Resident Testimonials

The Internal Medicine residency program at Mercy Catholic Medical Center is full of very supportive and caring faculty and staff who are wonderful educators and mentors for great patient care. Teaching clinical rounds provide invaluable bedside education that sticks in your memory and really helps you understand the logical explanation of disease and treatment strategies much better. The well-rounded curriculum provides an effective and rewarding learning experience that includes many opportunities for personal growth and responsibility. I feel the training that I have received at the program can rival any other program across the country. I feel confident in my abilities to provide an evidence-based care to my patients. It's a wonderful place to learn and grow as a physician.

Shoaib Altaf Sheikh, MD
Class of 2018

“As I perform my rounds as a nocturnist I can’t help but reminisce about my residency training at MCMC, which greatly helped prepare me for this stage. I appreciated the warmth of the attendings, my fellow residents, and the ancillary staff, creating a nurturing environment.

I remember when my father was ill and I had to leave for New York the next day during my ICU rotation, and my fellow residents and faculty members were incredibly understanding and supportive, helping me find three days of coverage. MCMC exposes you to a wide variety of pathologies across a diverse patient population on both campuses, while bolstering your learning and confidence in working with complex cases and providing great faculty support.

From the time I entered the residency program until the time I graduated, I was constantly evolving in the numerous rotations that made residency more rewarding and constantly strived for continual improvement. The program puts residents first and through it, I’ve made lifelong friends and mentors. I appreciated the program’s emphasis on excelling in both inpatient and outpatient medicine, and it gave me the ability to foster good patient rapport which I maintained throughout my residency.

I enjoyed interacting with and teaching medical students; at the same time, it motivated me to continue reading and learning so that I may be their mentor as well. I am very impressed by the sense of community at MCMC and thoroughly enjoyed my training. It has undoubtedly given me the tools I need to become the independent internal medicine physician that I am today. ”

Salem Mohammad
Class of 2017

“Mercy Catholic Medical Center (MCMC) Internal medicine program is truly a family atmosphere which allowed me to build some great relationships during my residency. The superior training I receive from MCMC was really exceptional. To write them all would take a lot of server space!

Having completed my Internal medicine training at MCMC, I can honestly say if I had to do it all over again I would want to be at MCMC. Highlights of my residency included high morale, strong academics, and excellent opportunities in all aspects of medicine. Resident autonomy at all levels was actively supported by faculty. We were also provided excellent supervision.

The teaching atmosphere was incredible. I always felt supported no matter what service I was rotating on, and my education was a top priority at all times. Needless to say as a community hospital, the MCMC internal medicine program allows for things university programs would love to do, but simply cannot due to their size. It has provided me with ample opportunity to become a well-trained internal medicine physician, but has also prepared me for subspecialty training in Cardiology.”

Kardie Tobb, DO
Class of 2017

“As the excitement of beginning my nephrology fellowship at Mayo Clinic reaches its peak, I feel compelled to take a pause and look back at the last three years of my life. I can say with a deep sense of satisfaction that the three years of internal medicine residency at Mercy Catholic Medical Center have been among the most productive and gratifying years of my life.

I have received comprehensive, high quality didactic teaching during noon conferences, grand rounds and morning reports along with gaining rich hands on clinical experience. Sheer breath of the variety of pathology and diversity of patient population that I got exposed to at the two hospital campuses of MCMC has been mind-boggling.

As a resident I got abundant opportunities to participate in academic activities like QI projects, case reports, journal clubs, management conferences, M&M conferences and poster presentations at various local and national meets. Everyone here has been friendly, helpful and has contributed significantly to make my experience a positive and a memorable one. The program trains you well for both inpatient hospitalist medicine as well as outpatient office-based practice in addition to encouraging and supporting the fellowship endeavors.

In summary, the ideal combination of a warm, family like environment with the huge variety of clinical exposure and abundance of academic opportunities sets MCMC apart from many other similar sized programs and I recommend it highly to all the prospective future residents.”

Tsering Dhondup, MD
Graduation Year: 2015

“Mercy is wonderful for many reasons. There are great teaching attendings with sincere effort to resident training. There is an extremely friendly staff which makes this tough phase more than bearable. Residents have the ability to bring up and improve on practices. Grievances are always being heard and taken seriously. I also love the fact that it has clergy which creates a great atmosphere. I will miss this place; it is a great working atmosphere.”

Kavneet Gill, MD
Graduation Year: 2015

“My three years of internal medicine residency at Mercy have played a significant role in shaping my career and future. Residents are exposed to two completely different patient populations during rotations at both busy urban Philadelphia hospitals.

The ancillary staff are wonderful and always very helpful. The faculty are extremely encouraging to help you pursue fellowship goals or find hospitalist jobs after graduation. The program and GME dept. are receptive about resident suggestions and have implemented many ideas to better resident education and training.

For me personally, the ICU rotation has been one of the most valuable experiences. The diverse pathologies, high volume and turn over of patients, and intense and high pressure environment trains you to be able to handle any situation, in any ICU. In fact, the mentorship I received and the skills I honed while working in the ICU have shaped my interest and career path into critical care.

This experience has been very satisfying professionally and personally as I have made some very precious lifelong friendships.”

Abhishek Bhardwaj, MD
Graduation Year: 2014

“Mercy Catholic Medical Center Internal Medicine Program should be on your top Rank Order List as you prepare to secure a Residency position. Mercy Medical Center molds a new resident physician to fit into today's world of Internal Medicine; be it in hospital medicine, academic medicine, subspecialty practice, or primary care.

The residency provides rotations in two different community hospitals with diverse populations to strengthen your knowledge base and clinical skills by treating a wide variety of disorders. The program’s strength also lies in its three-year curriculum that ensures all aspects of internal medicine and its subspecialties are covered—most importantly, daily noon conferences, floor & subspecialty rotations, morning reports, extensive ICU training and opportunity to perform clinical research with the support of a biostatistician.”

Priyanka Bhattacharya
Graduation Year: 2013

“In my opinion Mercy Catholic Medical Center (MCMC) provides a perfect blend of an extensive clinical exposure and optimum academic teaching while training its residents. The best part is perhaps the wide diversity of patient population in two of the training hospitals.

On one hand, residents get the exposure of a very young cohort of patients with often rare diseases at Mercy Philadelphia Hospital. On the other hand the comparatively older patient population with significant co-morbidities at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital provides the necessary range of experience to provide a comfort zone to the residents to handle internal medicine practice challenges.

While being a community hospital, MCMC provides substantial clinical research opportunities for interested and proactive trainees that are on a par with most university programs. With the unique leadership and constant striving for improvement by our program director Dr. Eiser, and our Associate Program Directors, Dr. Eric Green and Dr. Manzoor Rather, residents have proved to succeed anywhere in the nation both as internists, hospitalists and subspecialty consultants.”

Kaushik Chatterjee, MD
Graduation Year: 2013

“I am proud to be trained as internal medicine resident in Mercy Catholic Medical Center. The program is designed in such a way that you are confident to start off your career as soon as you step outside in the real world, be it a fellowship or an internal medicine practice. With efficient training and support from the faculty and co-residents, attendings and sub-specialties, Mercy is a community program that has a lot to offer for a resident with diverse interests.

It is exciting to be a part of a team where everyone works together to learn and provide the best possible patient care. You are part of 'Mercy family' where there is always an incredible number of people to help with your daily hurdles and to support you through life struggles because no one can grow as a clinician if not supported as a person.”

Neelkantha Amatya, MD
Graduation Year 2012

“I was a resident in Mercy hospital from 2008- 2011 and graduated in June 2011. I am now working as a hospitalist at Indiana University Hospital. I am writing this with acknowledgement of the fact that Mercy Catholic Medical Center is one of the best training institutions for residency.

As an Attending physician at IU Hospital I always find that the things which I learnt in MCMC are of immense help. It has thought me to take medical decisions as an AOD and has given me the teaching experience and handle inpatients as a floor resident. I have immense respect for the various attendings who have guided us through these three years and made us successful clinicians and above all good human beings.”

Karthik Karanam, MD
Graduation Year 2011

“MCMC is a strong academic internal medicine program in a community hospital setting. The diversity of pathology is high, and program faculty is very helpful and accessible.”

Thomas Drames, DO
Graduation Year 2012

“The educational activities of department of medicine aspire to the excellence in training of residents as basis for career as PCP, hospitalist or for further subspecialty training. During my training, I was amazed to see elusive balance between outstanding clinical training and rewarding personal life.

During my training at MCMC, I learned true professionalism, great work ethics, compassion for patients and their families and most of all how to treat the people with dignity, kindness and understanding. I have no hesitation to say that I was trained at one among the best community programs in the Philadelphia area. If I have to start my residency training again, MCMC will be my first choice as it was the first time.”

Anwar Iqbal, MD
Graduation Year 2011

“It's a great privilege and pleasure to complete my internship training at Mercy Catholic Medical Center. The training at Mercy helped me to have a smooth transition from my internship to my anesthesia training. The diverse pathology, enthusiastic attendings willing to teach, along with great didactic sessions and a very talented and knowledgeable bunch of residents truly makes it a great place to gain tons of clinical knowledge and experience to start any advanced program you may be entering.”

Ananth Mothukuri, M.D.
Graduation Year 2010
Preliminary Program