Malik Merchant, MD recently joined Del Sol Medical Center (El Paso, Texas) as its chief medical officer. Before joining Del Sol, Dr. Merchant was the section chief of hospitalists and post-acute care at Austin Diagnostic Clinic (Austin, Texas) where he also served as a consultant for hospital-based programs. He is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and earned his medical degree from Aga Kham University Medical Center (Karachi, Pakistan). Dr. Merchant completed his residency and internship in internal medicine at the Peoria Illinois Medical Center at the University of Illinois (Peoria, Ill.).
Cox Monett Hospital (Monett, Mo.) has welcomed Karissa Merritt, DO to its hospitalist team. Dr. Merritt earned her degree in osteopathic medicine from Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (Lynchburg, Va.) and completed her residency at Cox Family Medicine Residency (Monett, Mo.).
While in training, Dr. Merritt pioneered a system-wide initiative on food insecurity screening, collecting data on its use as a predictor of risk-lives and chronic disease burden. Additionally, she has served as a policy scholar with the American Academy of Family Physicians. Professionally, her interests are social contributors to health, advocacy and legislation, population health initiatives, point of care ultrasound, and medical education.
WellMed (San Antonio, Texas) has promoted Beth Chmelik, MD to chief of enterprise hospitalist services; WellMed is an Optum care delivery organization focusing on Medicare Advantage patients in Texas, Florida, and New Mexico. She will continue her role as regional medical director for Greater Texas Care and Value, working on population management, health care costs, and data analytics.
Dr. Chmelik completed medical school and residency at the University of Florida (Gainesville, Fla.) and has been a hospitalist for more than 20 years. She is a member of the inaugural class of fellows for the Society of Hospital Medicine, is now a senior fellow in hospital medicine, and she’s working with SHM to establish a special interest group for value-based hospitalist practice. She has served on various local and national committees relating to quality, safety, and utilization of medical care. Dr. Chmelik was the founding chair of the Optum Hospitalist Forum, supporting all Optum care delivery organizations with hospitalist groups across the nation.
She joined WellMed in 2012 and was tasked with helping to launch and grow the Austin hospitalist program; she’s served as director of hospitalist services for WellMed since 2014.
Dr. Chmelik continues to lead the employed hospitalist services for WellMed across three markets in Texas and will now support all regions with contracted hospitalist relationships. She will liaison with outside hospitalist groups and market hospitals that care for WellMed Network patients, and she will continue to collaborate on hospital and skilled nursing facility contracting, in addition to other roles as needed.
Charlotte magazine named Stephanie Murphy, DO among its 2021 Charlotteans of the Year. Dr. Murphy is a hospitalist, doctor of internal medicine, medical director of Atrium Health’s Hospital at Home program, co-medical director of Atrium Health’s Mobile integrated health program, and director of Carolinas Medical Center’s transition clinic, part of Atrium Health based in Charlotte, N.C.
Dr. Murphy was recognized for her success in getting the Hospital at Home program up and running in less than a week during the pandemic. This included training and coordinating physicians, paramedics, and nurses and adapting hospital-level care to patients’ homes.
Dr. Murphy earned her medical degree from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (Erie, Pa.) and completed her residency at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine (Lexington, Ky.). She is board-certified in internal medicine.
Cerner Corporation (North Kansas City, Mo.), named Nasim Afsar, MD, MBA, MHM, as the company’s first chief health officer, effective January 2022. In this new role, Dr. Afsar will lead Cerner’s more than 1,000 health care professionals who provide insight and guidance to product development and improving the lives of patients and caregivers. She will also lead the quality and patient safety, regulatory, health policy, government affairs, and continuous improvement organizations.
Dr. Afsar is an experienced physician and health care executive with more than a decade of leadership responsibilities in large, complex health care delivery systems, including UCLA Health and UCI Health. Previously, she has served as chief operating officer, chief quality officer, and associate chief medical officer, delivering large-scale, sustainable outcomes in quality, population health management, operations, finance, contracting, business development, and strategy. She is the past president of SHM and has served on the Board of Directors for eight years. Dr. Afsar received her MD from UC Davis, School of Medicine (Sacramento, Calif.) and completed her internal medicine residency at UCLA Health (Los Angeles). She received her MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management (Los Angeles).
Ryan Deweese, MD, a hospitalist at Indiana University Health Arnett Hospital, Lafayette, Ind. has published his first book, “Where Rainbows Never Die”. Based on his 16 years of experience as a physician, the young adult novel tells the story of a young girl with cancer, her doctor, and an adventurous treasure hunt.
Aside from being an expression of Dr. Deweese’s creativity, the book offers hope to people in difficult situations. Half the proceeds from the sales of “Where Rainbows Never Die,” are dedicated to the Caroline Symmes Children’s Cancer Endowment, a non-profit that funds pediatric cancer research at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.
Dr. Deweese earned his medical degree from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and completed his residency at St. Vincent Hospital, Frankfort, Ind.
The Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn., bestowed the 2021 Dr. Peggy Bia Award for Outstanding Clinical Teaching awards recently at Medical Grand Rounds. This recognition is awarded to the top intern, resident, and fellow for excellence in teaching clinical reasoning at the bedside and on the wards. Candidates across medicine subspecialties are nominated and voted on by current clerkship medical students at the Yale School of Medicine. The PGY-1 winner was Andrew Sanchez, MD; the PGY-2/3 winner was Nischay Rege, MD, PhD (not pictured); and the fellow (PGY-4) winner was Jiun-Ruey Hu, MD, MPH.
Dr. Sanchez is an internal medicine intern; he received his medical degree from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Manhattan, N.Y. Dr. Rege is an internal medicine resident; he received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Hu is a cardiology fellow; he received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tenn., where he also completed his internal medicine residency. Dr. Hu previously placed first at the 2020 Nashville SHM resident poster competition for his abstract on immune checkpoint inhibitor-related myocarditis.
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