FAYETTEVILLE – April 19, 2020 – Cape Fear Valley Health and Campbell University have received accreditation to launch a fellowship training program in cardiovascular disease at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. This is Cape Fear Valley’s first fellowship program.
Approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the three-year cardiology fellowship will begin in July.
“This is another proud moment in the health system’s history,” said Michael Nagowski, Cape Fear Valley Chief Executive Officer. “Cape Fear Valley Medical Center has been nationally recognized by IBM Watson Health as a Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital for 2018 and by Healthgrades as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care and Coronary Intervention in 2019.”
Amol Bahekar, M.D., of Fayetteville Heart Center, has been named the fellowship program director. Divyang Patel, M.D, also of Fayetteville Heart Center, has been named associate program director.
The fellowship program will enroll three physician residents per year, up to a total of nine residents. Residents must complete a three-year internal medicine residency prior to enrollment.
“The faculty will create a superior academic environment,” said Dr. Bahekar, “to produce confident cardiologists with a broad diagnostic and leadership skillset. Our hope is that they will remain in the community after completion of their training to serve the area’s growing cardiology needs.”
The first class of residents will include Gunjan Joshi, D.O., Haitham Mazek, M.D., and William Sanchez-Garcia, M.D.
Dr. Joshi is a 2017 graduate of Campbell University’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine in Buies Creek. He is expected to complete his internal medicine residency in June at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital in Southampton, N.Y.
Dr. Mazek, completed his internal medicine residency in 2016 at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock Texas.
Dr. Sanchez-Garcia completed his internal medicine residency at BronxCare Health System in Bronx, N.Y. in 2018.
Now in its third-year, Cape Fear Valley’s physician residency program has grown to include 134 physician residents training in psychiatry, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, emergency medicine, as well as transitional rotating internship.
Cape Fear Valley and its academic sponsor, Campbell University’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine, worked together to launch the physician residency program. The program’s goal is to address the growing physician shortage in rural North Carolina.