other parts of the hospital as a whole.

 

Muhammad A. Bashir, MD
Core Faculty of Internal Medicine Residency Program

Muhammad A. Bashir, MDDr. Muhammad Asif Bashir is Core Faculty of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Capital Health. He graduated from Nishtar Medical University, Pakistan in 2012 and completed his Internal Medicine residency from Geisinger Health System-Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in 2019.

Before joining Capital Health in 2023, he practiced Hospital Medicine in West Virginia at CAMC and WVU-Camden Clark Medical Center. During this time, he was also an adjunct faculty of West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and a volunteer faculty member for the WVU-Camden Clark Internal Medicine Residency program where he was a PI for various QI projects aimed at improving quality of care and cost effectiveness. He also co-authored numerous case-reports with the house staff at Camden Clark, as well as presented at regional and national meetings. He particularly enjoys teaching inpatient medicine with a strong focus on basic diagnostic skills, evidence-based medicine and high value care. His favorite quote is “medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability” by William Osler.

He enjoys playing cricket and soccer, travelling, sightseeing, cooking and watching classic novel-based movies.

 

Aleena Nazeef, MD
Chief Medical Resident and Junior Faculty, 2023-2024

Aleena Nazeef, MDDr. Nazeef graduated from Rawalpindi Medical College in Pakistan, where she was in the first division in all professional examinations and elected as class representative during her 4th year of medical school. Following her graduation, Dr. Nazeef worked as a Medical Officer/Primary Care Doctor in Pakistan before relocating to the United States.

During her PG3 year, Dr. Nazeef had an accepted poster presentation to the SHM Converge 2023 meeting titled “HSV Encephalitis Presenting as Stroke.” During her PG3 year, Dr. Nazeef served as an Assistant Chief Resident.

Dr. Nazeef is fluent in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, and English and enjoys cooking, computer games, gardening, and traveling.

 

Rebecca Mullowney
Program Coordinator, Internal Medicine Residency Program

Rebecca graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in Biology. Before joining Capital Health, Rebecca was the Program Coordinator for the St. Francis Internal Medicine Residency Program. Prior to that Rebecca was the Research Coordinator and Institutional Review Board Coordinator at St. Francis, a position she continued to maintain even after her appointment as St Francis Coordinator. She previously worked in the biotechnology industry before joining St. Francis as a Research Associate for Pharmacopeia Inc.

In her capacity as coordinator, Rebecca provided direction, leadership, and day-to-day management of educational and departmental activities, assuring compliance with ACGME and hospital requirements. As the IRB coordinator, she reviewed resident research abstracts for HIPAA compliance, shepherded resident projects through the IRB and administrated IRB meetings. She has been recognized yearly at resident graduation for her advocacy on behalf of resident scholarly works and resident wellness. Rebecca has supported community outreach projects and has served on the St Francis Medical Center Foundation Board of Trustees, the Community Fund Raising Council and continues to serve as a member and of the Trenton Auxiliary Board of the Children’s Home Society. In October 2022, Rebecca was honored with the St Francis Living Our Value Award for her work exemplifying the core values by making outstanding contributions to the medical center and the community. Rebecca currently serves as the Alliance Ambassador for the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM).

 

Steve McDonnell
Program Coordinator, Internal Medicine/Transitional Year Residency

Steve McDonnell

Steve McDonnell graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Communication Arts & Sciences. He recently joined the Graduate Medical Education team as the Program Coordinator for the Transitional Year Residency. Prior to joining, he worked for several years in Capital Health’s Rehabilitation Services Department running the daily operations at the Outpatient Therapy Clinic.

Steve works closely with the residents, Program Director and faculty daily to ensure an efficient and productive academic year. Steve assures compliance with ACGME hospital system requirements through managing all non-clinical functions of the program. He believes the Transitional Year Program will be a tremendous foundational building block for residents to succeed in their future professional and academic endeavors.

 

Brenda Reek
Program Assistant, Internal Medicine Residency/Graduate Medical Education

Brenda Reek

Brenda has been a backbone to the Residency Program for the past 15 years. She truly enjoys learning about the medical world and helping residents when they ask for assistance. She works with the CME office to ensure Resident Grand Round presentations follow CME guidelines and with the Graduate Medical Education department. Brenda supports faculty in creating the schedule for the didactic portion of the Program and actively assists in Wellness activities. She has been the Internal Medicine Residency Heart Walk captain for over 10 years and always brings an enthusiastic team to help support the annual event.