Alison Samitt, MD

Alison Samitt, MD

Alison Samitt, MD is the Program Director of the MMC Family Medicine Residency. She graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1996, completed residency at MMC and has worked at MMC/MMP ever since. Her clinical work includes caring for patients in outpatient and inpatient settings, including providing OB care. She finds great professional satisfaction working with residents and medical students, and her academic interests include active teaching techniques, information mastery, leadership development, and provider wellness. Alison lives in Falmouth with her husband and two sons, and enjoys spending time running, doing yoga, and trying to keep up with her sons on the ski slopes.

Carl Germann, MD, MHPE

Carl Germann, MD, MHPE

Dr. Germann is the Director of Orientation, Clinical Electives and Fourth-year Programs for the Tufts Maine Track Program. He also serves as Core Academic Faculty for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Maine Medical Center and Academy Master Educator at the MMC Institute for Teaching Excellence. He is an Associate Professor/Clinician Educator at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Carl is originally from central Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed a Master’s in Health Professions Education (MHPE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  He lives in Yarmouth with his wife, three children and dog.

Casey MacVane, MD, MPH

Casey MacVane, MD, MPH

Associate Residency Director & Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine at Maine Medical Center

Dr. MacVane is originally from Maine, having grown up in the greater Portland area. She attended Brown University, studying Latin American Studies and Psychology. She obtained a Masters in Public Health and subsequently attended Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at Maine Medical Center and served as chief resident. She is currently an attending physician and the Associate Residency Director in the Department of Emergency Medicine. Prior to this she was the Emergency Medicine Director of Medical Student Education for three years. Her academic interests include resident and medical school education, social media for medical professionals, and public health and patient safety. She lives in Yarmouth, Maine with her husband and three sons.

Contact Information:

Email: macvac1@mmc.org

Christina Holt, MD

Christina Holt, MD

Christina Holt, MD is a Family Practice and Preventive Medicine teaching physician at Maine Medical Center Family Medicine Residency, and a Health Service Researcher. Her focus is on training for primary care and rural practice, obstetric outcomes, addiction services and risk factor reduction in Maine. As the Preventive Medicine Program Director, she has developed clinical, educational and research collaborations throughout our academic and geographical service area. Dr. Holt has participated on several curriculum development committees to place a greater emphasis on preventive medicine and population health in the work of other clinical specialties in medicine and with our other health care provider workforce. Dr. Holt is particularly interested in how practicing physicians make decisions with patients in settings of low resources and uncertain information.

Denham Ward, MD, PhD

Denham Ward, MD, PhD

Professor of Anesthesiology and Peri-Operative Medicine, TUSM
Emeritus Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology
University of Rochester, Rochester NY
Founding Co-Director of The Academy

Dr. Ward received his BS(EE) from the University of Maine and his Ph.D. from UCLA in System Science. His medical degree is from the University of Miami where he did an internal medicine internship. He completed his anesthesiology residency at UCLA where he remained on the faculty. While at UCLA, he served as the residency program director. In 1992, he moved to the University of Rochester to become Chair of the Anesthesiology department. He also served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development – Medical Education and directed several medical school basic science courses. In 2011, Dr. Ward “semi-retired” to his family home in Bowdoinham. He serves on the Tufts Medical School Promotions Committee (CLINPAC). Dr. Ward (retired) is a Founding Co-Director and in addition to helping co-create the Academy, he is still a guiding force for the programming.

Contact Information:

Email: Denham.Ward@mainehealth.org

Erin Belfort, MD

Erin Belfort, MD

Dr. Belfort grew up in Maine and was excited to return to Maine Medical Center after medical school at the University of Vermont, residency in general psychiatry at the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship training at Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She is currently the fellowship training director for Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Her academic interests include the risks and benefits of social media use for adolescents, and she is actively involved with the media committee at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). Other clinical interests include working with gender expansive youth and their families and Family Therapy teaching and training.

James Whiting, MD

James Whiting, MD

Jim Whiting, MD is currently the Director of Surgical Education and the Surgical Residency Program Director at Maine Medical Center, in Portland, Maine, a post he has held for the last 6 years. He has been at Maine Medical Center for the last 15 years, where he is also the Surgical Director of Transplantation. Prior to this time, he had a “traditional” academic training, completing his surgical residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, his transplant surgery fellowship at Rush Presbyterian in Chicago and was faculty at the University of Cincinnati for five years. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons where he serves on the General Surgery Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery. In 2012, he was appointed a director of the American Board of Surgery where he serves on the Inservice Training Exam committee, the General Surgery Residency Committee and as chair of the Transplant Advisory Council.

He lives in Falmouth with his wife and the one child left at home out of four. He enjoys many sports, is a poor sculler, a worse tennis player and a really bad golfer.

Kalli Varaklis, MD

Kalli Varaklis, MD

Kalli Varaklis, MD, MSEd is the Designated Institutional Official (DIO) for Maine Medical Center – MaineHealth, overseeing the graduate medical education enterprise of 30 programs and over 300 GME trainees. She is also the Principle Investigator for the American Medical Association “Re-Imagining Residency” grant, a project to provide an interprofessional, team-based care inpatient experience and train future providers in the importance of interprofessionalism across the healthcare system. Other research interests include introduction of Operational Excellence into GME Oversight, Program-Director faculty development and cultivating GME community. Dr. Varaklis is a voracious reader, an avid gardener and NYT crossword puzzle enthusiast.

 

Mark Parker, MD, FACP, FASN

Mark Parker, MD, FACP, FASN

Dr. Parker is the Vice President of Quality and Safety at Maine Medical Center. He is a former director of the Division of Nephrology and Transplantation and was the program director for the MMC nephrology fellowship from 2002-2016. During that time, he developed expertise and a national reputation in nephrology medical education and healthcare workforce issues. He continues to participate in clinical care and teaching on the faculty of the Tufts University School of Medicine as well as the Physician Leadership Development Program. He serves as a member of the Maine Track medical school admissions subcommittee, the Graduate Medical Education Executive Committee, and the Continuing interprofessional Development Committee. He is the lead physician for the organizational ABMS Maintenance of Certification Portfolio Program.

Contact Information:

Email: parkem@mmc.org

Office: 207-662-2417

Robert Bing-You, MD, MEd, MBA

Robert Bing-You, MD, MEd, MBA

Director of Continuing Interprofessional Development, Department of Medical Education at Maine Medical Center
Co-Director of The Academy

Dr. Bing-You is a graduate of George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine residency training here at Maine Medical Center, followed by a clinical and research fellowship in Endocrinology. He then went on to obtain a Masters in Adult Education at the University of Southern Maine. He completed his MBA degree through the University of Massachusetts. For eight years, Dr. Bing-You served as Residency Program Director and Clerkship Director for the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Bing-You served as MMC Vice President for Medical Education for 29 years. He helped establish MITE in 2015 and has served as Co-Director of the Academy since its initiation. He has been active at the leadership level of several educational committees, such as MMC Graduate Medical Education Committee, CME Advisory Committee, and Maine Track Admissions Subcommittee, to name a few. Dr. Bing-You has a small endocrinology practice at PenBay Medical Center.

Contact Information:

Email: Robert.bing-You@mainehealth.org

Office: 207-662-7060

Robert Trowbridge, MD

Robert Trowbridge, MD

Dr. Trowbridge received his AB from Colgate University and attended medical school at Georgetown University School of Medicine. After finishing his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University Hospital and working in the U.S. Public Health Service for several years, he completed a fellowship in Hospital Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He is primarily a clinician-educator and works as an Adult Hospitalist at Maine Medical Center. He has served in multiple leadership roles within the Maine Track Program of Tufts University School of Medicine.

His specific interest is in the development of clinical reasoning abilities and the avoidance of diagnostic error. He serves as Co-Course Director for Introduction to Clinical Reasoning course at Tufts and as an editor of the book, Teaching Clinical Reasoning from the American College of Physicians.

Sarah Hallen, MD

Sarah Hallen, MD

Sarah Hallen, MD is a geriatrician currently practicing with Maine Medical Partners Geriatrics. She attended medical school at the University of Vermont and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Rochester at Strong Memorial Hospital. After graduation, she returned home to Maine and completed her fellowship in Geriatrics at Maine Medical Center (MMC).

She was awarded a Geriatric Academic Career Award from HRSA in 2010, focused on supporting work to develop hospital-based geriatric curricula for interprofessional teams.

Dr. Hallen works primarily as a qualitative researcher examining physician’s prognostication practices, shared care, and the evolving role of physicians in interdisciplinary team care.

Tania Strout, PhD, RN, MS

Tania Strout, PhD, RN, MS

Tania Strout, PhD, RN, MS received her baccalaureate degree in Nursing from the University of Southern Maine, an M.S. in Health Policy and Management from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, and her Ph.D. from Boston College. She completed her research fellowship at Boston College and is currently the Director of Research for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Maine Medical Center and also directs the Department’s Division of Research and Quality. She is an Associate Professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine and serves there on the University’s Academic Research Awards Committee.

Dr. Strout’s primary research interests include health-related measurement, psychometrics, and scale development. Her work has included the study of measurement in emergency department triage systems, youth bullying, acute pain in adults and children, and in acute agitation. Access to care, hospital flow, end-of-life care, uncertainty tolerance in medicine, professional burnout and interpersonal violence are other research areas.

She is an active collaborator with investigators from Children’s Hospital Boston, Boston College, Massachusetts General Hospital, the United States Air Force, and the Veteran’s Administration Boston Healthcare System, among many others. Dr. Strout is also an active reviewer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA. She has received funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Thomas Van der Kloot, MD

Thomas Van der Kloot, MD

Tom Van der Kloot, MD grew up in New York and graduated in 1988 from Harvard College. He received his M.D. in 1992, from SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency, Chief Residency, and Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellowship at the University of Minnesota. He arrived in Maine in 1999, joining Chest Medicine Associates, for whom he now serves as Vice President. He has served as Director of Medical Critical Care as well as Interim Chief of Critical Care at MMC. He was the Director of MaineHealth Vital Network, an enhanced critical care monitoring system for MaineHealth, between 2005 and 2013. He currently serves as Director for the Clinical Learning Environment Review and Director for Rural Education at MMC.

 

Vicki Hayes, MD

Vicki Hayes, MD

Director of CAP, Maine Track

Dr. Vicki Hayes attended the University of Arkansas and the Ohio State University College of Medicine. She completed a residency in Family Medicine at the University of Vermont in 1993 and subsequently obtained a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Adolescent Medicine. She is a faculty member in the MMC Department of Family Medicine and a Master Educator in the MITE Academy. Dr. Hayes serves as the Director of the TUSM-MMC Competency-Based Apprenticeship in Primary Care (CAP) Course and as a coach in the TUSM Learning Communities Coaching Program.