Welcome

Message from the Program Director

It is a great pleasure to introduce you to the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Harlem Hospital Center.  The Department of Medicine offers an outstanding opportunity to further your educational and professional goals.  Harlem has a long history of providing quality health care to the surrounding community and of training minority and female physicians.  We continue to train a very diverse group of residents from many parts of the world.  Since 1962, Harlem has had an affiliation with the College of Physicians of Columbia University and is one of the major teaching hospitals for Columbia medical students.

Our training program provides rigorous hands-on experience in managing a wide variety of problems and diagnoses.  Graduates of the program are well prepared for careers in general internal medicine, primary care or inpatient medicine as well as for fellowship in any of the subspecialties of internal medicine.

You can expect to work hard, gain a great deal of knowledge and experience and share in the camaraderie and spirit of the Department of Medicine of Harlem Hospital Center.  And you can experience living in one of the world’s great cities.

Raji Ayinla, MD, FCCP, FAAC, FACP
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Columbia University College of Physician and Surgeon
Director, Internal Medicine Residency Training Program
Harlem Hospital Center

DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
DIVISIONS
Organizational Structure for the Department of Medicine at Harlem Hospital Center.  

Dennis Greenbaum

Director of Medicine

Raji Ayinla

Internal Medicine Residency Program, Director

Ronald Cobbs

Internal Medicine Residency Program, Senior Associate Program Director

Bredy Pierre-Louis

Internal Medicine Residency Program, Associate Program Director

Damian Kurian

Chief of Cardiology

Rhonda Trousdale

Chief of Endocrinology

Joan Culpepper-Morgan

Chief and Fellowship Program Director of Gastroenterology

Meena Ahluwalia

Chief of Hematology & Oncology

Sharon B. Mannheimer

Associate Director of Medicine ● Chief of Infectious Disease

Vel Sivapalan

Fellowship Program Director of Infectious Disease

Jeffrey D. Wallach

Chief and Fellowship Program Director of Nephrology & Hypertension

Sami Nachman

Chief and Fellowship Program Director of Pulmonary ● Chief of Critical Care

Betty Diamond

Chief of Rheumatology

Malay Das, MD

Chief of Geriatrics

AFFILIATION
Affiliation with Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
Since 1962, Harlem Hospital Center has been affiliated with the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons under an agreement with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.  All attending physicians have academic appointments on the Columbia faculty and Harlem Hospital Center's Department of Medicine serves as one of the three main teaching units of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.  All facilities of the University are available to Harlem's house officers.

Internal medicine residents at Harlem Hospital also have complete access to Columbia University's Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library.  The library has a large number of journals, medical textbooks and other databases that can be accessed online with a Columbia UNI at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/ .

EMR
Harlem Hospital Center has one of the most advanced electronic medical records developed by Misys Healthcare systems.  Awarded the 2006 Davies Award of Excellence from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) for our successful transition from paper to digital patient records.

Currently, all patient notes, consultation records, medication prescriptions, procedures and orders as well as documentation by all healthcare workers including, nursing, dietary, respiratory therapy and social work are completed online.  In addition, there are wireless computer carts available to allow charting of information at the bedside as well. This facilitates easy data retrieval and better patient care.

A hospital wide PACS system allows healthcare providers to review all radiological procedures at specialized PACS systems located throughout the hospital.  An intranet based PACS system also allows viewing of digital radiology films at other workstations.

SUPPORT SERVICES
Support services are available at Harlem Hospital to help and support residents and physicians care for their patients.  These services include:

  • Intravenous Line Support Teams
  • Phlebotomy services
  • EKG technicians
  • Telemetry monitoring on all medical wards
  • Online access to patient care resources such as UpToDate®, and STATRef!®
  • Smaller departmental library on the 12th floor and a larger hospital wide library on the 6th floor.

and fellows.