Be a part of our story! $13/hr minimum wage for entry-level • Sign-On bonuses for some positions • Great Benefits
Welcome to the White River Health (WRHS) Internal Medicine (IM) Residency Program. We are in Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited program taking ten (10) residents per year. The WRHS IM Residency Program is located at White River Medical Center in Batesville, Arkansas just 90 miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas and 120 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee.
Our program offers traditional three-year Categorical Internal Medicine Residency Training. WRHS offers a community-based residency program partnered with the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Residents have the unique opportunity to train in a community and hospital that are vibrant and relational with the advantages of training with a recognized academic medical center.
Train Internal Medicine residents through a relational approach that equips them to become internists who are ready to practice in any clinical setting or pursue further subspecialty training to advance the science of medicine.
For graduates of our program to provide compassionate treatment and promotion of wellness for the medically underserved communities of our health system.
Internal Medicine Program Coordinator
Internal Medicine Program Director
Designated Institutional Official
Graduate Medical Education
| Title | Time | Days | Description | Supervision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morning Report | 8:00 am | Monday-Friday (exception Thursday) | The night team Interns will present an overnight admission. The supervising Resident would also participate in the presentation. | PD, APD or at least one core faculty |
| Core Lecture | 12 Noon to 1:00 pm | Monthly | Conducted in each of the following specialties: Primary Care, Nephrology, Neurology, Cardiology, GI, Pulmonology, Endocrinology, Rheumatology, Hematology, Oncology and Infectious Disease | |
| Grand Rounds | 12 Noon to 1:00 pm | Thursday | Via broadcast from UAMS. Provides 1 hour CME sessions for the Department of Medicine. House staff attendance mandatory. | |
| Tumor Board | Tuesday | Two cases will be presented. The initial admitting Intern will be responsible for presenting the history and physical during Tumor Board. The current Resident on Hem/Onc will be responsible for IM discussion of the case with support from Oncology, Radiology, Pathology and Primary Care. | ||
| Mortality and Morbidity | Monthly | Attended by PD and the respective Attending involved in the case that is presented. House Staff participation is mandatory. | ||
| Research Lecture | Introductory lecture at beginning of year, then quarterly sessions. | Each house staff has an opportunity to briefly present their protocol/project. | ||
| Journal Club | 12 Noon to 1:00 pm | Monthly | Residents choose 2-3 articles and then discuss them with the Attending. One article is chosen and presented as per the AMA journal club presentation guidelines. | Attending |
| Introductory Lecture Series | 12 Noon to 1:00 pm | First five weeks | Conducted instead of the traditional morning reports on key call-coverage topics including fluid management, electrolyte management, vent management, blood sugar management etc. | |
| Geriatrics, Ethics, and Palliative Care | Four weeks | Supervised rotation which includes 4.5 hours of didactics each week. | Board Certified Geriatricians | |
| Quality Improvement | Monthly | A Resident presents a case which is a near miss or in which an adverse event happened/could have happened, and there is a discussion involving root cause analysis and steps to prevent similar morbidity/mortality in the future. | ||
| Board Review | 12 Noon to 1:00 pm | Thursday | Medstudy and MKSAP are used as the teaching tools for the board review sessions. | At least one Attending |
Positions are offered through the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). All applications must be submitted through the Electronic Residency Application Service®.
White River Health (WRHS) does not have minimum requirements for graduation year or USMLE scores.
The goal of the WRHS Internal Medicine Residency Program is to provide residents with quality education through access to a professional learning environment, as well as provide them with an engaging community experience. WRHS Residents will train in a community and hospital that are vibrant and relational while still enjoying the benefits of training with a recognized academic medical center and its vast resources. WRHS worked diligently to develop a high quality, innovative, and unique Graduate Medical Education program. Residents at WRHS, under the daily supervision of an outstanding faculty, develop the skills to provide excellent medical care to patients from diverse backgrounds.
We wish our residents the best in their professional careers. Our graduates and their last known professional career locations are listed below.
Michael Andryka, MD
Hospitalist/GME Faculty, White River Health, Batesville, Arkansas
Ankitha Antony, MD
Faculty/Primary Care Physician, University of Connecticut Internal Medicine Residency, Farmington, Connecticut
Sai Desikan, MD
Leukemia Fellowship, MD Anderson, Houston, Texas
Ebonee Dikas, MD
Palliative Care Fellowship, UAMS, Little Rock, Arkansas
Igor Dykan, MD
Nocturnist, Reid Health System, Richmond, Indiana
Shoaib Khan, MD
Chief Resident & Faculty, WRHS Internal Medicine Residency Program, Batesville, Arkansas
Eddie Liu, MD
Internal Medicine Primary Care, Tennova Healthcare System, Cleveland, Tennessee
Wyatt Lydolph, MD
Hospitalist/GME Faculty, White River Health, Batesville, Arkansas
Krishna Vedala, MD
Internal Medicine Primary Care, Norman Regional Health System, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Shifang David Wang, MD
Machel Germain, MD
Internal Medicine Primary Care Provider, Family Care Partners, Jacksonville, Florida
Lili Hanefeld-Fox, MD
Hospitalist, St. Francis Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
Rebecca Heflin, MD
Critical Care Hospitalist, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Baton Rogue, Louisiana
Bryan Huang, MD
Nephrology Fellowship, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Lissette Jimenez, MD
Hospitalist & Faculty, Sparrow Health Systems Internal Medicine Residency Program, Lansing, Michigan
Doreen Kamoga, MD
Faculty & Outpatient Clinic Preceptor, Primary Care Provider, White River Health, Batesville, Arkansas
Anthony Kunnumpurath, MBBS
Hospitalist
Neal Mehta, MD
Hospitalist, Ballard Health, Kingsport, Tennessee
Ron Thomas Varghese, MD
Endocrinology Fellowship, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Writing informative healthcare articles for area residents is a very fruitful and rewarding aspect of the White River Health Internal Medicine Residency program. One of the key components of our residency curriculum is community outreach. We believe in prioritizing resident physicians developing competent clinical skills, and in helping them understand the importance of talking to their patients and reaching out to their community. A significant issue in our society today is the rise in a mistrust of science. While the reasoning is multifactorial, a lack of evident outreach from the medical community may contribute to the uncertainty between providers and patients. Our hope with this project is to play our part in alleviating the spread of misinformation and allow our residents to earn the trust of our community.
All of our residents are accepting patients at the WRMC Internal Medicine Clinic.
It goes without saying, your lungs and stomach are very important to your overall health. Unfortunately, cancers can develop in these organ systems due to repetitive exposure to irritants including alcohol, tobacco, and hot beverages.
Read MoreDr. Sean Salonga is a first-year Internal Medicine Resident Physician at White River Medical Center. He is from Nashville, TN, where he earned his BS/MS from Lipscomb University and MD from Meharry Medical College. His hobbies include playing the saxophone, running, and spending time with family and friends.
Denise Schaeffer is the University of Tennessee Family & Consumer Sciences Extension Agent for Humphreys County, TN. She earned her BS in Dietetics from the University of Kentucky. Her hobbies include cooking, running with her dog Harley, and spending time with family and friends.
Sleep is a complex, dynamic physiological process which facilitates critical bodily functions including memory formation, cognitive function, immune function, cardiovascular health, major restorative functions (protein synthesis, tissue repair, muscle growth), endocrine function, mood, etc. Until the 1930s, scientists had poorly understood sleep; however, since then further studies have revealed that sleep is a dynamic period when the brain actively regulates critical bodily functions. Sleep is essential for survival just like oxygen, water, and food.
Read MoreDr. Surya Boopathy is a 2nd-Year Internal Medicine resident physician. He's from Miami, Florida and attended Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University. His hobbies include reading health/science articles, working out, healthy foods, and traveling.
During this COVID-19 Pandemic, families of healthcare workers have faced major changes in their physical, psychological, and social wellbeing. While healthcare workers were on frontlines treating COVID patients, their spouses single-handedly dealt with household chores, running errands, helping with online schooling, keeping the kids entertained, and trying to maintain a sense of normalcy and stability when in the back of your mind there’s a constant fear of losing loved ones to this horrible virus.
Dr. Neelima Gonugunta is an incoming First-Year Resident Physician at White River Medical Center. She is from Hyderabad, India and graduated from Gandhi Medical College. She has been living in Batesville over the past year. Her hobbies include reading, listening to different genres of music and cooking different types of cuisines.
Smoking is a common pastime many enjoy. Most individuals encountered cigarettes during adolescents due to familial and peer influences. A couple cigarettes a day can easily progress to a couple packs per day as a result of the addictive nature of nicotine. This powerful neurochemical offers anecdotal benefits to everyday life such as stress relief, improved concentration, and appetite suppression. However, rarely does one encounter anyone who can list the numerous health benefits of tobacco cigarettes.
Read MoreDr. Kemuel Telemaque is a first-year Internal Medicine Resident Physician at White River Medical Center. He is based in South Florida and obtained his MD and MPH from Loma Linda University in Southern California. His hobbies include running, hiking, cooking, soccer, and spending time with friends.
Have you ever heard of polypharmacy? Polypharmacy is defined simply as the use of multiple medications by a patient. Although the precise number varies, more than 5-10 medications being taken by one patient (including prescriptions/over-the-counter drugs/herbal supplements) qualifies for polypharmacy.
Read MoreDr. Mitchell Keel is a Second-Year Internal Medicine Resident Physician at White River Medical Center. He is from Indianapolis, Indiana and graduated from Meharry Medical College. His hobbies include spending time with friends/family, basketball and traveling.
Resident physicians are physicians-in-training who have undergone a rigorous medical curriculum and obtained a medical degree from an accredited institution. A residency is essentially a stage of medical training that can range from three to seven years depending on the specialty.
Read MoreDr. Krishna Vedala is a third-year resident physician at White River Medical Center. He is from Oklahoma and received his MD and Masters in Public Health from the University of Oklahoma. His hobbies include writing, watching football and basketball, and traveling.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 117 million Americans today (about ½ of all American adults) have one or more preventable chronic diseases, and regular exercise favorably influences most common chronic diseases.
Read MoreDr. Surya Boopathy is a 2nd-Year Internal Medicine resident physician. He's from Miami, Florida and attended Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University. His hobbies include reading health/science articles, working out, healthy foods, and traveling.
Over the past century, we have made tremendous strides that have allowed us to nearly double human life expectancy. Of course, medical knowledge and rapid changes in new technology did certainly help. But do you know what else helped lead to this achievement? Vaccinations.
Read MoreDr. Soubhi Alhayek is a first-year resident physician at White River Medical Center. He went to medical school at the American University of Caribbean School of Medicine. He is an aspiring Infectious Disease doctor. His hobbies include cooking, playing board games and hanging out with friends.
Dr. Krishna Vedala is a third-year resident physician at White River Medical Center. He is from Oklahoma and received his MD and Masters in Public Health from the University of Oklahoma. His hobbies include writing, watching football and basketball, and traveling.
Screening allows physicians to detect cancers early on. Treating these cancers at earlier stages increase the chance to cure and eradicate the cancer.
Read MoreDr. Sai Desikan is a 3rd-year Internal Medicine Resident at White River Medical Center. He is from Batesville, Arkansas and went to Ross Medical School. His hobbies include tennis, basketball and listening to heavy metal music.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends all adults receive at least seven hours of sleep per night. Insomnia is common sleep disorder with difficulty either falling or maintaining sleep.
Read MoreDr. Philip T. Sobash is a second-year resident physician at the White River Medical Center. He completed his medical training at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC.
Dr. Krishna Vedala is a third-year resident physician at the White River Medical Center, specializing in Internal Medicine. He is from Oklahoma and received his MD and Masters in Public Health from the University of Oklahoma.
What was responsible for nearly a quarter of all deaths in America last year? The answer is cancer, and of those deaths, lung cancer represents a quarter of that number.
Read MoreDr. Shiyu Wang is from Southampton, Pennsylvania and graduated from Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.
Snoring is funny right? You see it portrayed in the movies with the fun uncle sitting in a recliner after a big Thanksgiving dinner, snoring so loud you can’t hear the TV. It has become the butt of jokes in the family how no one can sleep because someone is snoring. While it can be comical, in reality this could be the sign of a major underlying problem.
Read MoreDr. Philip T. Sobash completed his medical training at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC.
As we all enjoy going outside in good weather, we need to be aware of these small, round, eight-legged bugs called ticks and the diseases they spread. Ticks are sneaky, hiding in places you cannot find, like tiny ninjas. They bury their head into your skin and can look like a mole.
Read MoreDr. Sara Whyte is a first-year Internal Medicine Resident at WRHS. She completed her medical training at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
Colon cancer is the 3rd most common type of cancer in the United States and generally takes around 10 years to develop from a precancerous polyp. Patients diagnosed with stage 1 colon cancer have an average 5-year survival rate of 90% which drops to 14% in widespread stage 4 cancer.
Read MoreDr. Eddie Liu is a 3rd-year Internal Medicine resident at White River Medical Center. He was born and raised in Tennessee and received his MD from East Tennessee State University.
Mental Health, a broad term that includes a series of diseases such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, substance abuse, and many more. While many of these diseases can co-exist, depression tends to be the most prevalent of all of them.
Read MoreDr. Krishna Vedala is a third-year resident physician at the White River Medical Center, specializing in Internal Medicine. He is from Oklahoma and received his MD and Masters in Public Health from the University of Oklahoma.
Over the past century, we have made tremendous strides that have allowed us to nearly double human life expectancy. Of course, medical knowledge and rapid changes in new technology did certainly help. But do you know what else helped lead to this achievement? Vaccinations.
Read MoreDr. Soubhi Alhayek is a first-year resident physician at White River Medical Center. He went to medical school at the American University of Caribbean School of Medicine.
Dr. Krishna Vedala is a third-year resident physician at the White River Medical Center, specializing in Internal Medicine. He is from Oklahoma and received his MD and Masters in Public Health from the University of Oklahoma.
Rotations are on a 4+1 block schedule with a four week rotation followed by a one week continuity clinic.
| Rotation Name | Participating Site | Length of Rotation | Classification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal Medicine Wards | White River Medical Center | 20 weeks | Inpatient |
| Continuity Clinic | White River Medical Center | 10 weeks | Outpatient |
| Elective | White River Medical Center | 2 weeks | Elective (Holiday Rotation) |
| Neurology | White River Medical Center | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Rheumatology | White River Medical Center | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Pulmonary Disease | White River Medical Center | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Hematology/Oncology | White River Medical Center | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Cardiology | White River Medical Center | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Rotation Name | Participating Site | Length of Rotation | Classification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal Medicine Wards | White River Medical Center | 12 weeks | Inpatient |
| Continuity Clinic | White River Medical Center | 10 weeks | Outpatient |
| Elective | White River Medical Center | 10 weeks | Elective (2 week Holiday Rotation) |
| Critical Care | UAMS Medical Center* | 8 weeks | Critical Care |
| Geriatrics | UAMS Medical Center* | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Gastroenterology | UAMS Medical Center* | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Night Float | White River Medical Center | 4 weeks | Inpatient |
| Rotation Name | Participating Site | Length of Rotation | Classification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal Medicine Wards | White River Medical Center | 8 weeks | Inpatient |
| Continuity Clinic | White River Medical Center | 10 weeks | Outpatient |
| Elective | White River Medical Center | 10 weeks | Elective (2 week Holiday Rotation) |
| Critical Care | White River Medical Center | 4 weeks | Critical Care |
| Endocrinology | UAMS Medical Center* | 2 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Infectious Diseases | UAMS Medical Center* | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Night Float | White River Medical Center | 6 weeks | Inpatient |
| Nephrology | UAMS Medical Center* | 4 weeks | Inpatient/Outpatient |
| Emergency Medicine | White River Medical Center | 4 weeks | Emergency Medicine |
*Housing will be provided at no cost to the Resident during rotations performed at UAMS Medical Center.
| PGY Level | Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| Program Year 1 (PGY-1) | $ 52,000.00 |
| Program Year 2 (PGY-2) | $ 53,000.00 |
| Program Year 3 (PGY-3) | $ 55,000.00 |
