Clinical Sections and Section Chiefs: Inova Fairfax Hospital Department of Medicine

Allergy and Immunology
Richard Rosenthal, MD, Section Chief

The Allergy section is comprised of 9 board-certified physicians. Physicians in this section specialize in Allergic Rhinitis, Asthma, Urticaria, drug allergy, food allergy, Angioedema – hereditary or otherwise induced, Atopic Dermatitis, contact Dermatitis, stinging insect allergy, other insect allergy, Food challenges, Drug challenges, Metal and bone cement allergy and sensitivity, Spirometry, Eucapnic voluntary hyperventilation testing for exercise induced asthma, environmental skin testing, Niox, Xolair and Nucala administration, Aspirin desensitization, allergy immunotherapy, expert witness services.

Members of the section provide inpatient and outpatient diagnostic testing for Eucapnic Voluntary Hyperventilation, a test for the presence of exercise induced asthma, screening for SCUBA certification and hyperactive air ways.

Physicians in this section are on the Ethics Committee at Inova and several members have faculty appointments at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Georgetown University, and George Washington School of Medicine. They also participate in clinical research under the aegis of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Cardiovascular Disease
Albert H. Kim, MD, Section Chief

This section consists of over 130 cardiologists with superb expertise in cardiac sub-specialties. Members of the section provide inpatient and outpatient diagnostic testing, sophisticated interventional cardiac catheterization and intervention, interventional services, and highly specialized electrophysiology testing and arrhythmia treatment.

Additionally, this section provides an adult congenital heart clinic and a cardiac rehabilitation program. Furthermore, the advanced heart failure program, which was initiated in 2011, is a superb, high quality collaborative program. It also provides the advanced heart disease program cardiology expertise for left ventricular assistive device placement and supports a very successful heart transplant program. Research is being done in all of the above programs.

Critical Care
Svetolik Djurkovic, MD, Section Chief

The section of Critical Care Medicine is comprised of 42 board-certified and board-eligible clinicians who provide care to the patients admitted to 5 adult Intensive Care Units with 102 beds at IFMC. Clinicians provide care to critically ill patients including those with respiratory failure, heart failure, severe arrhythmias and cardiac arrest, sepsis and septic shock, head bleed, brain masses, refractory seizures, altered mental status and coma. Critical Care physicians treat patients in Intensive Care Units and are available at all times to see critically ill patients anywhere in the hospital.

Physicians in this section treat patients who often require life support and lead multidisciplinary team which includes our physicians-in-training, advance practice providers, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, dietitians, social workers among others. They also collaborate with physicians from other medical and surgical specialties to assure best possible outcomes of critically ill patients. We invite patients and family representatives to attend daily bedside rounds in order to facilitate communication, understanding, and participation in decision–making.

Critical Care physicians are involved and lead numerous hospital and system committees. Several physicians in the department are involved with clinical research and most participate in the teaching program with medical students, residents and fellows. Members of the section often use sophisticated and highly specialized life supporting technologies and interventions to assure survival and best possible outcome in critically ill patients. These interventions include among others mechanical ventilation, hemodynamic monitoring, ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), multimodal brain monitoring and continuing renal replacement therapy. They also collaborate with other teams in the management of patients before and after complex surgeries including heart and lung transplant, brain and other complex surgeries. MSICU received Iams award for its project in early mobility. Physicians from Critical Care Section received multiple awards for their teaching of interns and residents.

Dermatology
Jennell Nelson, MD, Section Chief

Physicians in the dermatology section specialize in micrographic and laser cutaneous surgery and photophoresis. In addition, physicians conduct clinical research on psoriasis, actine keratosis, skin cancers and acne. The section of dermatology is well recognized for teaching medical students and residents as well as for their clinical expertise.

Endocrinology
Stephen Clement, MD, Section Chief

The Endocrinology section is comprised of board-certified and/or fellowship-trained specialists who offer advanced skills and knowledge to provide patients with the highest level of care in diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of all endocrine disorders. Endocrine disorders affect hormone-producing organs such as the thyroid, adrenal glands, parathyroids, pancreas and the pituitary gland. These organs can sometimes develop tumors that require more in-depth testing and study to determine if surgery is the appropriate treatment. Diabetes is the most common endocrine problem.

Physicians in this section provide comprehensive endocrine services at four Inova Medical Group offices in Northern Virginia and also provide full-time consultation for inpatients at Inova Fairfax Hospital. They also provide education to physicians in training and conduct cutting edge research that is published in top tier scientific journals.

Gastroenterology
Behzad Kalaghchi, MD, Section Chief

The section of Gastroenterology is comprised of 63 board-certified and board-eligible clinicians whose focus of care spans both inpatient and outpatient care and offers the full spectrum of diagnostic and therapeutic gastrointestinal modalities. The services parallel those provided by tertiary care centers. Our highly qualified physicians draw hospital referrals from across Northern Virginia and Washington Metropolitan area. The center for Center for Liver Diseases offers comprehensive services to patients with acute, chronic, and end-stage liver diseases. These consultative services are achieved through a well-coordinated team of hepatology experts working within the Center for Liver Diseases.

Advanced Endoscopy Center at Inova Fairfax Hospital is well known and reputable in the region and accommodates wide array of complex gastrointestinal and hepato-pancreatico-biliary conditions requiring endoscopic treatment, either transferred from other local hospitals, or referred for outpatient management.

Academically speaking, physicians in this section lead a monthly multidisciplinary GI tumor conference. The section offers the opportunity to medical and surgical residents to monthly rotate through the inpatient service, and to participate in patient care and learn endoscopic skills and variety of GI conditions. Several section members are engaged in gastrointestinal research. The Center for Liver Diseases is a research site for a number of cutting edge clinical trials, epidemiologic and health service research protocols.

General Internal Medicine
John Paul Verderese, MD, and Z Chris, MD, Section Chiefs

The Internal Medicine section is comprised of 255 internists that practice both hospital and ambulatory internal medicine. Members of this section take care of some of the most complex patients in the Washington Metropolitan area in all settings of care. Inova Hospitalists routinely accept transfers from other Inova Hospitals and outside hospitals throughout the region, co-manage patients with other specialists and surgeons, and are available for consultations.

This section prides itself in its commitment to resident and medical student education, research, continuous quality improvement, and exceptional patient care. Our academic hospitalists and ambulatory primary care internists are involved in training Inova’s internal medicine residents and hosting students from the VCU School of Medicine, Inova Campus. Our academic hospitalists are routinely selected by students and residents for their teaching.

Geriatric Medicine Service 
Denise Mohess, MD, Section Chief

The Geriatric Medicine Service section at Inova provides comprehensive services across the continuum of care. Our teams are interdisciplinary including but not limited to physicians, nurse practitioners and social workers. The Geriatrics Service at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus provides inpatient consultation in collaboration with other members of the healthcare team including other specialists, hospitalists, nurses, case managers, rehabilitation services and the HELP program. In addition to projects locally to improve the care of older adults, we are collaborating in a national multi-site mobility protocol.

The Geriatric Medicine Services outpatient care is made up of The Geriatric Assessment Clinic, a multidisciplinary consultative clinic designed to provide a resource for patients/families and primary care providers to facilitate comprehensive evaluations, including cognitive and functional assessments. The Advanced Illness Clinic, a medical home serving our most medically complex patients who require more time and services than typical primary care offices can offer. The Inova House Calls Program, an interdisciplinary team of providers poised to provide comprehensive biopsychosocial primary care services for homebound patients with advanced and complex illness. The Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic, assisting in the management of age related cognitive impairment, dementias, dementia related neurobehavioral comorbidities, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders, substance abuse in elderly and medication induced neuropsychiatric disorders. Lastly, the SNFist program coordinates post-acute care at many of the skilled nursing facilities and rehabilitation centers.

Hematology/Oncology
Timothy L. Cannon, MD, Section Chief

The section of Hematology/Oncology medicine is comprised of 26 board-certified and board-eligible clinicians whose focus of care spans both inpatient and outpatient care. Physicians in this section are experts in the treatment of malignancies, systemic cancer therapies and are able to treat benign and malignant hematologic conditions.

Most of the physicians in the Hematology/Oncology department are involved in ongoing clinical research. Physicians in the Hematology/Oncology section also participate in the program at VCU School of Medicine teaching medical students, residents and fellows.

Infectious Disease
Shalika Katugaha, MD, Section Chief

The Infectious Disease section is comprised of board certified physicians who focus on various areas such as, HIV, old and new antibiotics, Microbiology – bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens, Epidemiology, infection control, Infectious Disease subspecialties – Neurosurgery, Oncology, transplant, CF, tick-borne diseases, travel health, emerging infections, exposure to communicable diseases and stewardship. Our physicians are available to provide inpatient consultation daily for patients at Inova Fairfax Hospital as well as provide daily inpatient care, outpatient care and care in nursing homes.

This section is involved in research with the transplant teams and several physicians are involved with clinical research. Many hold professorships (VCU, Georgetown, GW) and participate in the teaching of fellows, residents and students. Many also hold leadership positions within INOVA in infection control, epidemiology, stewardship and transplant. They have published in journals and presented work at national conferences. The Infectious Disease section has developed programs like the Continuum of Care, a program that works to improve standards of care and provide continuity between the hospital and nursing homes. Infectious Disease physicians work with pharmacies to promote stewardship.

Nephrology
Franco Musio, MD, Section Chief

The section of Nephrology is comprised of board-certified physicians whose focus of care span both inpatient and outpatient care as well as, acute and chronic kidney disease, hypertension, fluid and electrolyte disorders, post renal transplant care. Several section members have also developed expertise as interventional nephrologists – to salvage dialysis axes. Nephrology services include in and outpatient consultation, diagnostic testing, hemo and peritoneal dialysis, outpatient axis intervention to salvage AV fistula and grafts and continuous renal replacement therapies for critically ill patients. Physicians are available to provide in and out patient consultation at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

Several physicians in this section have full time faculty appointments with the VCU School of Medicine and part-time faculty appointments with Georgetown University. They participate in the in and out patient teaching programs with house staff, medical students, residents and fellows.

Research in this department includes ongoing clinical studies on hypertension and progression of renal disease. Physicians in this section work closely with the Kidney Foundation, nationally and locally lead medical societies and have participated in community outreach programs. Physicians in this section have won several awards such as, “Top Doctor” - Washingtonian, “Super Doctor” - Washington Post and “Top Outpatient Preceptor” - American College of Physicians.

Pulmonary
Eric Libre, MD, Section Chief

The section of pulmonary medicine is comprised of 55 board-certified and board-eligible clinicians whose focus of care span both inpatient and outpatient care, as well as, both acute and chronic lung disease states. The section works closely with the hospital to provide a wide variety of both invasive and noninvasive testing. In addition to the large number of community pulmonologists, Inova has both lung transplant and chronic lung disease clinics to meet the needs of its community.

Many of the section's clinicians are both board certified in pulmonary medicine, as well as critical care medicine, permitting the continuum of care to go from the intensive care unit to the patient setting when necessary. The section also supports a very strong research program in pulmonary transplant medicine. The physicians who represent the section come from top academic institutions from around the country and choose to practice within Inova Fairfax Hospital for its commitment to excellence in patient care, education and research.

Rheumatology
N. Lynn Gerber, MD, Section Chief

The Rheumatology section provides both inpatient and outpatient consultation and treatment for patients with arthritic, musculoskeletal and immunologic disorders. The Rheumatology section in the Department of Medicine comprises Drs. Ramona Raya, Yingxue (Lucy) Zhang, Pragya (Pooja) Singh and Lynn Gerber. All are board-certified rheumatologists with many years of clinical experience and are skilled in managing all rheumatological disorders.

They are available to provide inpatient rheumatological consultation for patients at Inova Fairfax Hospital. They are available for post-acute follow up for these patients and can provide ongoing outpatient consultation as well. Dr. Raya has specific interest in the diagnosis and management of patients with auto-immune and vasculitis disorders. Dr. Zhang's clinical interests include the diagnosis and management of patients with auto-immune disorders, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Dr. Singh’s interests include autoimmune disorders, hypermobility and osteoarthritis.

Members of the section actively participate in teaching students, residents and fellows diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of rheumatic diseases. The Rheumatology Section also supports an active journal club for rheumatologists in the Northern Virginia community.