Department of Medicine
Clinical Associate Professor
Critical Care Medicine; Internal Medicine; Pulmonary; Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine; Sleep Medicine
My clinical responsibilities include serving as an intensivist to patients requiring critical care and participating in the care of hospitalized patients with pulmonary problems at the Buffalo VA Medical Center (Buffalo VAMC). I also diagnose and manage outpatients with sleep problems at the Buffalo VAMC.
My clinical research interests include asthma in the elderly and the impact of passive smoke on respiratory health. I also have been exploring novel appreciative assessment approaches to raise resilience and prevent burnout in faculty and medical trainees. In addition, I have a keen interest in working on strategies to enhance faculty mentoring skills.
In addition to my clinical and research responsibility, I am passionate about educating future generations of health care professionals, and I help train and mentor medical students from the first to final year of medical school. I am one of the seminar leaders for the Clinical Practice of Medicine course. As such, I help train first-year students in clinical skills. I also play an active role in mentoring medical students, helping them to develop into compassionate and well-rounded physicians who have sound clinical skills as well as the humanistic qualities that are exhibited in the best medical care.
As a member of the steering committee for the medical school’s Center for Medical Humanities, I am involved in designing a humanistic curriculum to prepare the next generation of physicians. I facilitate sessions with second- and third-year medical students, with the goal of supporting and fostering humanism. I teach students how to develop their ability to use self-awareness of knowledge, skill and emotional limitations in order to engage in appropriate help-seeking behaviors.
As the associate clerkship director in internal medicine, I run “brain teasers” sessions to excite and activate my students as they embark on their clerkship journey into medicine. I conduct lectures and small group sessions in pulmonary and critical care medicine, on topics such as asthma, chest x-ray interpretation, pulmonary function testing and shock--and on topics diverse from my subspecialty such as rheumatology, infectious disease and hematology.
In addition, I teach medicine residents and the pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine fellowship trainees who rotate with me on the inpatient and outpatient services. As a preceptor and member of the Resident Clinical Competency Committee, I provide support and career advice to residents during their training.
I believe the ability to think creatively is essential in the medical field, and I strive to help students and physicians-in-training overcome creative barriers. I develop methods to guide students to think “out of the box” and to be inquisitive, and I encourage them to apply these skills to help recognize problems, solve medical cases and design research and clinical treatment.