A Message from Our Program Director
I hope you are all doing well. In 2026, the health care industry is facing some of its biggest challenges. Patients are frustrated, resources are limited, medications keep getting more expensive and doctors are caught in the middle, trying to do their best for their patients. With this in mind, I am proud to say that Nazareth Hospital is about to graduate yet another batch of superb physicians who will be ready to take on these challenges.
As you have likely noticed by now, your training at Nazareth has prepared you well. With each class of physicians graduating from our programs, we are serving our communities with hard-working, highly skilled and compassionate doctors. Your patients are lucky to have you as their doctors.
Here is how current and former Nazareth Internal Medicine residents make us proud, continuing their education in the following subspecialties:
- Vaibhav Ahluwalia – Pulmonary / Critical Care at Einstein Medical Center
- Vibhor Ahluwalia – Cardiology at Nazareth Hospital
- Ahmad Al-Homaid – Gastroenterology at LewisGale Medical Center
- Giorgi Chilingarashvili – Critical Care at Cooper University Hospital
- Avilash Mondal – Cardiology at West Virginia University
Some of our third-year residents (Cauvery Balhara-Taank, Migena Dervishi and Elias Helal) will give back to Nazareth by staying on, either per diem, part-time, or full-time—joining a long list of graduates who were not yet ready to say goodbye to Nazareth.
A matter of pride for Nazareth has always been its residents’ wealth of practical knowledge and skills. This year, I am happy to say that our recent graduates have helped bridge the gap between “real world” knowledge and “book knowledge," with a 92 percent ABIM board pass rate.
More exciting changes continue to happen at Nazareth. With the help of our chief residents, we are (finally) transitioning to a 4+1 program, have completely revamped our didactics curriculum, have started a weekly sim lab experience, and have partnered with the quality and nursing departments for quality improvement initiatives around the hospital.
To better serve the needs of our diverse patient population, we continue to strive for diversity within our program and look forward to welcoming the most diverse class our program has ever had, starting in July.
To that end, one of our local PCOM graduate interns, Deaysha Hines, obtained grant money to perform point-of-care testing of A1c levels and blood pressure checks to serve her local church community. More grant applications and community service events are planned as we move ahead.
To prepare for future challenges, former IM Program Director Dr. Wayne Miller came back to Nazareth to give a lecture on the pitfalls of AI in health care. As Trinity Health adopts AI tools to deliver more effective patient care, our residents will be better prepared to meet tomorrow’s opportunities.
The future of health care is both exciting and terrifying, but having trained at Nazareth, you are armed with resilience and the ability to meet any roadblocks thrown your way.
Wishing you all the best as you continue to represent us. Feel free to check in occasionally!
Ipsit Pandya, MD
Internal Medicine Residency Program Director
Nazareth Hospital, Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic