Eleven share honors at Internal Medicine Research Academic Half-Day Awards

A group of internal medicine residents, including Sanjeeva Weerasinghe, MD (PGY-3 – in light green scrubs), and Grant Collins, MD (PGY-2 – in white shirt), chat as food and beverages are served at the 2025 IM Research Academic Half-Day competition.

Johnny Trinh, MD, a PGY-2 IM resident, discusses his poster, “Enhancing Resident Education on Standardized Drink Calculations to Improve Counseling for Alcohol Use Disorder.”

Ryan Weyker, DO, a PGY-1 IM resident, looks at poster on diuretics while another resident discusses it with Swathi Somisetty, MD, also a PGY-1.

Nathan Walton, MD, a PGY-2, talks about his poster to three IM residents, Jessica Kitsen, DO (left), Jackie Maltagliati, DO (center left), and Shenar Dinkha, DO (on right at left), all PGY-1s.

PGY-1 IM resident Cassandra Everly, MD, MPH, with one of her co-authors Beth Myerson, MDiv, PhD, founding director of the Department of Family & Community Medicine’s Harm Reduction Research Lab, next to their poster: “How Does IM Match Up? A study of Arizona resident physicians' likelihood of prescribing medication for Opioid Use Disorder.” The center was created in 2018 to improve opioid disorder diagnoses and reduce bloodborne illnesses like HIV and hepatitis.

Rajesh Kotagiri, MD, an Inpatient Medicine hospitalist and associate professor, asks questions of Enkhtsogt Sainbayar, DO, a PGY-2 IM resident, about his poster on “Overcoming Barriers to Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy in Hospitalized Heart Failure Patients: A Trainee-Centered Intervention.”

Hospitalist Anthony Whitten, DO, asks a question about a poster, “Reddit Revelations: A Thematic Content Analysis of the Subreddit R/Colonoscopy” to Maxwell A. Hart, MD, Med, a PGY-3 IM resident, as Inpatient Medicine division chief Tejo Vemulapalli, MD, listens.

Division of Infectious Diseases’ Alex Perry, MD, MPH, and poster author Grant Collins, MD, a PGY-2 IM resident, discuss his poster, “1 View is no View,” about a 17-year-old male injured while playing football and the need for physical exams as well as imaging in such cases.

DOM faculty (seated) compare notes on evaluating residents’ research as participants pass by looking at posters.

PGY-3s Clinton Wu, DO, and Biagio Collura, MD, on either side of their poster, “Reducing Fall Risks in Older Adults,” with colleagues. Geriatrics’ Meenakshi Dagar, MD, was co-author on the research.

Nelson Pham, MD, during oral presentation on his research regarding “SGLT2 Inhibitors and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Heart Transplant Recipients: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis.”

PGY-3 Mateo Mendoza, MD, gesticulates during his award-winning oral presentation on “Assessing the Utility of Provocative Maneuvers During Right Heart Catheterization in Pulmonary Venous Hypertension.”

Oral presentation judges – IM Residency – Tucson program director Laura Meinke, MD (PACCS); Eric Brucks, MD (SAVAHCS); Anthony Whitten, DO (Inpatient Medicine); Erica Yothment, DO (SAVAHCS); and Michel Corban, MD (Cardiology), listen and ask questions.

PGY-2 Nathan Walton, MD, gestures as he talks about his research project, “Surety of Parasitosis: A curious case of Wohlfahrtiimonas Bacteremia,” during oral presentations.

PGY-2 IM resident Amrutha Doniparthi, MD (left) listens to the final Oral Presentation, as the judges (one row behind) consider the merits of the presenter’s research and presentation. She was among six residents who won for Best QI Project: “Improving pneumococcal vaccination rates in the resident clinic.”