Message from Program Director
The Division of Rheumatology at Westchester Medical Center offers a highly motivating two-year ACGME-accredited fellowship program located in Westchester County- a beautiful suburb in close proximity to New York City. The fellowship provides an extensive clinical training in rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders under close supervision of highly motivated and well trained faculty. Year-long didactic lecture series, journal clubs, research conferences and case presentations form the core of the training program with emphasis on evidence-based medicine. Strengths of the program include high volume of inpatient consultations with highly diverse pathology, well-run outpatient continuity clinics, elective rotations with an academic pediatric rheumatologist and faculty member in the outpatient practice. The program provides an environment that supports and encourages fellow’s experience as teachers by closely observing and instructing medical students and residents on rheumatology electives. Along with faculty, the fellows participate in annually administered teaching modules for second year medical students at the affiliated New York Medical College. The small size of the program allows an especially supportive training environment and fellows are encouraged to stay our lifelong colleagues. The program aspires to provide the highest quality care to the patients while inspiring residents and fellows to discover the excitement and challenges of caring for patients with rheumatic diseases.
Opportunities for clinical and bench research are available and facilitated by the availability of researchers in various basic science departments at the affiliated New York Medical College. Fellows are encouraged to present research projects at the national and regional meetings, as well as write well-researched clinical reviews and case series. Fellows are also encouraged to research and develop Quality Improvement projects with a goal to better patient care.
Julia Y. Ash, MD
Division Chief
Fellowship Program Director
Program Overview
The Division of Clinical Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology addresses the full range of immunologically mediated disease. It consists of four full-time physicians, two clinical immunologists/allergists and two rheumatologists who care for patients with an array of immunologic disorders: allergic diseases, asthma, allergic rhinitis, immunodeficiency and food allergy. Rheumatologic disorders comprise rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, osteoarthritis, Lyme arthritis and a full range of other less common or more difficult to diagnose musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases. Members are involved in direct patient care, training of medical students, residents, fellows and practicing physicians, and research aimed at improving the health of people in general.
Research, both clinical and translational, bridges the gap between basic science research and clinical medicine. With funding from the NIH, Dr. Dattwyler’s group is working to develop new diagnostic tests for a number of infectious diseases, including Lyme disease. The new Lyme tests are designed to fill the gaps that exist in testing today, particularly for the early diagnosis of Lyme disease.
A new oral vaccine technology in development would have an array of potential uses, from protection against infectious diseases to treatment for food allergy. The CDC is sponsoring field trials to determine if an oral bait vaccine against Lyme disease can help control its spread in wildlife and the ticks that feed on them, thereby reducing the tick population that spreads Lyme bacteria to humans. The oral vaccine technique is also under study as a possible means of protection against other bacterial infectious diseases.
How to Apply
Please access the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA) for more information on our program. View our program listing on FREIDA.
Applicants must have completed a residency in Internal Medicine by June 2024.
Please note that our program requires a minimum of three letters of recommendation, including one from the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director.
Current Fellows
- Elizabeth Fagin, MD – Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick; Internal Medicine Residency: Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
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Nirali Sanghavi, MBBS – Topiwala National Medical College; Internal Medicine Residency: Westchester Medical Center
Program Alumni
- Sindhuja Korem, MBBS, MD
Medical School: Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad
Residency Program: Monmouth Medical Center Program (Internal Medicine – General) - Alina Kifayat, MBBS, MD
Medical School: Khyber Medical College | Pakistan
Residency Program: Westchester Medical Center | Valhalla, NY - Adriana Moncayo, MD
Medical School: Universidad de Guayaquil Facultad de Ciencias Médicas | Guayaquil, Ecuador
Residency Program: St. Barnabas Hospital | Bronx, NY
Our Clinical Locations
Westchester Medical Center
Westchester Medical Center shares its leafy campus with New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, approximately 20 miles north of New York City. It is a Level 1 Trauma and Burn Center and a major hub for specialized care referrals. Here, we take care of patients from a very large catchment area stretching from the northern border of New York City to the Catskill Mountains.
WMC has a pediatric hospital (Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital) with eight dedicated pediatric operating rooms as well as many other non-operating room anesthetizing sites, including MRI, radiation and nuclear medicine, and endoscopy. The Ambulatory Care Pavilion, which opened in July 2019, added many anesthetizing locations, both OR and Non-OR.
Construction is underway on the 128-bed state-of-the-art WMC Critical Care Tower, a $220 million project that when completed will span 162,000 square feet over five floors. Our caseload includes a full profile of cardiac, interventional pulmonary and thoracic, complex orthopedic, neurosurgical and solid organ transplant interventions, to name the busiest services. We have a large heart failure and ECMO referral program. Trauma orthopedics and surgery provide our residents a great variety of “open” cases. Residents participate in minimally invasive and robotic interventions in gynecologic-oncology, urology, colorectal, endocrine and thoracic surgery, as well as complex cardiac and neurological endovascular interventions, both pediatric and adult. The Acute and Chronic Pain Management care rotations cover both the pediatric and adult inpatients and outpatients, including complex consultations for patients in the Burn ICU.