MVHS residency program graduates 11 doctors, with five of them staying in the area to work

UTICA, N.Y. — Eleven doctors graduated on June 30 from the St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Program, bringing the total number of family physicians completing the three-year, post-doctoral training program to 327. The program is an affiliate of Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS).

Program participants trained and provided care at the St. Elizabeth campus of MVHS, the Sister Rose Vincent Family Medicine Center on Hobart Street, the Women’s Health Center, and at the Faxton and St. Luke’s campuses as affiliates of MVHS, according to Residency Program Director T. Eric Schackow.

Five of this year’s graduates will stay in the area to work, with four of those joining MVHS primary-care practices. Historically, half of the program’s graduates have settled in the upstate region to practice, adding to the primary-care workforce and helping to alleviate the area’s physician shortage.

The graduates are: Kwadwo Ansong, Victor Avila Macias, Jessica S. Baik, Mary Juliana Bapana, Benjamin Flinn, Pete Htwe, Angelina M. Nitto, Priscilla Merli Palomar, Ronald Siregar, Phyu Phyu Thwe, and Sun Koo Yoo.

Macias will work as an inpatient hospitalist for MVHS, Bapana will work in the MVHS Washington Mills Medical Office, Htwe will work in the MVHS East Utica Medical Office, and Thwe will practice primary care at MVHS Medical Group’s North Utica office. Meanwhile, Nitto will work in outpatient and school-based health in Oneonta.

A graduation ceremony and dinner were held at Hart’s Hill Inn in Whitesboro and several awards were presented. 

The St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Program started in 1975, is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and by the American Osteopathic Association. It is affiliated with SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse; University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine; and Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, Pennsylvania.