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Internal Medicine Ambulatory Track (AOA)


Osteopathic Internal Medicine Residency-Primary Care Track at Borinquen Health Care Center

This osteopathic training program is a primary care track of three year in length based at Borinquen Health Care Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center. The program is approved by the AOA for 4 resident’s positions per year and started on July 1, 2011. Borinquen Health Center is located at 3601 Federal Highway, Miami, FL 33137. The program director is Dr. Deborah Gracia, DO, the Chief Medical Officer at Borinquen Health Center. The application process will be done through the Osteopathic ERAS website, and applicants will be selected via the National Matching Service. If you require further information please feel free to contact our Graduate Medical Education program coordinators or GME staff at 305-740-3353.

 RESIDENCY PROGRAM DIRECTOR

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Deborah Gracia, D.O
Diplomate, American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine
CMO at Borinquen Health Center
Education: Philadelphia COM
Internship: MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER, Miami Beach, FL.
Residency Training: Internal Medicine at MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER, Miami Beach, FL.
Dr. Gracia holds outstanding years of practice, and sufficient administrative, scholarly and academic experience; as well a suitable Continuing Medical Education trajectory. She has been the Chief Medical Director at Borinquen Health Center, Miami Beach Florida, a Federally Qualified Health Center dedicated to serve multicultural, underserved and uninsured community in NW Miami Dade County.  In this environment, she has been able to utilize not only her medical skills, but also her language skills. She fluently speaks and writes English, Haitian Creole, Spanish and French, has allowed her to communicate with the patients in their native language. Furthermore, from 2001 to 2005 she had the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors of Borinquen Health Care Center, Inc.  As a member of Borinquen Health Center Executive Committee, she had the opportunity to be exposed to an FQHC from both an administrative and a clinical perspective. Dr. Gracia is Assistant Professor of Medicine at FIU and Nova Southeastern University COM. She is the director of the LCH/NSU-COM Osteopathic Internal Medicine Residency Program that is currently functioning as a primary care or ambulatory track in partnership LCH/Borinquen Health Center. Dr. Gracia is actively involved in faculty professional development issues including presentations at local or national meetings, published articles, clinical and basic research and documentation of teaching or clinical excellence. She has demonstrated a genuine commitment for medical education through her innovative and effective clinical teaching performance. She encourages the trainees the passion to learn more and acquire life-long learning habits. Dr. Gracia is married and loves to share time with her family within a pleasant environment. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, exploring internet, waking, doing physical exercises, cooking healthy foods, listening music, dancing, attending social gathering, traveling, and other diverse activities that allow her a balance of her physical, mental and social wellbeing.

Professor of Medicine, Chairman of Pulmonary Medicine and ICU at Larkin Community Hospital

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Manuel Suarez, M.D, FACCP
Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care
Chairman of ICU & Pulmonary at Larkin Community Hospital

Dr. Manuel Suarez studied medicine in "Universidad Central del Este" in Dominican Republic. After graduating, he enrolled in a residency program of Internal Medicine at St. Michael's Medical Center in Newark, NJ. The next step in his career was dedicated to train in fellowships of Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonary Diseases in the University of Miami and in their affiliated hospitals, Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Miami and Mount Sinai Medical Center, in Miami Beach. He brings with him certifications of the American Board of Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine as well as certification in Age Management and Radiologic Technology. Dr. Suarez has been holding a phenomenal medical career for more than 25 years as a clinical scholar and physician-scientist. He is a good example of dedication and achievement as an investigator, educator, and clinician. He represents a model for medical students and residents as a successful US trained International Medical School Graduate. He has a fruitful private practice and excellent work as an attending physician of the Department of Internal Medicine and as the Chief of the Intensive Care Unit at Larkin Community Hospital. He has served in the Program Advisory Board and in the Dean of Clinical Sciences for Trinity School of Medicine. Larkin and affiliated medical schools are proud to have the privilege to offer our patients and learners the professional integrity, vast medical knowledge and experience of Dr. Suarez. In addition, he has been recognized by his outstanding work as medical educator at the University of Miami School of Medicine and Barry University School of Podiatry. Dr. Suarez has been the author of many significant publications to his credit in prestigious journals including JAMA, Chest, and Archives of Internal Medicine. He has been a leader accomplishing research and scholarly activity. Outside of medicine, Dr. Suárez enjoys spending time at home with his two wonderful daughters, getting involved in a superior education for them. He likes participating in social gathering and family celebrations. He loves music, the latest electronic technology, enjoys playing golf, amateur jai-a-lai and travelling.

Dear Resident:

Welcome to our Internal Medicine Residency Primary Care Track and congratulations in achieving this monumental step in your career. Residency is a milestone that will prepare you for the rest of your professional career and is one of the most important periods in your life as a physician. I advise you to take advantage of every opportunity to learn. Remember to always keep a patient centered focus as you develop the art of practicing medicine; and remember the key words as you treat people who seek your help. “Do no Harm”.

Thank you for your interest in our program and best wishes for selecting Internal Medicine as the specialty of your choice. Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. We are sometimes referred to as the "doctor's doctor," because we are regularly called upon to act as consultants to other physicians to help solve puzzling diagnostic problems and handle severe chronic illnesses and situations where several illnesses may strike at the same time. Internists also bring to patients an understanding of wellness, women's health, substance abuse, mental health, as well as effective treatment of common problems of the eyes, ears, skin, nervous system and reproductive organs.
 
Our main mission is to provide the residents with advanced education of the highest quality, combining teaching, clinical service, comprehensive patient care and research. Excellence in medical education in combination with high-quality patient care will be the cornerstone of this program. Our residents shall be evaluated through an approach that highlights their capability to be compliant with core competences in the areas of patient care, medical knowledge, practiced-based learning and improvement, interpersonal skills and communication, professionalism, systems-based practice and osteopathic manipulative medicine. Our educational program shall be compliant with the Basic Standards for Residency Training in Internal Medicine as required by the American College of Osteopathic Internists. As standards are met, residents are given progressive responsibility in patient care, bearing in mind that ultimate responsibility rests with clinical faculty.
 
LCH faculty members and the GME staff are available and disposed to answer any question that you may have. Best wishes on the start of your post-graduate medical education!

Deborah Gracia, D.O
Program Director

Our Mission and Goals

- To provide the resident with advanced postdoctoral training related to Internal Medicine, combining teaching, integral clinical services, high quality patient care and research.
- To prepare residents to fulfill the requirements for certification by the American Osteopathic Association, the American College of Osteopathic Internists, and the American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine.
- To train and teach competent physicians to be able to dedicate their medical knowledge, respect, compassion and total professional integrity to deal with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases.
- To prepare life-long learners and competent internists, with the highest academic, ethical, clinical and professional standards of medicine.
- To train residents of Osteopathic Internal Medicine to understand and integrate osteopathic principles and philosophy into all clinical and patient care activities, as appropriate.

OBJECTIVES

- To train competent osteopathic internists who remain dedicated to life-long learning able to provide health care to patients, families, and communities, thus increasing the supply of health practitioners available to meet the health care needs in South Florida and the United States.
- To guarantee that residents are trained to provide health care focusing in social, behavioral, economic, cultural and biologic dimensions.
- To provide residents the opportunity to acquire knowledge and experience in the provision of longitudinal continuity of health care to their panel of patients in the ambulatory setting. This involves assisting them in coping with serious illness and loss, and promoting mechanisms to maintain wellness.
- To encourage intellectual pursuit and research by faculty, residents and internists in practice and to provide continuing medical education for the graduates of this program and other physicians in private practice.
- To promote qualities of an effective physician including professional attitude, interaction with peers, faculty, patients, and other members of the healthcare team. In addition to excellence in medical knowledge and clinical skills, residents are expected to develop impeccable professionalism appropriate ethical conduct and behaviors that meet the needs and expectations of the community and profession.
- To integrate the principles and practice of osteopathic medicine in all clinical settings as appropriate.
- Provide the curriculum that will enable the resident to become thoroughly knowledgeable in the complex differential diagnoses and treatment options of internal medicine.
- Provide training to enable the resident to rapidly evaluate, initiate and provide appropriate treatment for patients who are critically ill.
- Provide training to enable the resident to thoroughly evaluate, initiate treatment and provide appropriate long-term therapeutic recommendations to patients with chronic medical problems in both a hospital and ambulatory setting.
- Provide training to enable the resident to make appropriate recommendations to promote health maintenance and disease prevention.
- Provide training to enable the resident to provide appropriate end of life care.
- Provide learning experiences to promote a broad understanding of the role of internal medicine as it relates to other medical disciplines, as well as to integrate the sciences applicable to internal medicine with clinical experiences.
- Develop in the resident the skills needed to practice within a system-based health care environment and to use the resources to deliver quality health care.
- Develop in the resident professional leadership and practice management skills.
- Evaluate the progress of the training of the resident by using continuous assessment tools.
- Promote evidence-based medicine by providing the tools to evaluate and analyze protocols, standards, and current research.
- Develop research skills by teaching the concepts of research methods and providing an opportunity to create and execute a research study.
- Prepare the resident to meet the eligibility requirements of the AOA to take the certification examination by the American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine.

 

 

Osteopathic I.M Residents

 
Osteopathic Internal Medicine Residents
 
PGY-1
Tintu Chiramel, D.O.
Anderson Dan Eng, D.O.
Bryan Lee, D.O.
 
PGY-2
Jeremy Bleicher, D.O.