ACP Maryland Past Events
he Maryland ACP Chapter is excited to share a few highlights from some of our recent activities.
2026 Mulholland Mohler Residents Meeting
The 2026 Mulholland Mohler Residents Meeting was held on Thursday, May 7 and was a wonderful experience, with one of the event's founders, Dr. Emile Mohler joining us. It’s truly one of the highlights of our MD ACP calendar!
This event is what it is because of the support and collaboration of all of our Programs
We want to say Thank You and recognize some special folks who help make this event possible:
Thanks to Dr. Dobbin Chow who was our “Commissioner” for the day making sure that all ran smoothly.
Thanks to our Keynote Speaker Dr. Joshua Hartzell who provided some tools that our residents can use in the future.
SPECIAL thanks to all of the St. Agnes Hospital administrators and their Dept. of Medicine that make it so very easy to host the meeting there!
Thanks to our Judge Leaders and ALL of our Judges including our Chief Residents group with over 50 in attendance.
Thanks to our 2 moderators Dr. Joe Maciuba and Dr. Jeffrey Wharton who made sure that the oral sessions ran smoothly and amazingly on time.
Thanks to Dr. Alexander Reyes (APD at SAH) and CRAB co-chairs – Drs. Bhutani, Jung and Paudel who presented a special workshop just for our residents.
Thanks to Karen Reyes, former SAH Dept. of Medicine assistant, who came back for the day to ensure that our AV ran just perfectly!
Thanks to Deanna Hall, and the members of her Department, who made sure that all arrangements at SAH were completed for the event – even with the modifications that needed to be made this year.
We also want to share this years' Profiles in Excellence video, highlighting our winners.
2026 Mulholland Mohler Residents Meeting Awardees
ORAL RESEARCH
1st Place Dr. Albert Orhin – Ascension/St. Agnes
2nd Place Dr. Haripriya Radhakrishnan – MedStar (MHIM)
ORAL CLINICAL VIGNETTE
1st Place Dr. Esther Tetteh – Sinai Hospital
2nd Place Dr. Mohamed Amer – Ascension/St. Agnes
3rd Place Dr. Prashant Gyawaili – UMMC/Midtown
POSTER RESEARCH
1st Place Dr. Abdallah Al-Muhtaseb – Ascension/St. Agnes
2nd Place Dr. Muhammad Hamza – UMMC/Midtown
POSTER CLINICAL VIGNETTE
1st Place Dr. Avinash Saraiya – UMMC/VA
2nd Place Dr. Lauren Missner – Johns Hopkins/Osler
3rd Place Dr. Sami Ajbar – MedStar (MHIM)
CHIEF RESIDENT CV COMPETITION
1st Place Dr. Navya Tadepalli – Sinah Hospital
2nd Place Dr. Susmita R. Contreras – Ascension/St. Agnes
3rd Place Dr. Elif Kolanci – UMMC/VA
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Dr. Dhruvi Shah – UMMC/Midtown
Dr. Emad Chishti – Johns Hopkins/Osler
Dr. Navya Tadepalli – Sinai Hospital
Dr. Azra Kothawala – MedStar (MHIM)
Dr. Wyatt Nice – UMMC/VA
Congratulations to all of this year's winners and awardees!
SHM/MD ACP Joint Workshop - January 20, 2026
For the past few years, our MD ACP has joined with our local Society of Hospitalist Medicine to develop workshops that would be of interest to our members, particularly those who are hospital based. This year’s presentation on “Caring for the Unrepresented Hospitalized Adult” was fascinating.
We had over 40 in attendance at this meeting that allowed the group to ask interesting and provocative questions to our panel of discussants about this complex challenge.
Maryland ACP Doctors Dilemma & Iron Med Competition - February 28, 2026
Williams Student Conference - March 7, 2026
UMMC/Midtown Campus graciously served as hosts for this event again this year, for which we remain grateful. We had about 20 posters featuring research and clinical vignettes, an Ironmed Competition geared to students and of course our ever popular Student Dilemma.
Almost 70 students, presenters and judges were in attendance for the day-long event. Our CRAB co-chairs kindly organized the Student Dilemma this year. Kudos to Drs. Ram Bhutani, Jee Jae Jung, and Ujjawal Paudel (CRAB co-chairs), and judges George Lawrence, Ravitej KhunKhun, R. Dobbin Chow, Richard Williams, Corina Nava Suarez who gave of their time not only with the poster competitions but during our Student lunch mentoring session and dilemma contest. We are so proud to be able to celebrate our student community at this meeting.
We have several different divisions and want to share the results with you. Kudos to all our of our judges and presenters who made this day so rewarding for EVERYONE – students and Faculty.
Dr. Jeff Gray Iron Med Competition
1st Place – Minahil Cheema (UMSOM)
2nd Place - Daniel Nasaf (NY Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine)
Clinical Vignette Poster Competition
1st Place – Shreya Shah (UMSOM)
2nd Place – Manroop Minhas (American University of Antigua)
3rd Place - Anthony Iskarous ( NY Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine)
Research Poster Competition
1st Place – David Remyes (NY Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine)
2nd Place – Minahil Cheema (UMSOM)
Student Dilemma
1st Place – NY Inst. Of Tech. College of Osteopathic Medicine –
Manroop Minhas, Anthony Iskarous, Meredith Umphlett
Finalists – UMSOM Teams 1 & 2 –
Lila Berle, Apurva Raghu, Lauren Bernard, Shreya Shah, Lidiya Franklin
State Advocacy Day in Annapolis - March 12, 2026
This was our first ever Advocacy Day in the State Legislature, after about a year of planning and organizing and it was a tremendous hit! Throughout the year, we worked with Senator Lam and Delegate Hill to propose legislation that would allow for our medical assistance patients to be covered for tobacco cessation products and programs; it was a thrill to have the bill introduced and Drs. Deepak, Khanna, and Galiatsatos all provided testimony in support of it. On March 12th, we had 18 members attend morning workshops and then meet with of over 20 delegates, senators, and their staff in our Maryland State Legislature. We are so proud of our planning group including Drs. Aseem Sood, Steve Kravet, Mario Tarasco, Janaki Deeplak, and Steve Sisson who took time out of their busy schedules to ensure that we were able to accomplish our goal. Dr. Marie Alberte-Boursiquot continued to represent us at the Med Chi Legislative Committee so that we were aware of upcoming bills and the ability to communicate with our legislators. Drs. Christmas, Boursiquot, and Bajwa all served as Doctor of the Day in the State Legislature.
POCUS Workshop for Residents - March 21, 2026
This was an all-day event proposed by our Chief resident co-chairs to allow for residents to learn about ultrasound techniques and actual demonstration at the MedStar Harbor Hospital SIM Learning Center. Over 25 attendees spent a very full day with both didactic and loads of hands-on learning to expand their diagnostic skills.
Kudos to Drs. David Weisman and Gigi Liu, coordinator of these events as well as the facilitators who gave an entire Saturday to be part of this activity including, Drs. Ravitej KhunKhun, Maia Tavadze, Sameer Mehta, S. Midii.
Early Career Physician/Senior/International Medical Graduates Mixer
Our second annual Mixer on May 22, 2025 was once again a success. This year’s gathering brought together around 40 students, residents, practicing, and retired physicians for an evening of networking and fun. Attendees enjoyed delicious food and drinks, bonded over our signature “Find a New Friend” MD ACP-style BINGO, and enjoyed an incredible live performance by Dr. Sujay Pathak.
A special thank you to Dr. Saeed Khan for capturing the evening through his amazing photography.
Kudos to Drs. Aseem Sood, Mary Newman, Omer Bajwa, and Sayed (Moez) Bukhari for putting together such a memorable event.
We’re already looking forward to the next one!
Meals On Wheels – Volunteers At Work
On June 14th, our members spent a half day making over 2000 meals with Meals on Wheels Baltimore, thanks to our Volunteerism co-chair, Dr. Jyotsna Gummadi. We especially had a great showing from the MHIM residents this year.
Feels good to do good, and even better when we do good together!
Wellness & WISE Event
On June 18, 2025 our Wellness group collaborated with our WISE/Senior group for a memorable event at the home of Drs. Margaret Brennan and Tom Aversano. Through the theme, “Let’s Talk About – My Greatest Professional Crisis & How I Recovered,” many shared their stories—some heart-wrenching, others uplifting—all offering profound insights into resilience and growth. The event brought together students, residents, practicing physicians, and senior members for a truly intergenerational exchange.
A big thank you to Drs. Mary Newman and Hari Devkota for organizing this impactful session!
2025 Mulholland Mohler Residents Meeting
Once again, for the 43rd year, the Mulholland Mohler Residents meeting continues to be one of the highlights of our year. This year's meeting was held on May 1, 2025 with over 200 poster presenters in the clinical vignette, and research competition; 20 oral presenters, as well as 50 judges, this meeting continues to be not only very well attended but successful in bringing together the over 10 programs in our metropolitan area as well as Walter Reed. The keynote speaker, Dr. Sanjay Desai, Chief Academic Officer for the American Medical Association, presented an amazing discussion on Precision Education: The Future of Lifelong Learning.
As always, the Profiles in Excellence was a highlight of the meeting, and an opportunity to highlight and congratulate the winners. Each year every program selects a winner – someone who goes out of their way to not only provide excellence to their patients but also to their medical community at large.
This year's Profiles in Excellence video is available here
Thank You!
We would like to thank ALL of our programs for being part of our wonderful MD ACP Mulholland Mohler Residents meeting. Planning for this event begins in the fall and takes the support of everyone to make this the highlight of our MD ACP year. It is an amazing day for our Residents and we are pleased to see that we accomplished this once again in 2025.
Thanks to Dr. Dobbin Chow who was our “Commissioner” for the day making sure that all ran smoothly and was able to be our afternoon moderator.
Thank you to Dr. Janaki Deepak for being a super judge making sure we stayed within our time limits.
Thanks to our Keynote Speaker Dr. Sanjay Desai who gave us a glimpse into the future of medicine.
SPECIAL thanks to all of the St. Agnes Hospital administrators and their Department of Medicine that make it so very easy to host the meeting there!
Thanks to our Judge Leaders and ALL of our Judges including our Chief Residents group with over 50 in attendance.
Thanks to our 2 moderators Dr. Bernadette Siaton and Dr. Joe Fuscaldo who made sure that the oral sessions ran smoothly and amazingly on time.
Thanks to our students from St. Agnes Hospital who were able to assist over 180 research and CV poster presenters to locate and set up their boards for presentations.
Thanks to Karen Reyes, former St. Agnes Hospital Dept. of Medicine assistant, who came back for the day to ensure that our AV ran just perfectly!
Thanks to Deanna Hall, St. Agnes Hospital Dept. Assistant, who made sure that all arrangements at SAH were completed for the event, including the catering - which we know is always very tasty.
Congrats to all who participated in this amazing day for our residents!
Internal Medicine Meeting 2025 | New Orleans, Louisiana
IM 2025 in New Orleans was such an inspiring experience and an amazing celebration of physicians from Maryland. We were thrilled the following members walked with us in Convocation:
FACP
Dr. Charu Maheshwary
Dr. Sheena Moorthy
Dr. Athmananda Nanjundappa
Dr. Orighomisan Pessu
Dr. Lekshmi Raghavakurup
Dr. Joseph Aleo Jr
Dr. Ali Afrookteh a long time supporter of all things Maryland ACP, was elected to Mastership (MACP).
Drs. Hari Devkota, Pauline Daley, and Asha Thomas were recognized as Chapter Award winners, and Dr. Dobbin Chow was celebrated for winning the national Faith T. Fitzgerald, MD Outstanding Educator of Residents & Fellows Award.
Also this year, our chapter was recognized with an Evergreen Award for our monthly Story Swaps, thanks to the hard work and devotion of Dr. Devkota.
Our team from the University of Maryland/Midtown Campus represented our Maryland chapter very well in the highly competitive Doctors Dilemma contest.
We love to see all of this hard work and excellence celebrated at the national meeting and enjoyed socializing at our chapter reception at the aquarium.
As of the close of the 2025 Internal Medicine Meeting, Dr. Janaki Deepak is officially our Governor elect, and our current Governor, Dr. Colleen Christmas is now the Chair-Elect of the Board of Governors.
Kudos to ALL!
Leadership Day 2025
Over the past two years, Maryland ACP has worked hard to ensure that we have a large contingent to meet with our Congressional delegation during Leadership Day. This year, we had 22 members of our chapter attend and participate, including practicing physicians, residents and students.
2025 Maryland Annual Scientific Meeting
The Maryland ACP hosted our Annual Scientific Meeting January 24-25, 2025 with the theme Clinical Internal Medicine – Our Enlarging Role in Patient Care, and we're excited to share some highlights from our weekend.
Doctors Dilemma & IronMed Competition
Our Doctors Dilemma has been part of this meeting for over 25 years. This year, there were 11 teams including one from the Walter Reed program. As always an exciting all afternoon event featuring the knowledge of our residents. We are pleased to note that University of Maryland, Midtown Campus were our first place winners with Drs. Amin Abedini, Varun Lakhmani, and Smriti Gupta. The MHIM team took second place, with Drs. Yakubu Bene-Alhasan, Jerome Nelson and Anish Shrestha. Our third place team was the Walter Reed Team with Drs. Thomas Chameli, Jake Cresta, and Micayla Menchel. Congratulations to all of our teams including our state’s newest residency program at TidalHealth Peninsula, trekking 3 hours to come to participate! We are delighted to have the strong support of all of our programs in this contest.
Additionally, we want to thank our Dr. Jeff Gray IronMed chief residents from Walter Reed who spent much time to make the questions both informative and interesting! Congrats as the winners of this year's Governor's Service Award for their outstanding assistance for over 10 years in making the contest function.
This year, our IronMed Competition included our First Place winner Dr. Yakubu Bene-Alhasan from MHIM, and Second Place winner Dr. Smriti Gupta from University of Maryland, Midtown Campus program.
Workshops & Special Events
Once again our special events were not only well attended but brought to our audience a variety of activities for them to attend. These events included a Speed Mentoring Breakfast, Student corner and then interesting and informative sessions on well being and financial well being with featured speakers Drs. Mukta Panda and Stanley Liu. Again, we hope that you take the opportunity to view some of the pictures below.
Presenters
Our Program committee begins to plan this meeting in July and the depth of this year’s presenters certainly shows this. We hope that you will take this opportunity to view some of these pictures and also send your thanks to our presenters.
Awards Reception
Please send your congrats and kudos to the following winners. It was once again a difficult task for our Awards committee to select from so many wonderful candidates. Please see awards and names below. Also see the pictures featuring Dr. Ali Afrookteh’s Monacacy Jazz Band which always makes this a quality reception.
2025 Maryland Chapter Awardees
Melvin S. Blanchard, MD, MACP – Diversity & Inclusion Award
Joseph Cofrancesco, Jr., MD, MPH, FACP – Theodore E. Woodward Award for Medical Education
Rameen J. Molavi, MD, FACP - Samuel P. Asper Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine
Christopher J. Haas, MD, PhD, FACP - Mary Betty Stevens Award for Clinical Research
Christina Koch, MD - Early Career Physician Award
Gail Berkenblit, MD - Mid-Career Physician
Evelyn W. Gathecha, MD, FACP - Hospitalist Award
Jyotsna Gummadi, MBBS, FACP - Volunteer Award
Steven J. Kravet, MD, MBA, FACP - Mary Newman Advocacy Award
Lauren Bernard - Mackowiak Student Achievement Award
Dr. Jeff Gray, Ironmed Competition - Governor's Service Award
2025 Williams Student Conference - An Amazing Day For All
Our Williams Student Conference for the Mid-Atlantic Region was one of our most well-attended and engaged events held since we began hosting this meeting. There were over 80 in attendance at this meeting. We had students from across the region and from as far away as India, many presenting posters for the very first time. There were over 40 posters presented at this year’s AUA Poster Competition (see below the list of winners). The conference also featured several presentations from lecturers to Story Slams presented by students and a mentoring luncheon allowing students to discuss with our faculty some of their concerns and issues.
We also hosted the Dr. Jeff Gray IronMed Competition presented by Walter Reed Chief Residents which allows students to flex their medical knowledge with 12 questions provided for the contest. The day ended with a Student Dilemma with 8 teams participating in this event. Thanks to our Judges, Drs. George Lawrence, Mirian Michael, Dobbin Chow (Judge and Presenter), Thomas Horton, Ravitej KhunKhun (Judge and Presenter), Dave Weisman, Hari Devkota, Janaki Deepak (Student Dilemma Advisor), and Sapna Kuehl (Presenter). Special thanks to our 3 CRAB co-chairs this year, Drs. Rachel Hall (Luminis); Sakthi Gautham (MHIM) and Jayashrei Sairam (GBMC) who spent the entire Saturday with us and helped with all of the events from judging posters to being an important part of our Student Dilemma. Congratulations to all who participated in these many events and the conference. We hope to see everyone there again next year!
We are very pleased to announce the winners from our Clinical Vignette, Research, Iron Med and Student Dilemma contests
Clinical Vignette
1st Place
Khush Joshi – The Painless Paradox – GMS Surat
2nd Place
Ahmad Bahay, Radiologic Gadolinium Contrast – AUA
Research
1st Place
Lauren Russell – Medical Student Initiative to Improve Patient Experience – Johns Hopkins
2nd Place
Kyle Gunzy – Development of Safer CAR T Cells for Ewings Sarcoma – UMSOM
Iron Med
1st Place
Shawn Meepagala - Howard University
2nd Place
Gabriel Zabala – AUA
Student Dilemma
1st Place
Johns Hopkins – Lauren Russell, Sahithi Madireddy, Tarek Zieneldien, Lisa Young, Sophia Ma
2nd Place
UMSOM – Team 1 – Lauren Bernard, Cameron Amini, Ryan Lashgari, Apursa Raghu, Lila Berle, Kevin Xu, Ria Jha
3rd Place
UM/Midtown
Jashneet Pabila, Ashley Bersma, Gabriel Zabala, Morgan Osborne, Mackenzie Rod
Our Williams Student Conference was a major success this year. However, we could not do this without the assistance of all of our amazing judges and presenters.
