Clinical Rotations
We provide comprehensive clinical training with our residents rotating in hospital medicine, intensive care unit, cardiac care unit, night float, continuity clinic and a myriad of elective rotations with dedicated teaching faculty at Fairview hospital and Cleveland Clinic. The rotations are designed in 2-week block with a goal of incorporating continuity clinic in a 6 plus 2 model.
Sample PGY-1 Rotation
Consult Services Cardiology, Endocrinology, Infectious Disease, & Pulmonary Electives (Second half of academic year) (Clinical) Preliminary Anesthesia, Neurology, & Radiology @ Fairviewotherwise @ CCF |
6 weeks |
Hospital Medicine Day | 18 weeks |
Hospital Medicine Night Float | 4 weeks |
ICU Days | 8 weeks |
Ambulatory/Longitudinal Care Clinic | 10 weeks |
Infectious Disease |
2 weeks |
Vacation | 4 weeks |
Sample PGY-2 Rotation
CCU | 4 weeks |
Electives | 12 weeks ( Up to 4 weeks of research elective) |
Hospital Medicine Day | 4 weeks |
Hospital Medicine Night Float | 4 weeks |
ICU Days (Private) | 2 weeks |
ICU Nights | 4 weeks |
Infectious Disease | 2 weeks |
Longitudinal Care Clinic | 10 weeks |
Rapid Response Team | 4 weeks |
Vacation | 4 weeks |
Sample PGY-3 Rotation
Electives | 12 weeks (Up to 4 weeks of research elective) |
Emergency Medicine | 4 weeks |
Geriatrics | 4 weeks |
Hospital Medicine Day | 8 weeks |
ICU Days (CCF) | 2 weeks |
ICU Days (Private) | 2 weeks |
CCU | 2 weeks |
Longitudinal Care Clinic | 10 weeks |
Rapid Response Team | 4 weeks |
Vacation | 4 weeks |
Elective Rotations
Elective rotations are a significant part of our program's second and third years of training. These are available in all of the different disciplines of Internal Medicine as well as in other related specialties. Our elective rotations add to the skills of the future internist or prepare the resident to an excellent start if a career in an Internal Medicine subspecialty is pursued.
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Didactics and Conference Schedules
Morning Report
Morning Reports are conducted Monday through Friday at 7 a.m. for Hospital Medicine Teams, Hospital Medicine Night Float Teams and Rapid Response Team. Generally, admissions are discussed, identifying problems, discussing appropriate plan for investigation and therapy, high- level evidence based case discussions along with fun filled medical jeopardy and challenging board review sessions.
Sign-out reports are held on Monday & Tuesday at 7 a.m. and Morning Report is held on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 7 a.m.
Hospital Medicine Case Presentations
Hospital Medicine Case Presentations are held on every Tuesday of each month from Noon - 1 p.m. for Hospital Medicine Teams. Residents discuss a case during their Hospital Medicine rotation.
Rapid Response team presentation
The rapid response team presents once a month. This is an interesting case encountered while on the rapid response rotation and addresses medical knowledge and system-based competencies.
Internal Medicine Didactic Conferences
Hospital Medicine Didactic Conferences are held on every Wednesday at noon for Hospital Medicine Teams.
Grand Rounds
Medicine Grand Rounds are held on Thursdays. These are high-level presentations by speakers from our own faculty as well as individuals who are well recognized locally and nationally.
Medical Management Conferences
Medical Management Conferences are held on Friday's at noon. Residents discuss interesting cases and their evidence-based management seen during their various rotations. The resident will be working with a mentor from the teaching faculty to help prepare.
- PGY-1: Medical Management
- PGY-2: Morbidity & Mortality
- PGY-3: Residents Journal Club
Mentorship
When residents joint our program, each intern will assigned an advisor to help them navigate their internship. When going to 2nd and 3rd year, each resident will chose a mentor from a dedicated mentor pool that will help with career forming and decisions.

Anjili Maroo, MD
Cardiology
Fellowship: Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology - Cleveland Clinic – Cleveland, OH
Residency: Massachusetts General Hospital - Boston, MA
Medical Education: Harvard Medical School
Undergraduate: Yale
Hello, prospective mentees!
I am a cardiologist at Fairview, and I am looking forward to working with you on your career goals. My professional interests after training are fairly broad---I enjoy looking after the spectrum of preventive cardiology through complex CAD, I like heart failure and shock, I enjoy cardiac problems during pregnancy, I enjoy the diagnostic potential of cardiac imaging, and I like arrhythmias. Although, I do think someone really ought to find a durable cure for A.fib. We would all be better off without A.fib (at least in our dreams). I especially enjoy cases in which cardiac pathology affects multisystem disease processes--these cases allow ongoing learning and insight into other specialties. For those of you considering a cardiology-related specialty, I hope I will be able to help you!

Gautam Shah, MD
Cardiology
Fellowship: Cardiovascular Disease - Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai - New York, NY
Residency: Internal Medicine - Cleveland Clinic- Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College, India
Interests: Medical education, EKG.

Andrew Sakiewicz, MD
Cardiology
Fellowship: Cardiovascular Disease. Chief Fellow - MetroHealth Medical Center- Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal medicine - MetroHealth Medical Center
Medical Education: New York Medical College - Valhalla, NY
Medical Education: Karl Franzens Universitaet - Graz, Austria
Interests: General cardiology, Echocardiography.

Ossama Lashin, MD, PhD
Endocrinology
Fellowship: Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism - University Hospitals of Cleveland- Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - University Hospitals of Cleveland - Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: PhD - Case Western Reserve University
Medical Education: Ain Shams University Faculty of Medicine - Cairo, Egypt

Dorota Whitmer, MD
Endocrinology
Fellowship: Endocrinology - Georgetown University Hospital - Washington, DC
Residency: Internal Medicine - Cleveland Clinic - Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: Poznan University of Medical Sciences - Poznan, Poland
Undergraduate: Cornell University - Ithaca, NY USA

Saleem Chowdhry, MD
Gastroenterology
Fellowship: Gastroenterology - Case Western Reserve University - Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital - Cooperstown, NY
Internship: Internal Medicine - Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College- Ajmer/Rajasthan, India
Medical Education: Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College - Ajmer/Rajasthan, India

Hamed Daw, MD
Hematology / Oncology
Fellowship: Hematology & Medical Oncology - Cleveland Clinic - Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - Cleveland Clinic - Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: Universite Libre de Bruxelles - Brussels
Undergraduate: Central Saida School - Lebanon

Brian Haines, MD
Hematology / Oncology
Fellowship: Hematology & Medical Oncology - University of Cincinnati Medical Center/University Hospitals
Residency: Internal Medicine - Case Western Reserve University / MetroHealth Medical Center
Medical Education: The University of Toledo College of Medicine

Sameh Demian, MD
Hospital Medicine
Residency: Internal Medicine - Fairview Hospital - Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: Aim Shams University – Egypt
Interests: Physical Examination, Medical Education

Lena Dergham, MD
Fellowship: Palliative Medicine - Cleveland Clinic - Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - Marshall University Affiliated Hospitals- Huntington, WV
Medical Education: Aleppo University Faculty of Medicine - Aleppo, Syria

Rama Gajulapalli, MD
Hospital Medicine
Residency: Internal Medicine - Metro Health Medical Center, Cleveland - OH
Medical Education: University of Mysore, JJM Medical College Davangere, Karnataka

Amy O'Linn, DO
Hospital Medicine
Current President, Society of Hospital Medicine Lake Erie Chapter
Residency: Internal Medicine - Cleveland Clinic- Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine - Athens, OH
Undergraduate: University of Notre Dame - Notre Dame, IN
Dr. O’Linn is the physician lead for readmission reduction for the Cleveland Clinic Enterprise which comprises 10 hospitals in Ohio, 4 hospitals in Florida, with thus almost 200,000 hospital inpatient discharges annually. Her work was recognized on the August 2019 CMS Webinar on Readmission Reduction, and her team was awarded the Ohio Hospital Association’s Ohio Patient Safety Institute Best Practice Award for creating and implementing a Discharge Checklist across the Cleveland Clinic Enterprise.
Previously site director for her 14 FTE hospitalist program at Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital, Dr. O’Linn is the Regional Hospital Medicine Quality physician lead for 5 hospitals in the Cleveland Clinic system. Dr. O’Linn participates on the Board of Trustees for the Cleveland Clinic’s Quality Alliance, a collaborative network of independently employed and Cleveland Clinic employed providers serving in the Cleveland Clinic Health System.
Dr. O’Linn is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Hospital Medicine, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and Society of Hospital Medicine. She has worked as a hospitalist physician since 2008 after completing an internal medicine residency at Cleveland Clinic Main Campus.
Dr. O’Linn began readmission reduction work in 2010. Since then, Dr. O’Linn has expanded her work to now the Cleveland Clinic Enterprise, focusing on system changes to help protect patients from unnecessary readmissions (Discharge checklist) and now expanding standardized individualized care plans at the individual hospitals to prevent unnecessary readmissions. Dr. O’Linn embraces a patient-centered, and multidisciplinary team-based approach to readmission reduction.

K.V. Gopalakrishna, MD, FIDSA, FACP
Infectious Disease
Chairman, Internal Medicine
Diplomat in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases.
Interests: Dr. Gopal is a member of many prestigious medical societies and is active in hospital committees. He is the 1999 recipient of the Master Teacher award from ACP-ASIM Ohio Chapter. In 2019, he was a recipient of the American College Physician (ACP) Ohio Laureate Award Winner. Dr. Gopal is an avid baseball fan and serves as a team physician for the Cleveland Indians.

Katherine Eilenfeld, DO
Palliative Medicine
Fellowship: Hospice and Palliative Medicine - Metro Health Medical Center - Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - Saint John Medical Center - Westlake, OH
Medical Education: West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine - Lewisburg, WV
Undergraduate: Valparaiso University - Valparaiso, IN

Saaima Arshad, MD, FACP
Primary Care
Associate Program Director
Medical Director, Westown Health Center
Residency: Internal Medicine residency - Cleveland Clinic - Fairview Hospital
Interests: Hospital medicine and rheumatology, Case reports, board review, and doctor’s dilemma.

Henry Ng, MD
Primary Care
Head of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Medical Care
Masters: Public Health Case Western Reserve University
Residency: Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Cleveland, OH USA
Medical Education: Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Undergraduate: Biochemistry - Michigan State University

Bassel Akbik, MD
Critical Care Medicine
Cardiac Care Unit Co-Director
Fellowship: Critical Care Medicine - Cleveland Clinic - Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - Fairview Hospital - Cleveland, OH
Internship: Internal Medicine - Damascus University, Syria
Medical Education: Damascus University Medical School
Interests: Critical care ultrasound and echocardiography

Francois Abi Fadel, MD
Pulmonary and Critical Care
Respiratory Therapy Director – Fairview
Pulmonary and Critical Care Subspecialty Director – Internal Medicine Residency
Fellowship: Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine - SUNY College of Medicine - Brooklyn, NY
Residency: Internal Medicine - Staten Island University Hospital - Staten Island, NY
Medical Education: Flanders Interuniversity Council - Brussels, Belgium
Medical Education: Luxembourg Ministry of Higher Education and Research

Muhammad Nouman Iqbal, MD
Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
Fellowship: Sleep Medicine - CWRU/Joint Program with UH & Metro Health
Fellowship: Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine - Metro Health Medical Center - Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - Fairview Hospital - Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: Rawalpindi Medical College - Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan

Dr. Bassam Al-Haddad
Rheumatology
Fellowship: Rheumatology - Metro Health Medical Center - Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - Fairview Hospital - Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: Al-Baath University Faculty of Medicine - Syria

Anca Vlasie, MD, PhD
Nephrology
Fellowship: Nephrology - Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
Residency: Internal Medicine - St. Vincent Charity Hospital, Cleveland, OH
Medical Education: University of Ilullu Hatieganu, Cluj
I have been involved in mentoring and educating medical students, residents, and physicians for my entire career. After graduating from Medical School in 1990, initially as an Assistant Professor at the University of Medicine in Cluj, Romania, and then after being trained at Universities in France and UK, I designed and implemented the first Public Health curriculum for a Romanian Medical School. After completing my PhD and becoming an Assistant then Associate Professor of Public Health (awarded early tenure in 2008) I taught and mentored medical students, Master and PhD – level students at Cleveland State University (CSU) and Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF)/NEOUCOM for almost 10 years.
My research experience includes projects and National Institute of Health (NIH) grands completed with Howard University, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, UNICEF, and United State Agency for International Development, CCF Lerner Center, MetroHealth hospital, and CSU. I have published 19 peer-reviewed research articles and more than 50 conference papers, being the leading author and conference presented for more than 35.
After completing my fellowship training in nephrology at CCF Glickman Center – ranked at the time number one in the USA for nephrology, I started my current position in private practice nephrology. I currently run a large outpatient Chronic Kidney Disease CKD clinic and see inpatient nephrology consults at three local CCF hospitals. While I enjoy taking care of all renal–related medical problems, my special interests lie in diagnosing and treating patients with glomerulonephritis (we unidentified a cluster of IgA vasculitis here in Cleveland within the past 5 years) and those with challenging electrolytes abnormalities. Also, as a direct consequence of my training (I worked directly with dr Bravo, the national expert on pheochromocytoma, and published results of a study involving more than 50 patients with asymptomatic pheochromocytoma), I have a strong interest in diagnosing and treating patients with uncontrolled secondary HTN.