Internal Medicine Student Association networking event draws 10 DOM faculty

March 25, 2025
David Mogollon, Communications Manager, Department of Medicine

The IM Subspecialty Speed Dating event helps medical students — nearly 30 of whom attended this year — make better decisions on subspecialties they may plan to practice in and offers practical insights from faculty to ease their path forward.

[IMSA members with their faculty advisor, Amy Sussman, MD (center), who’s also the DOM’s vice chair of education and IM Clerkship director. Others from left: David Effio Vizcarra, Lauren Heathcock, Yi-Jen Yang (IMSA co-president and CUP Shubitz Family Clinic coordinator), Caleb Seekins (IMSA co-president), and Saleh Mostafa, all first-year medical students at the College of Medicine – Tucson.]

Internal Medicine Student Association members with their faculty advisor, Amy Sussman, MD (center), who’s also the DOM’s vice chair of education and IM Clerkship director. Others from left: David Effio Vizcarra, Lauren Heathcock, Yi-Jen Yang (IMSA co-president and CUP Shubitz Family Clinic coordinator), Caleb Seekins (IMSA co-president), and Saleh Mostafa, all first-year medical students at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

David Effio Vizcarra, Internal Medicine Student Association, College of Medicine – Tucson

Ten Department of Medicine faculty participated March 11 in the 2025 Internal Medicine Subspecialty Speed Dating Event hosted by the University of Arizona IM Student Association chapter led this year by co-presidents and Class of 2028 students Yi-Jen Yang and Caleb Seekins.

See a mini-photo gallery below from the networking session.

[Two images of the Internal Medicine Subspecialty Speed Dating event hosted March 11, 2025, by the IM Student Association at the College of Medicine – Tucson with Department of Medicine faculty: 1) Sarah Tariq, MD, fellowship director in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism; and 2) Eric Brucks, MD, MSc (inset), a general internal medicine specialist at the SAVAHSC. See more photos below.]

Two images of the Internal Medicine Subspecialty Speed Dating event hosted March 11, 2025, by the IM Student Association at the College of Medicine – Tucson with Department of Medicine faculty: 1) Sarah Tariq, MD, fellowship director in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism; and 2) Eric Brucks, MD, MSc (inset), a general internal medicine specialist at the SAVAHSC. See more photos below.

David Effio Vizcarra, Internal Medicine Student Association, College of Medicine – Tucson

“It was truly an amazing event to be able to network and connect with physicians from so many different specialties, being able to do so in a casual environment too. We’re very grateful for Bersabe Lopez and Dr. Amy Sussman’s help with coordinating and executing a successful turnout!” said Yang, who added that 28 students attended — slightly up from 2024’s student draw of 25.

IMSA leadership is generally with first-year students, who make up the bulk of those attending the speed dating event to get an early jump on what subspecialties they’d like to focus on once they get to picking clerkships and sub-internships as third- and fourth-year students, said Amy Sussman, MD, DOM vice chair for education and IM Clerkship director as well as IMSA faculty advisor. Typically, the event is catered (as it was, again, this year by Chipotle) and hosted in the Health Sciences Innovation Building. 

Students and DOM faculty nosh before settling in at several tables for round-robin chats with a physician, physician-scientist or researcher about how they chose their career path, what ups and downs they may have experienced, and ways in which they may have done things differently. Each chat session lasts eight minutes, then the students move on to the next table.

In addition to Dr. Sussman, who’s also fellowship program director in the Division of Nephrology, this year’s participating faculty and divisions represented included Christian Bime, MD, Medicine ICU director, Banner – University Medical Center Tucson, and associate professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine; Eric Brucks, MD, MSc, an internist at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care Center and IM Residency – Tucson associate program director; Monica Hinajosa Jordan, MD, assistant professor, Division of Infectious Diseases; Saman Nematollahi, MD, assistant director, IM Clerkship, and Infectious Diseases Fellowship program director; Ravi Krishnadasan, MD, a hematologist in the Division of Hematology & Oncology; Talal Moukabary, MD, an electrophysiologist in the Division of Cardiology; Puneet Shroff, MD, an allergist in the PACCS division; Sarah Tariq, MD, fellowship director in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism; Ryan Wong, MD, director, DOM IM Sub-Internship and Nephrology Fellowship core faculty member — as well as Shiv Bomman, MBBS, chief fellow in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology’s fellowship program.

MINI-PHOTO GALLERY
Click images to enlarge and for captions:

[Talal Moukabary, MD, an electrophysiologist in the Division of Cardiology and the Sarver Heart Center, talks to students about what he studied as a student, how he decided to become a cardiologist and his fascination with atrial fibrillation and other heart rhythm disorders.]
[Saman Nematollhi, MD (right), laughs at comments by Monica Hinestroza Jordan, MD (center), who talks about going to medical school in Pereira, Colombia, her hometown, and working with a mobile health unit of the Colombian Red Cross before coming to the USA for her residency and fellowship training. ]
[Erick Brucks, MD, MSc, talks to students about his indirect path to medicine, starting work as a marine biologist and botanist in Hawai'I, before going to medical school, and choosing to work at the Tucson VA Medical Center, where he’s associate program director for the DOM’s Internal Medicine Residency Program in Tucson.]
[A U of A Cancer Center veteran hematologist, Ravi Krishnadasan, MD, talks about his medical school experience going to St. George's University School of Medicine in the Caribbean and completing his residency and fellowship training at Yale. In Tucson, he also headed up the DOM’s Arizona Homeostasis & Thrombosis Center for a number of years.]
[Shiv Bomman, MBBS, chief fellow in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology’s fellowship program, talks to students about getting his medical degree in Bangalore, India, and doing his residency training at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno, before coming to the U of A.]
[The Division of Nephrology’s Ryan Wong, MD (center), and Amy Sussman, MD (right), talk about how they got interested in kidney care and the various ways chronic kidney diseases can be treated from diet to dialysis to transplants.]
[Puneet Shroff, MD, tells students about his building a thriving allergy and immunology practice in Houston, before deciding to come back to academia at the U of A. He got his medical degree from the University of Illinois Chicago, did his residency training at Washington University at St. Louis, then a transplant hepatology fellowship, a residency in rheumatology, and an allergy and immunology fellowship at Baylor University. ]
[Sarah Tariq, MD, got her medical degree from Ross University and did her residency and fellowship training at the U of A, where she’s been on faculty in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism since 2021. Common diseases she treats include diabetes, calcium disorders, and bone, thyroid and pituitary diseases.]
[Medical students ask questions of Christian Bime, MD, MSc, who has been in Tucson since 2013, after finishing his fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He earned a grant, a career development award and a research fellowship his first year here. He holds a master’s degree in epidemiology and did his residency training at Detroit’s Wayne State University and earned his medical degree from University of Yaounde I in Cameroon, of which he is a native.]
[IM Student Association members ask Puneet Shroff, MD, about his varied interests in medicine. He also completed an integrative medicine fellowship at the U of A and is a member of the college’s student-run Docapella a cappella singing group.]
[Gesturing as he talks, Ravi Krishnadasan, MD, talks about differences in hematology and oncology and the various blood disorders he works to help patients manage. These include clotting and excessive bleeding (hemophilia and Willebrand disease), as well as blood malignancies such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.]
[IMSA members with their faculty advisor, Amy Sussman, MD David Effio Vizcarra, Lauren Heathcock, Yi-Jen Yang (IMSA co-president and CUP Shubitz Family Clinic coordinator), Caleb Seekins (IMSA co-president), and Saleh Mostafa, all first-year medical students at the College of Medicine – Tucson.]