Houston Regional Campus

Clerkship Summary

OB-GYN

The goal of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is to expand the basic science knowledge of reproductive medicine & provide an introduction to areas of Obstetrics and Gynecology which are pertinent to all physicians and will enable them to provide primary healthcare to all female patients. In this six week clerkship, you will have the opportunity to participate in lectures, hands-on training, and inpatient and outpatient cases. These activities will take place mainly at Houston Methodist Hospital and St. Joseph Medical Center.

Surgery

The Surgery Clerkship rotation is to provide students with a personalized, comprehensive, high-quality introduction to surgical patients and care. The student will be supervised in the actual pre-operative evaluation, operative procedures, and post-operative care of patients. Students will be able to follow the patient through the complete process of diagnosis, management, and outcome. You will have the opportunity to be exposed to the basic physiologic principles of surgery, including fluid and electrolyte balance, metabolic response to injury, nutrition, and wound healing. Organ-specific surgical diseases, pre-operative evaluation, post-operative care, and trauma are some of the topics you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in. You will learn basic surgical techniques in the operating room and simulation labs, be exposed to sub-specialties through seminars, conferences, and lectures. The goal is to enable each student, regardless of their chosen field, to be knowledgeable about the diagnosis and management of the surgical patient.

Psychiatry

The Psychiatry Clerkship will allow students to actively expand their knowledge base of mental disorders, develop clinical skills in relating to patients through interviewing them, assessing clinical presentations, formulating a diagnosis, and implementing a treatment plan. Students will also initiate relationships with patients, residents, faculty, and staff. In the six-week clerkship students will be expected to participate as an active member of a multidisciplinary team in evaluating and managing patients on inpatient and consultation services and be able to observe electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Radiology

The Radiology Clerkship provides students with knowledge of the methods of medical imaging; conventional radiology, ultrasound, computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, interventional radiology and nuclear radiology, and application of these methods to specific clinical problems. This course intends to familiarize the medical student with the basic principles of radiologic imaging. Radiologic imaging touches every branch of medicine in the modern health care delivery system, and we hope that this course will lead to a better understanding of Radiology and its application in Medicine.

Emergency Medicine

The practice of emergency medicine entails the rapid assessment and stabilization of patients presenting with acute injuries and illnesses as well as those with exacerbations of many chronic illnesses. You will acquire basic life support skills, including the recognition of immediately life-threatening conditions and the appropriate interventions. You will have the opportunity to develop skills to assess the undifferentiated patient, including the performance of a focused history and physical and the development of an appropriate differential diagnosis. The course goals will be achieved through a combination of clinical shifts in the emergency department under faculty supervision along with lectures, procedural training/skill labs, practice-based learning exercises, and simulations.

Pediatrics

In this six week clerkship, you will have the opportunity to participate in outpatient clinics, inpatient hospital settings, and exposure to the nursery. The student will perform pediatric histories and physicals, learns problem-solving skills, and participates in conferences, seminars, and rounds. The curriculum has been developed directly from the COMSEP curriculum with specific educational goals for each student. Acquisition of basic knowledge of growth and development and its clinical application from birth through adolescence. Development of communication skills that will facilitate the clinical interaction with children, adolescents and their families and thus ensure that complete, accurate data are obtained. Development of competency in the physical examination of infants, children, and adolescents. Acquisition of the knowledge necessary for the diagnosis and initial management of common acute and chronic illnesses. Development of clinical problem-solving skills. An understanding of the influence of family, community, and society on the child in health and disease. Development of strategies for health promotion, as well as disease and injury prevention. Development of attitudes and professional behaviors appropriate for clinical practice. An understanding of the approach of pediatricians to the health care of children and adolescents. Exposure to health care teams in the management of patients of all ages.

Family Medicine

In this six week clerkship, you will have the opportunity to participate in outpatient clinics, inpatient hospital settings, exposure to Sports Medicine and simulation. Our Family and Community medicine clinics are located in and around the greater Houston and Willowbrook areas. Students will learn the fundamentals of an approach to the evaluation and management of frequently occurring, complex, concurrent and ill-defined problems across a variety of acute and chronic presentations. The educational goal of the Department of Family and Community Medicine is to prepare medical students to provide high-quality, personalized, comprehensive health care with an emphasis on the family and integration of care.

Internal Medicine

The primary focus of the Internal Medicine clerkship is to increase a student capacity to function as a caring, increasingly independent but supervised clinician on an interdisciplinary internal medicine team. The Internal Medicine clerkship is your main opportunity to become familiar with the common acute and chronic illnesses adult patients face as well as screening and preventive medicine. While expanding your medical knowledge, the student will also be solidifying basic clinical skills such as patient interviewing, physical examination, and communication through case presentations and written documentation.

CLERKSHIP DIRECTORS & COORDINATORS

Our clerkship directors and coordinators assure that all of our medical students get the necessary curriculum required, utilizing an ever-expanding number of medical services and facilities in our community.

Academic Navigator

Elizabeth Stacker

Psychiatry

Ranjit Chacko, MD
Clerkship Director

Dr. Ranjit Chacko cares for patients on the Houston Methodist Hospital inpatient psychiatric unit and provides consultations throughout the hospital. His clinical interests include acute management of patients with mood, anxiety, thought and/or substance use disorders. He has an additional interest in treating patients with mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, delirium and substance use issues in the context of a wide range of other medical illnesses. Chacko graduated from the University of Colombo, Facility of Medicine, Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1971. He works in Houston and specializes in psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry. Chacko is affiliated with Houston Methodist Hospital.

Radiology

Mark Sultenfuss, MD
Clerkship Director

Dr. Mark Sultenfuss, a member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie, Class of '99, attended

The University of Texas Medical School in Houston. He completed his Radiology residency at UAB in Birmingham, AL, and Interventional Radiology Fellowship at MD Anderson. Dr. Sultenfuss worked as Interventional Radiologist at the Houston VA from 2011-2015 before coming to Houston Methodist in 2015 to help start the Diagnostic Radiology Residency, where he serves as Program Director. He also serves as Vice-Chair of Education for the Department of Radiology and is currently the Executive Clerkship Director for Radiology at TAMU College of Medicine. Dr. Sultenfuss serves on several other educational committees for Houston Methodist and TAMU School of Medicine.

Emergency Medicine

Michelle Mowad, MD
Clerkship Director

Katie Dasilva
Clerkship Coordinator

TMC Clerkship Directors & Coordinators

OB-GYN

Konrad Harms, MD
Executive Clerkship Director

Dr. Konrad Harms completed his residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at the Christus St. Joseph Hospital in Houston, where he earned numerous honors including Highest CREOG Exam Score in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He continued to garner numerous honors after joining the attending staff there in 2002, including CREOG Educational Faculty of the Year (2003), Christus St. Joseph OB-GYN Residency Faculty of the Year (2005), and Best Teacher in Obstetrics and Gynecology for The Methodist Hospital OB-GYN Residency Program (2007, 2009). Harms joined the attending staff at Methodist in 2006. He has chaired the Department of OB-GYN at St. Joseph Medical Center since January of 2009.

Vanessa Yacouby
Executive Clerkship Coordinator

Surgery

Vadim Sherman, MD, FACS, FRCSC
Clerkship Director

Dr. Vadim Sherman is a Board Certified General Surgeon. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. His undergraduate studies were in honors physiology at the University of Alberta. He completed medical school at the University of Western Ontario. Sherman performed his general surgery training at McGill University. During his training, he also earned a Master of Science from McGill University. He completed a one-year fellowship in advanced minimally invasive and bariatric surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Sherman is actively involved in a number of surgical societies including the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and the American College of Surgeons (ACS). He has trained medical students, surgical residents, fellows and surgeons in advanced minimally invasive and bariatric techniques. He has authored a number of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and surgical videos. He has also lectured nationally and internationally on the topic of surgical weight management. His research interests are in bariatric surgery, surgical education and advanced minimally invasive surgical outcomes. Sherman's clinical expertise in minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery, with the primary focus being bariatric surgery. He performs surgery for reflux disease, hernia repair, and other intestinal diseases. Sherman is committed to providing patients with comprehensive care and advanced surgical solutions at the highest standard of excellence.

Pediatrics

Richard Byrd, MD
Clerkship Director

Dr. Richard Byrd is the chief of pediatrics at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. Byrd received both his undergraduate degree in pre-medicine and his medical degree from Texas A&M University and completed his internship and residency at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas. Byrd is a member of the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, Texas Pediatric Society, Harris County Medical Society and the Houston Pediatric Society.

Hunaid Gurji, DO
Assistant Director

Vanessa Yacouby
Clerkship Coordinator

Family Medicine

Marsha Holleman, MD
Clerkship Director

Dr. Marsha C. Holleman is a family physician who has had a long clinical career seeing patients in community clinics in Houston, and in the last 5 years has expanded into teaching residents and medical students. She has published in Lancet and JAMA, and has received faculty of the year awards from the Family Medicine residents (2016-19) and from the graduating medical student classes of 2018 and 2019.

Katie Dasilva
Clerkship Coordinator

Internal Medicine

Marietta Clewing, MD
Executive Clerkship Director

Dr. J. Marietta Clewing is a board-certified internist who joined the Department of Medicine in 2009 as an Instructor in Clinical Medicine. She currently serves as the medical student clerkship director. Clewing received her medical degree from the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany, and completed the residency program in internal medicine at Jacobi-Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. At graduation, she received the Ambulatory Care Resident of the Year Award. Clewing has a strong interest in medical education and is working as an attending physician on the University Teaching Service. She is a member of the Residency Evaluation Committee and the Resident Mentorship Program. Throughout her career, Clewing had a strong interest in clinical and experimental research resulting in various publications and national and international presentations. Prior to entering her residency program, Clewing held a research appointment in genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. Clewing received the General Internal Medicine Teaching Award as well as the Junior Clinical Instructor Award for 2010-2011. She was awarded the Junior Clinical Instructor Award again for 2011-2012.

Bhargavi Patham, MD
Associate Director

Ruby Shah, MD
Assistant Director

Willowbrook Clerkship Directors & Coordinators

OB-GYN

Traci DeSplinter, MD
Clerkship Director

Dr. DeSplinter earned her undergraduate, graduate, and medical doctorate degrees at Texas Tech University. During medical school, she was selected to the medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha, served as a class officer all four years, and received the Outstanding Student in Ob-Gyn award. Dr. DeSplinter completed her residency at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita, Kansas, where she served as chief resident. She maintains a busy ob-gyn practice at Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital and enjoys traveling with her family during her free time.

Janiece Dziedzic , MAHS
Clerkship Coordinator

Surgery

David J. Lim, MD
Clerkship Director

Mel Roschal
Clerkship Coordinator

Pediatrics

Tad Shirley, MD
Clerkship Director

Dr. Tad Shirley is the founder of Family First Pediatrics in Spring, Texas. Dr. Shirley received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from St. Mary's University in San Antonio and then his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston. The residency was completed at Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi. He then served 5 years as a pediatrician in the US Air Force prior to founding Family First Pediatrics. Dr. Shirley is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Texas Pediatric Society, and the Harris County Medical Society.

Janiece Dziedzic, MAHS
Clerkship Coordinator

Family Medicine

Tiffany Burns, MD
Clerkship Director

Dr. Tiffany Burns is an attending physician at the Willowbrook location for the Methodist Primary Care Group. She has been a Family Medicine attending for over 13 years. She grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and received her undergraduate degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Burns attended medical school at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, then completing the Fifth Pathway Program at New York Medical College. She was chief resident for the Methodist Family Medicine Residency Program in Houston, Texas. She received the Patient’s Choice Award in 2008, was elected chair of Family Medicine at Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital in 2012 and 2013, and was also named one of Houston’s Top Doctors by H Magazine in 2013. Dr. Burns is a member of the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians and Texas Medical Association. She is dedicated to providing quality care with the primary goal of disease prevention. Dr. Burns has been teaching medical students for 10 years and she hopes to help students possess the attributes that are necessary to meet their individual and collective responsibilities to society.

Viany A. Montes
Clerkship Coordinator

Internal Medicine

Kashif J. Piracha, MD FACP FASN FNKF
Clerkship Director

Dr. Piracha obtained his medical degree from King Edward Medical University in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2000. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia, from 2003-2006. Dr. Piracha practiced as a clinical hospitalist for six years in Fort Worth from 2006-2012. He subsequently completed his Nephrology & Hypertension fellowship from Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, New York, from 2012-2014.Dr. Piracha is dual board-certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He was elected a Fellow of American College of Physicians in 2012, a Fellow of National Kidney Foundation in 2013, and a Fellow of American Society of Nephrology in 2015. Dr. Piracha is the recipient of the American Medical Association’s Physician Recognition Award with Commendation from 2013-2015 and then again from 2018-2021. Dr. Piracha is actively engaged in medical education activities. In addition to being the Clerkship Director, he is also a Section Editor for MedStudy’s Internal Medicine Core Curriculum. He is a Medical Reviewer for the American College of Physician’s Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program. He is part of the Medical Advisory Board at Very Well Health and is a Medical Writer for Health Insiders.

Mel Roschal
Clerkship Coordinator

INSTITUTE OF BIOSCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

Researchers at the Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology in Houston work to improve the quality of health care through innovative research and education. The institute is organized into centers of research excellence in cancer, genomics and disease, developmental biology and birth defects, and infectious disease.

Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology

ENGINEERING MEDICINE (ENMED)

Texas A&M School of Engineering Medicine (EnMed) was developed in partnership between Texas A&M’s Colleges of Engineering, Medicine, and Houston Methodist Hospital to train a new type of physician dedicated to creating transformative healthcare technology.

HOUSTON AGGIE MEDICAL SOCIETY

Houston Aggie Medical Society (HAMS) is a newly-formed organization dedicated to advancing the recent affiliation of the Texas A&M College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital. Currently, the College of Medicine has 48 future physicians completing their clinical training at the world-renowned Houston Methodist Hospital, and that number will continue to increase in the future. This is an exciting time for the School of Medicine and the Houston Methodist Hospital.

Learn more about Houston Aggie Medical Society (HAMS)