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Current UNC Division of Geriatric Medicine Fellows Our Fellowship Coordinator is Angela Bowden.
His interest in geriatric medicine began during his first year of medical school, when he was awarded an American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) summer medical student fellowship. (For information about the AFAR program, go to http://www.afar.org/ .) As president of his school's geriatric interest group, he became aware of the myriad medical and social needs of elders. While a resident in West Philadelphia, he became determined to pursue a career in geriatrics, realizing how important it is for older patients to have caring and knowledgeable physicians who can provide quality health care and advocate for an often-isolated population.
Her path into serving that very same population opened years ago during high school when she worked in a pharmacy in Long Island, New York. “The older customers had so many questions, concerns and opinions regarding their own health care, and that made me become curious about how medicines work and about health care in general.” Khandelwal did her undergraduate work at the State University of New York in Albany. She was a nurse’s aide for part of that time and again felt an interest in the older patients on her service. “I loved hearing their stories, their life journeys, and how appreciative they were for basic care. I felt that what I could do for them was limited, and became determined to be able to do more.” She graduated from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her Family Medicine Residency at the University of Pittsburgh. It was during her residency that she worked with many of Pittsburgh’s underserved older people, which revealed to her the extent of the collective deficits of the health care system for the elderly. But for Khandelwal, a problem perceived is a problem to be addressed, and so she is stepping into her fellowship at UNC to get training in the advanced and interdisciplinary medicine that older patients require. She is the third new fellow to join the Division of Geriatric Medicine in 2007, Drs. David Halpern and Michael LaMantia having started their training in early summer 2007.
Before entering medical school, he was a high school teacher and coach. There are those who might say that his experience teaching teenagers enhances his ability to diagnose, interact positively with, and clinically treat older adults; people over 55 are much like people 14 to 18 years of age – sensitive to the fact that their present way of life is soon to change. In 2005 he came to UNC to start his residency in internal medicine. The productive relationships that he formed with geriatrician faculty members on the wards and his increasing interest in issues affecting the elderly and their care were reasons he became interested in doing a fellowship with the division. He applied and was accepted into the program on the research track. LaMantia says that over his career, he has come to see that the “…complex and interwoven set of medical, social, and environmental issues that affect care provided to older adults is very different from providing health care to a younger patient. Devoting a period of time during a physician’s training to the issues that affect our more senior patients is wise given the projected increase in this population.”
Laura Patel's pre-medical school education began by earning a B.A. in Biology (cum laude) from Macalester College in Minnesota. While an undergraduate, she spent a semester studying Natural and Human Environment at the School for International Training in Kathmandu, Nepal. She has also studied several languages of the region, including Nepali, Gujarati, and Hindi. She went on to graduate from the University of Minnesota Medical School, where she was recognized for demonstrating excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service with a membership in the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She also achieved honors status in Internal Medicine in Pathology, Pathophysiology and Pharmacology. Her extracurricular activities included her membership in a group recognizing and commemorating people who donated their bodies to science though music and poetry, and volunteering at Smiley’s Free Clinic, providing evaluation and treatment for indigent patients. As an internal medicine resident here at UNC, she distinguished herself with the “Golden Boots” award, given by 3rd year medical residents to a 2nd year resident who demonstrates superior clinical judgment. She also received the Dr. David A. Ontjes Award for Excellence in Inpatient Clinical Care, given by medical school faculty to the resident in each class demonstrating outstanding inpatient clinical care performance.
Leslie Scheunemann graduated summa cum laude from North Carolina State University, earning a B.S. in Mathematics, B.S. in Physics, B.A. in Chemistry, with a minor in Japanese, which brought her to Hiratsuka, Japan to study the language and culture. She distinguished herself as a Phi Beta Kappa, and as a member in the physics honor society, Sigma Pi Sigma, among other honors. She went on to earn her M.D. from UNC Medical School, and continued her medical studies here, completing her residency in internal medicine in June 2008. During her residency, she spent the summer of 2007 as a Clinical Observer at the University College Hospitals in Galway, Ireland. Among her UNC School of Medicine activities was a membership on the Student Health Action Committee, serving as coordinator of the Geriatrics Interest Group, and volunteering at the Rex Convalescent Care Center. Leslie became a member of the UNC Medicine ICU Palliative Care Interest Group in 2007, and continues this interest, saying that she wants “to learn medicine deeply, and to apply this knowledge in a rigorously ethical way in patient-focused care, with an emphasis on palliative and end-of-life care.
Last updated 7/27/2008. |
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Dr. David Halpern is a new arrival at UNC, but he is not new to top-tier universities: his BA in English is from Yale University (1999) and his MD is from Cornell (2004). He recently completed (2007) his residency in the Primary Care track of the Internal Medicine program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (2007).
Christine Khandelwal, DO, UNC’s newest fellow in geriatric medicine, recommends the specialization of geriatrics to medical students who want to serve a population with “many medical and social complexities.”
Dr. LaMantia received his BS degree from Duke University and his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.