Department of Internal Medicine - General Internal Medicine

Faculty

Bob Leverence MD, Chief

Dr. Leverence shares his time performing patient care duties, resident education, administration, and research. His clinical practice is at the Westside Family Health Clinic and he works once per month at the Young Enduring Survivor Clinic caring for adult survivors of childhood cancer. He also oversees a resident continuity clinic, yet spends much of his time managing the daily affairs of the Division of General Internal Medicine.

Dr. Leverence is a co-director and Outreach Team leader of RIOS Net, a practice-based research network based in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. RIOS Net is a novel research group which actively seeks input and participation from community members and healthcare professionals from across the state in order to answer questions that address local need.

Allen Adolphe, MD

Adrian Michael, MD

Madhu Arora, MD

Cynthia Arndell, MD

I'm a native New Mexican, trained as a RN through UNM and was a nurse for 12 years. I subsequently went to medical school and residency through UNM as well. I was a physician at Lovelace for 6 years and then accepted a position as co-medical director for Healthcare for the Homeless. A faculty position in the dept of internal medicine became available in 2004 and I took it. I'm still very active in the medical student clinic through Healthcare for the Homeless and am working on a poverty medicine curriculum for the students.

Peter Barnett, MD

Peggy Beeley, MD

My Board Certifications, education and primary interests are in the fields of General Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases Medicine. As a UNM faculty member, I have the honor to teach medical students and residents. I hope to impact their perceptions of health care and their future work by sharing my experiences, modeling professionalism, and working toward processes that lead to quality in our health care systems.

My personal goal is to respect and demonstrate compassion to all persons seeking my medical opinion. I feel medicine is ‘at its best’ when practiced with a team approach. When many disciplines work together, the combined efforts provide the safest, most therapeutic environment possible.

My greatest hope is that each encounter with each patient will lead to a greater understanding of his or her state of health and that through a team effort of doctor, patient and the many other health care experts at UNM each patient will achieve better health.

Jessica Bigney, MD

Dr. Bigney is a graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and completed her residency training within Internal Medicine at UNM. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and also in Hospice and Palliative Care. She has a strong interest in end of life care for patients in the community.

Jan Blanchard, MD

Andrea Bliss, PA-C, MA

Andrea Bliss, PA-C, MA is a certified physician assistant at UNM Family Health Clinic, where she practices adult primary care for the Department of Internal Medicine. She obtained her Masters degree in counseling from the University of New Mexico in 1986 and subsequently graduated from the University of New Mexico Physician Assistant program in 2001. In addition to providing adult primary care she also has an interest in Integrative Medicine and teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction classes at the UNM Center For Life, whereas in her clinical practice she evaluates and treats myofascial pain using non-pharmacological methods. She also enjoys teaching clinical skills at the School of Medicine and is a preceptor for physician assistant students.

Patrick Boyle, MD

Dr. Boyle is the Lead Physician for the Diabetes Care Management Team and works collaboratively with five certified diabetes educators at UNMH, in order to improve the quality of the care for more than 5,000 patients with diabetes. Dr. Boyle is a past Program Director of the NIH funded General Clinical Research Center, as well as a past co-principle investigator of the NIH funded Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, and the Diabetes Prevention Program. Diabetes is a major public health care problem for the State of New Mexico and our goal is to improve the quality of life and prevent the expensive long-term complications of this disease.

Julie Broyles, MD

Dr. Broyles completed her Internal Medicine Residency at UNM after attending the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She joined the faculty in 1995 and is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine. Her special interest is in the area of Diabetes Disease Management and population health. During 2006 she was appointed Medical Director of the Department of Internal Medicine.

Jason Cohen, MD

George Comerci, MD

Dr. Comerci has two principle interests here at UNM. Dr. Comerci has a particular interest in the evaluation and management of chronic pain, specifically the pharmacologic approach to chronic pain. He is also very involved in teaching students and housestaff. His specific interests involve a teaching communication, physical examination skills and diagnostic reasoning.

Ellen M Cosgrove, MD, FACP

Dr. Ellen Cosgrove is the Senior Associate Dean for Education at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, where she is also Regents’ Professor of Internal Medicine. Her major academic interests at present are in exploring performance improvement & continuing medical education, addressing healthcare disparity through curriculum design and integrating public health into the medical curriculum, primary care and community-based education, teaching and assessing medical professionalism, and innovations in problem based learning and medical education technology including simulation. She served a term in residence in 2006 as Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo’s International Research Center for Medical Education. She is Visiting Professor in the Institute for Education Research, Assessment, and Supervision of Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, PR China.

Dr. Cosgrove is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in Russian History. She obtained her medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), the national medical Honor Society. She did her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Presbyterian-University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

Dana Davis, MD

Ruth De Rego, CNP

Ms. De Rego holds a Master’s Degree from Boston College School of Nursing and is Board Certified as an Adult Nurse Practitioner. Her interests include the primary care of older adults, and disease prevention in adults of all ages.

Suzanne (Nicole) Emil, MD

Edward Fancovic, MD

Dr. Fancovic has been active in primary care for his entire career, working in community health centers, private practice and academic practice. He is particularly interested in outreach to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. He was a member of the board of directors of New Mexico AIDS Services from 2001-2007 and he enjoys working with the HIV-positive community. He has also been involved in implementation of the electronic medical record system at the Health Sciences Center since 1999. In 2009 he became the clerkship director for internal medicine, with oversight responsibility for the education of our medical students when they do their internal medicine rotation. He graduated from St. Louis University School of Medicine and he completed his residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He joined the UNM faculty in 1998.

Grace Flores-Burns, RNCM

Dora Grace Flores-Burns RNCM, is currently one of the case manages for the internal medicine team. Grace is a registered nurse graduate of Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix Arizona; she completed her BSN and MSN in the following years. She received her masters in counseling from Webster University. She is also certified in Rehabilitation and passed certification in Geriatrics, Community Health and Utilization review. Her experience includes rehabilitation, oncology, staff development, geriatrics and case management. Her major goal is to be helpful to patients and families during the challenging hospital stay and provide the best possible transition to home or a community facility.

Dana Fotieo, MD

Dr. Fotieo received her undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University. She is a graduate of University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She is board certified in internal medicine. Her area of interest is women's health. Currently, she is the clerkship director for the comprehensive ambulatory rotation for 4th year medical students.

Robert Fritch, DO

Dr. Fritch received his DO degree from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and did his Family Practice Residency in Detroit, Michigan. A native of southern Colorado, he returned to the southwest after residency to work in northern New Mexico until he joined UNM Health Sciences in 2005. He is currently serving as medical director of the LoboCare Clinic. Dr. Fritch is board certified in Family Practice, Addiction Medicine, holds a Certificate of Additional Qualification in Occupational Medicine and obtained a Masters of Medical Management from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
Clinic: LoboCare Clinic, in Medical Arts Complex

David Gonzales, MD, MBA

Dr. Gonzales is a graduate of Stanford University and is board certified in Internal Medicine. He recently obtained the position of Executive Medical Director of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement at University Hospital. He also practices at the 1209 University Clinic.

Fred Hashimoto, MD

Dr. Hashimoto has been interested in computer applications to medicine. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he is a professor of Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque. He practices in Internal Medicine at the Medicine Faculty Clinic and is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Family Medicine

Jennifer Jernigan, MD

Dr. Jernigan is a graduate of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. She completed her residency training and chief residency at the University of New Mexico. She joined the faculty at UNM in 1999 and is board certified in Internal Medicine. Her areas of interest include women's health and medical education. She practices General Internal Medicine in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. Dr. Jernigan also holds the position of Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and is medical director of the resident clinic.

Erik Kraai, MD

Dr. Kraai’s primary areas of interest include resident education, hospital quality and safety improvement, and international medicine. Outside of work, his interests include mountain biking, skiing, and international travel.

Mimi J. Kessinger PA-C

University of Northern Colorado-- Chemistry.
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center--Physician Assistant

Sepehr Khashaei, MD

Irene Krokos, MD

Philip Kroth, MD

Dr. Kroth, a former computer engineer, completed a National of Library of Medicine® sponsored research fellowship in biomedical informatics at the Regenstrief Institute at Indiana University. Before his fellowship he completed residency in internal medicine at The State University of New York at Buffalo and is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, OH. He is an assistant professor in the UNM Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center where he is their Director for the Department of Biomedical Informatics Research, Training and Scholarship. He also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Kroth directs UNM's Biomedical Informatics Fellowship Training Program and is the course director for the biomedical informatics curriculum in UNM Clinical and Translational Sciences Center's clinical research curricula. His research interests include developing informational interventions for smoking cessation as well as looking at how personal health records can best be designed to support the treatment of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression.

Margaret Lieberman, MD

Dr. Lieberman’s area of specialization is inpatient medicine. She is particularly interested in consultative medicine, preoperative evaluation, and perioperative care.

Melissa Martinez, MD

Lorene Montgomery, MD

Ann Morrison, MD

Leonard Noronha, MD

J. Rush Pierce, JR., MD, MPH

Dr. Pierce graduated from the University of California, San Francisco. He subsequently did residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He received an M.P.H. from the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Pierce was previously on the faculty at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Amarillo. He is board certified in internal medicine, geriatrics, general preventive medicine and public health.
He is married and has four children. He enjoys gardening, photography, hiking, and jogging.

Arti Prasad, MD, FACP

Dr. Arti Prasad is the founding Section Chief of Integrative Medicine at the University of New Mexico's Health Science Center (UNM HSC). This section was created fairly recently to develop a comprehensive primary health care system based on an integrative approach that combines allopathic medical care with Complementary and Alternative medicine (CAM) using the best current evidence. In a very short time, under her able leadership, UNM SOM is now a member of the national Consortium of the Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine (CAHCIM).

Center For Life Website

Percy Pentecost, MD

Following a decade as a secondary school teacher, Dr. Pentecost graduated from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and completed his residency in internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico. He subsequently worked as a geriatrician and a hospitalist in Albuquerque before joining the division of General Internal Medicine as a hospitalist. Dr Pentecost’s interests include medical education and care of older patients. Outside of medicine he enjoys outdoor activities, reading and travel.

Christopher Quintana, MD

Deepti Rao, MD

Amy Rintoul, MD

Ami Rintoul graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at University of New Mexico. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and sees adult patients at the Medicine Faculty Clinic at 5ACC.

Kendall Rogers, MD

Section Chief of the Hospitalist Program with clinical interests in the advancement of the field of hospital medicine and palliative care. Other interest is medical informatics, health quality, policy, and economics with a special interest in the development of physician executives and medical management. Resident education roles include teaching a health economics/medical informatics elective, running 'code' sessions in the computerized patient simulation lab, and by attending on inpatient and consult teams.

Julie Sierra, MD

Dr. Sierra completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare after graduating from Northwestern University School of Medicine. She is board certified in Internal Medicine. She joined the faculty at UNM in 2006 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine. Her specific areas of interest are immigrant health and international medicine. She volunteers at the medical student clinic at Health Care for the Homeless and supervises residents at the 1209 University Clinic. She is currently working on a poverty medicine curriculum for the students at UNM.

J. Mitchell Simson, MD, MPH

Dr. Mitchell Simson is a New Mexican native and graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 1978. He is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine. He received his Masters of Public Health in 2009 from the Medical College of Wisconsin. His area of greatest interest is the treatment of opioid dependency with opioid replacement therapy using methadone and buprenorphine.

David M. Treeson, MD

Dr. Treeson’s training includes completion of Internal Medicine Residency at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and two additional years of National Institute of Health funded research in the Clinical Investigator Pathway.

His clinical interests include general internal medicine, health maintenance and wellness.

Research interests include rural health.

Carolyn Voss, MD

Andrea Weiss, PA-C

Andrea Weiss graduated from The Primary Care Associate Program-Stanford University in 1987. Her love of older adults brought her to medicine hoping to contribute to their health and well-being as they age. This single focus brought her to internal medicine. She has been an advocate for elder healthcare throughout her professional career. Her medical experiences have encompassed primary care, emergency medicine, women’s health and surgery. In addition, she has precepted/mentored many medical, physician assistant, and nurse practitioner students and has been a member of faculty in physician assistant programs in Maine, California and New Mexico. Currently, she is a board of directors member of the New Mexico Senior Sports Foundation, whose primary goal is to advocate for senior health and wellness.

Bronwyn Wilson, MD

Dr. Wilson is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine, and her main interests include Medical Education, Physician-Patient Communication and Relationship Centered Healthcare. She is chair of the Communication Skills Competency Committee for the School of Medicine, and has completed advanced facilitator training with the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare and the Bayer Institute for Healthcare Communication. She is the principle investigator for an Office of Education grant on “Comparison of Two Communication Skills Assessment Scales”. She is also a co-investigator for the CDC funded project “Assessing Health Risks in an Employee Population”, for which she organized provider training and communication skills coaching.

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