Upstate Medical University: Upstate Graduates First Class From Family Medicine Residency Program

Syracuse NY

15 June, 2022

2:19 PM

Description

Press release from Upstate Medical University: June 15, 2022 Upstate Medical University is helping combat the national shortage of primary care providers with its new Family Medicine Residency Program. The new program began in 2019 and was the first residency program for Upstate Family Medicine and the first residency program based at Upstate's Community Campus. On Saturday, the program's inaugural class, celebrated its graduation from the three-year program. Four of these new doctors will launch their careers here at Upstate. Program Director R. Eugene Bailey, MD, FAAFP, said the inaugural class exceeded all expectations. "We were looking for residents who could bring passion, a strong work ethic, and certainly a desire to serve our community especially regarding diversity and an equity of healthcare," he said. "All of them were committed to serving the underserved. We were also looking for innovation with our residents and a spirit of trailblazing. All five residents went above and beyond our expectations for our first class." The inaugural graduates are Jorge Alvarenga-Montoya, MD; Bushra Atta Ur Rehman, MBBS; Rahila Iftikhar, MBBS; Akifa Nazim, MBBS; Krysten Wallace, MD, chief resident. "They are a diverse group," Bailey said. "They come from all different walks of life. One of the strengths in our residency program is the breath of cultures and experiences that our residents bring. Many of them have already overcome many challenges in their personal lives and they bring a certain amount of resilience we felt we needed for our initial class." All the graduates will remain in Central New York. Atta Ur Rehman, Wallace and Iftikhar will be joining the Family Residency program as faculty. Nazim will do a one-year fellowship in geriatrics at Upstate and Alvarenga-Montoya will be joining Family Care Medical Group in Camillus. "I am so grateful for my time and the skills I have acquired, both professionally and personally, as a resident in the Upstate Family Medicine Residency Program," Wallace said. "Though a new program, from the beginning I knew we would be successful as the program was already surrounded by numerous established residency and fellowship programs within Upstate Medical University. I look forward to continuing to serve this community that has helped train me to become the family medicine physician I am today." This press release was produced by Upstate Medical University. The views expressed here are the author's own.