California Southern I Governor's Newsletter July 2025
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In this Issue:
- Letter from the Governor
- ACP S. California Regions I, II & III Scientific Meeting
- Awards
- 2025 ACP Sacramento Leadership Week
- ACP IM Meeting in New Orleans
- 2025 Washington Leadership Day
- New ACP Fellows
Eric P. Hsieh, MD, FACP, ACP Governor
Letter from the Governor
Dear Colleagues,
I hope this message finds you well and enjoying a restful summer. As we reflect on the past several months, I continue to be inspired by the energy, dedication, and excellence of our ACP Southern California Region I community. It's been a busy and productive season for our chapter, and I'm proud to share just a few of the highlights with you.
We had a fantastic showing at the 2024 Tri-Region Scientific Meeting in Orange this past October, with an incredible range of poster presentations, engaging lectures, and spirited participation in the Doctor's Dilemma competition. The number and quality of submissions from students, residents, and early career physicians were truly impressive, and it's clear that the future of internal medicine in Southern California is bright. Congratulations again to all of our award winners and presenters, and sincere thanks to the judges, co-chairs, and volunteers who made the event such a success.
We also had strong participation at both the ACP Leadership Week in Sacramento and ACP Leadership Day in Washington, D.C., where our members met with legislators to advocate for policies that support patients, physicians, and equitable access to care. Our chapter continues to be a voice for progress in healthcare policy, and I'm especially proud of the growing involvement from our trainees in these efforts.
In this issue, you'll read about many of the remarkable achievements of our members, from those recently advanced to ACP Fellowship, to this year's recipients of the Laureate and Chapter Impact Awards, to our medical students recognized as top internal medicine graduates. I encourage you to take a moment to celebrate these accomplishments, they reflect not only individual excellence but the strength and collegiality of our broader community.
As we look ahead, I invite you to stay engaged. Whether you mentor a student, help with a regional event, serve as a judge, or simply share your voice on an issue that matters to you, your participation makes a meaningful difference. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you're interested in becoming more involved, we would love to have you.
Thank you again for all that you do for your patients, your colleagues, and the profession. It's an honor to serve as your Governor, and I look forward to seeing many of you in the coming months.
Warmly,
Eric P. Hsieh, MD, FACP
Governor, ACP Southern California Region I
ACP S. California Regions I, II & III Scientific Meeting
The 2024 ACP Chapters I, II & III Scientific Meeting took place on Saturday, October 5th in Orange, California. The meeting featured a great selection of speakers on a variety of interesting topics and was well attended and there were 300 posters submitted by medical students, residents/fellow and early career physicians from throughout Southern California. The following resident/fellows and medical students had winning posters from ACP S. California Region I:
Medical Students – Clinical Vignettes
1st: “Heavy Chains, Heavy Consequences: A Rare Case of Renal Amyloidosis” Bismark Amoh, UCLA
3rd: “Solitary Fibrous Tumor of the Pleura: A Rare Cause of Bilateral Lower Extremity Edema” Luke Murphy, UCLA
Medical Students – Research
1st: “Trends in Peritoneal Dialysis Exit Site Infection Rates in an Integrated Health Care Model in the U.S.” Max Hukill, KP SOM
2nd: “The Impact of Biologic Therapy on Bowel Resection Rates in Patients with IBD in an Integrated Healthcare System” May Let Wah, KP SOM
3rd: “Part-Solid Lung Nodules in Routine Lung Cancer Screening: Evaluating Key Nodule Characteristics and Clinical Significance” Maryam Ahmad, KP SOM
Medical Students – Quality Improvement/Patient Safety
1st: “You've Got Mail: Boosting Blood Pressure Control with Personalized Email Outreach” Sakar Budhathoki, KP SOM
2nd: “Characterizing Challenges to Physician Recruitment & Retention at a Federally-Qualified Healthcare Center” Michael Langevin, KP SOM
3rd: “Associations Between Health-Related Social Needs & Total Healthcare Cost in a Large Integrated Delivery Network” Ariel Silverman, KP SOM
Residents – Clinical Vignettes
1st: “Cracking the Case of the Clots: An Autobiographical Case Report on Nutcracker Syndrome” Cameron Quon, MD, USC/LA General
2nd: “Pseudomyxoma Peritonei: A Unique Cause of Ascites” Mariam Soni, MD, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital
3rd: “Digging Deeper to Diagnose - Cardiac Tamponade following Tunneled Dialysis Catheter Placement” Esther Kim, MD, UCLA
Residents – Research
1st: “Association Between Social Determinants of Health & Completion of CAD Testing Among Patients with New Onset HFrEF” Samhitha Peddada, MD, Kaiser LAMC
2nd: “Optimal Local Impedance Parameters for Catheter Ablation of the Cavo-Tricuspid Isthmus in A Flutter Patients: A Retrospective Analysis” Yamann Sahlool, MD, HCA Los Robles
Residents – Quality Improvement/Patient Safety
1st: “An Experiential Curriculum at the US-Mexico Border Sparks Practice-Changing Discussion on Healthcare Delivery to Undocumented Immigrants” Rachael Sharma, MD, UCLA
2nd: “Evaluation of Ethnic/Racial and Language Disparities in Pain Assessment & Management” Monique Ferro, MD, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital
3rd: “Comparing Heart Failure Management in Non-English Speaking & English-Speaking Patients in a Majority Minority Heart Failure Clinic Before & After the Implementation of a Checklist Reminder” Margarita Martinez, MD, Harbor-UCLA
Early Career Physicians – Quality Improvement/Innovation
1st: “The Healthcare Leadership and Advocacy (HLA) Track: Implementing a Formal Leadership Curriculum for Internal Medicine Residents” Joanna Turkiewicz, MD UCLA-Olive View
Residents and medical students who won first place received a travel stipend and their posters were presented at this year's 2025 ACP national meeting in New Orleans. Second and third place winners received a cash award. Many thanks to the poster competition co-chairs, Roger C. Garrison, MD, FACP & Sharon Kim, MD, FACP, and to all the judges that spent countless hours reviewing and judging abstracts/posters.
The Cedars Sinai team was the winner of this year's Doctors Dilemma (“Jeopardy”) competition. Team members included Polly Kirsch, MD, Felix Wangmang, MD & Daniel Mitchell, MD. The team was sent to this year's ACP national meeting in New Orleans to compete with teams from across the country. We wish them well. Many thanks to Drs. Jarod DuVall, Miguel Angel Pena Ruiz, Ali Motabar & Tessa Antalan for their hard work in making the competition a great success!
Awards
Several chapter members were recognized this year. Ron Ben-Ari, MD, FACP and Darryl Y. Sue, MD, FACP were the recipients of this year's ACP Laureate Award. This prestigious award is designed to honor those who have demonstrated, by their example and conduct, an abiding commitment to excellence in medical care, education, or research, and in service to their community. Congratulations to them both!
The following members were also recognized with an ACP Southern California Region I Chapter Impact Award 2024:
Teaching Impact Award
Student Mentor Impact Award
Advocacy Impact Award
We are also proud to announce that Dr. Mark S. Noah, MACP received Mastership, recognizing his excellence and contributions to internal medicine. We congratulate Dr. Noah on this well-deserved recognition!
Advocacy Impact Award
ACP Student Internist Award
Each year the ACP honors a medical student from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Keck School of Medicine and Western University with an award as the top student going into Internal Medicine residency training.
This year's winners include Phillip Chung, MD, from USC, Bethlehem Michael, MD, from UCLA, Randy Chow, DO, from Western University and Olivia Goodman, MD, from Kaiser. Congratulations to all four graduates!
2025 ACP Sacramento Leadership Week
This year's ACP 2025 ACP Sacramento Leadership took place March 10-14, 2025. ACP S. California Region I was well represented with a great mix of members, residents and medical student participants. Our delegation was able to meet with numerous California legislators over the course of the week. Great job!
ACP IM Meeting in New Orleans
ACP Internal Medicine Meeting 2025 in New Orleans in April was a great experience and was well attended. Several California Southern I members were recognized as new ACP Fellows, as well as impressive poster presentations from our student, resident/fellow and early career physician members. Congratulations!
2025 Washington Leadership Day
This year's 2025 ACP Washington Leadership Day took place on April 28-29, 2025. California sent a 45-member strong delegation made up of members, residents and medical students. Attendees were able to meet with staff from both California senators, and over 40 congressional members to advocate on various health-related issues. Thank you to all ACP California Region 1 members that took time out from their busy schedules to represent our Chapter.
New ACP Fellows
We are happy to announce that the following members have advanced to ACP Fellow in our region within the last 12 months. Congratulations!
Shukaib Arslan, MD FACP
Megana Ballal, MD FACP
Anthony C Bejjani, MD FACP
Ian Cahatol, DO FACP
Angela S Chan, FACP MBBS MD
Patrick P Chan, MD FACP
Zar C Chan, MD FACP
Shelly P Chawla, MD FACP
Tianyu Chen, MD FACP
Christian M Chiavetta, DO FACP
Christina Chung, MD FACP
Analiese M Diconti-Gibbs, MD FACP
Liza G Diramerian, ANP MD FACP
Todd W Engstrom, MD FACP
Ramez Ethnasios, MD FACP
Ryan Graddy, MD FACP
Wayne T Ho, MD FACP
Kin Wai Hung, MD FACP
Tony Kamel, MD FACP
Jeanney Kang, MD FACP
Shazia S Khan, MD FACP
Maggie Kozman, MD FACP
Emily Law, MD FACP
Andrea I Matho, MD FACP
Anna B Mellor, MD FACP
Alexander E Morf, MD FACP
Richard E Nickowitz, MD FACP
Daniel Niknam, DO FACP
Weihuang Vivian Ning, MD FACP
Tony M Ohn, MBBS FACP
Thiri T Oo, MD FACP
Dhruvil Radadiya, MD FACP
Tanvir Rahman, MD FACP
Abid A Rizvi, MD FACP
Joshua Alexander Ronen, MD FACP
Zadok J Sacks, MD FACP
Samir Souleiman Salameh, MD FACP
Pankaj Shukla, MD FACP
Kimberly B Tilley, MD FACP
Arnold Tsai, MD FACP
Yusuke Tsugawa, MD PhD FACP
Sarah A Van Orman, MD FACP
Rahul Vasavada, MD FACP
Mildred S Wenger, MD FACP
Casey S Yamashita, MD FACP