Kenneth V Schwartz MD, FACC. FACP Dr. K.V. Schwartz is the Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief of Cardiology at Griffin Hospital. He is intricately involved with the teaching program, writes the cardiology curriculum and attends on the cardiology teaching service twice a year. Dr. Schwartz is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine. He attended Princeton University for undergraduate training and went on to pursue medical school at Cornell University Medical College. He finished his internal medicine residency at Boston City Hospital after which he completed a fellowship in Cardiovascular medicine. He is certified in Pacemaker implantation and his main clinical interests are echocardiography and cardiac pacemakers.

 

Kenneth Dobuler MD, FCCP, FACP, ABPM-UHM completed his medical school training at Yale University School of Medicine, where he was a resident in internal medicine and a pulmonary critical care fellow. Dr. Dobuler has been at Griffin Hospital since 1981. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. His interests are in pulmonary medicine, critical care and sleep medicine. Dr. Dobuler is Board Certified in hyperbaric and undersea medicine, and provides oversight for Griffin Hospital’s Hyperbaric Medicine Center. For the past 10 years, Dr. Dobuler has been Chairman of the Department of Medicine.

Seema D'Souza MD is the Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency and Chief Residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. She worked as the Associate Program Director for seven years at Griffin Hospital prior to her current role. Dr. D'Souza is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Internal Medicine residency and is responsible for administering and maintaining an educational environment conducive to educating the residents in each of the ACGME competency areas. She is also responsible for overseeing and ensuring the quality of didactic and clinical education in all sites that participate in the program. Dr. D'Souza's research interests include improved techniques in medical education, women's health and quality assurance.

 

Haq Nawaz MD, MPH is the Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and  the Program Director for the combined Internal Medicine & Preventive Medicine Residency Program. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. He completed his residency training in combined internal medicine and preventive medicine program at Griffin and received his MPH from the Yale School of Public Health. After finishing his residency he became chief resident/residency manager for the combined program. Later he was promoted to be the Associate Program Director and then Program Director of the Combined Program. Dr. Nawaz is board certified in both internal medicine and preventive medicine. He is a member of the Griffin Faculty Practice Plan and serves as attending hospitalist. Dr. Nawaz is actively involved in quality of care improvement in the hospital. He chairs Clinical Pathways Committee and is the co-chair of the Evidence-based Care Council. Dr. Nawaz is actively involved in clinical research and has received many research and training grants. His research interests include cardiovascular risk reduction, obesity prevention, behavior modification and screening. He has published original research articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Nawaz also participates in international health and humanitarian medical missions. He has participated in medical missions to Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Peru. 

 

Dorothea Wild MD, MPH is the Chief Hospitalist, Associate Program Director of the Combined Internal Medicine/Preventive Medicine Residency Program, Co-Director of the Griffin Stroke Center, Lecturer at the Department for Health Policy and Management, and Clinical Instructor at the Yale School of Medicine. She is a graduate of Griffin Hospital's Combined Internal Medicine/Preventive Medicine Residency and received her Masters of Public Health in Health Management at the Yale School of Public Health. Her research activities lie primarily in the area of hospital quality improvement, medical errors, disease modeling, and cost-effectiveness of screening. Her current work focuses on patient centered care, health literacy, reducing readmissions, and improving quality of care. Dr. Wild conducts morning report once a week, attends on the inpatient service two months per year, coordinates the preventive medicine resident rotations and lectures, and conducts journal club each month. She also gives lectures on health policy, quality of care, health management, and clinical preventive medicine.

 

Lionel Lim MD, MPH Dr. Lim is the associate program director for the combined IM/PM track. He is a geriatrician and runs the inpatient geriatrics service as well as the Hospice Service at Griffin Hospital. Dr. Lim also chairs the CME committee. He completed medical school at the University of Sydney, Australia and went on to pursue residency at NYU Downtown Hospital, New York. He then went to Mayo Clinic Rochester and finished a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine and General Preventive Medicine & Public Health. His research interests include: screening in older adults, osteoporosis, epidemiology, risk factors & treatment, falls prevention in older adults. the geriatrics curriculum can be found on this website.

 

Joseph Gnanaraj MD, MBBS is the Assistant program director of the Internal medicine residency program. He graduated from Madurai Medical College, Madurai, India in 1999. He completed his residency training in Internal medicine at the same institute in 2002. He was actively involved in teaching medical students and residents in Vinayaka Mission Medical College, Salem, India where he served as Assistant professor of medicine. He also served as senior Registrar in Internal Medicine at ministry of Health, St. Vincent. At that time he taught bedside clinical skills to medical students at St. Georges University, St. Vincent, an off-shore American Medical College. Following that he completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at Griffin Hospital in 2007. He completed his Chief Residency in 2008 at Griffin Hospital. At present, he also serves as Attending Hospitalist with the Griffin Faculty practice plan. He is an active member of the Evidence Based Care Council, pathway committee and various quality improvement programs at Griffin. He is actively involved in research activities involving quality improvement. His areas of interest include Diabetes, Metabolism and Hematological malignancies.

 

K. Marya Chaisson MD is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, Sleep Medicine and Critical Care. She is the Medical Director of the Critical Care Unit and The Sleep Wellness Center at Griffin Hospital. She finished medical school at the American University of the Caribbean and went on to pursue residency training at Easton Hospital in Pennsylvania. After completing a fellowship at Penn State University she came to Griffin Hospital. Currently she directs the ICU teaching service eight months of each year and is very involved in medical education. Dr. Chaisson is the Director of Medical Student Affairs and coordinates the schedules for the medical student rotations at the hospital. She serves as a Co-Chairman of the hospital’s Patient Centered Care Council, which  is the body responsible for overseeing the hospital's efforts to advance patient centered and equitable care throughout the institution. She was recognized for her contributions to the medical education program in 2005 when she received the “Attending of the year” award from the residents. In 2006, she received the Wholeness of Life Award which nationally recognizes outstanding caregivers. In 2008, Dr Chaisson has also received Griffin Hospital’s Physician of the Year award. Her research interests include sleep disorders and lung cancer.

 

Neetu Nebhwani, MD, Chief Resident.  She graduated from Griffin Hospital residency in 2010 and is activiely involved in all areas of the residency program as Chief.  Dr. Nebhwani is the Director of Rapid Response at Griffin Hospital Cancer Center.

 

Howard Quentzel MD completed his medical education at New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY. Thereafter he completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, NY. He did his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at New York Medical College, NY. Dr. Quentzel is Chief of Infectious Diseases at Griffin Hospital and is actively involved in housestaff teaching activities. He is the Chairman of the Infection Control Committee and also holds the appointment of Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine.

 

Harold Schwartz MD is the Chief of Gastroenterology at Griffin Hospital. He runs the bimonthly Yale-Griffin Gastroentrerology conference and is responsible for house staff curriculum in gastrointestinal and liver diseases. Dr. Schwartz completed his undergraduate education at Brown University and medical school at SUNY Downstate. He then pursued Internal Medicine residency and fellowship in Digestive Diseases at Yale University / Yale New Haven Hospital. He has been at Griffin since 1992. His clinical interests include hepatology, biliary disease, therapeutic endoscopy and inflammatory bowel disease.

 

Naveed Sheikh Bsc, MBBS, MD is clinical hospitalist at Griffin Hospital. He is a graduate of Columbia University at Harlem Hospital Center’s Internal Medicine Residency Program, where he was nominated ‘Resident of the year’ twice in a row. As a hospitalist in Griffin hospital, he manages admitted patients and  is involved in teaching the residents.

 

Gangadhara Kabbli, MD is a clinical academic hospitalist and faculty in the department of Internal medicine at Griffin Hospital.  He completed his internal medicine residency training at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York in 2009 and has been trained in internal medicine at Post Graduate Institute Medical Education and Research center (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India. He has published research abstracts in American college of cardiology, American society of Echocardiography and Heart Rhythm society. He has presented posters at national ACP meetings. Dr. Kabbli is actively involved in house staff teaching activities.

 

Shilpa Shetty, MD, is a clinical academic hospitalist and faculty in the department of Internal Medicine at Griffin Hospital.  She completed her internal medicine residency training at Griffin Hospital in 2010.

 

Earl Baker MD is a retired Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Yale University. After finishing residency he underwent Cardiology fellowship at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and came to Griffin Hospital in 1969. Although he is retired he is still an important part of the medical education department at Griffin. He conducts the weekly EKG teaching session on the cardiology teaching service and rounds with the Non Cardiac Telemetry team weekly. Dr. Baker conducts bedside teaching rounds during which he guides interns on how to perform an excellent cardiovascular physical exam.  He has been recognized for his dedication to higher education many times by the residents. In 2008 he received the “lifetime dedication to teaching” award by the Griffin house staff.

 

Jeffrey Smith MD is an instructor in neurology and a member of the Division of Neurology within the Department of Medicine. He graduated from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, then completed residency training in both Neuropathology/ Anatomical Neurology at New York University Medical Center and Neurology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. After residency and fellowship at Mount Sinai, he became an assistant professor and chief of the ALS clinic there, participating in Neurology and Neuropathology teaching. He has published basic and clinical research in Neuropharmacology and neurodegenerative diseases. After practicing privately in New York City he came to the New Haven area and to Griffin. Present clinical interests include general Neurology, acute stroke, and broadening access to quality health care in the US.

 

 Margie Bliga is the residency program administrator. She is an integral part of the teaching program and works closely with Dr. D’souza and the chief resident regarding all aspects of recruitment, credentialing and scheduling for the residency program. In her capacity as program administrator Margie is committed not only to the helping the residents achieve academic excellence but she is a source of comfort to the residents. Margie adheres to the belief that her residents always come first and she tries to be a support system for them both professionally and personally.

 

Carolyn Steeves is the assistant residency program coordinator. Carolyn maintains the day to day operations of the residency program and graduate medical education department. She also coordinates the subinternship/observership rotations at Griffin Hospital.