Eight General Cardiology Fellows and one Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellow to Begin Training in July

After a rigorous vetting process, which included over 70 sets of individual Zoom interviews, Deborah Heart and Lung Center has announced its Class of 2021 Fellows.

Deborah Heart and Lung Center is nationally renowned for its high quality advanced specialty training program. Physicians who have completed a 3-year training program in Internal Medicine are eligible to apply for fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine. Each year eight fellows from the top residency programs in the country are rigorously screened and interviewed. This year over 420 candidates applied for Deborah’s eight slots. After three years of intense training at Deborah, they then can choose to practice general clinical cardiology or move on to further areas of specialty training including electrophysiology, interventional cardiology, and advanced heart failure. All these specialty areas of training are available at Deborah Heart and Lung Center.

“We are extremely excited about the amazing caliber of the fellows we matched for our Class of 2021,” said Vincent Pompili, MD, Deborah’s Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine. “This year’s selection committee was especially challenged because of the pandemic, necessitating remote interviews with our applicants. Our team rose to the challenge, and I am pleased that we were able to secure three of the candidates from the top five of our rank list, and matched the remaining candidates from the top third of our list. In addition one of our current cardiology fellows, Dr. Adam Gus, was matched into our cardiac electrophysiology spot for next year.”

Deborah Heart and Lung Center is an ACGME accredited program for advanced medical training, and is affiliated with The Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. Its Fellowship Program selects applicants from a national electronic residency application service, universally used by advanced medical training programs. December 2 is the designated date for announcing the matches.

The new cardiology fellows are:

Ricardo Chia Li, MD

• Medical School:  George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Residency:  University of Illinois Chicago
• Clinical HTN Fellowship:  UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas TX

Dianna Gaballa, MD 

• Medical School:  Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University
• Residency: Temple University Hospital
• Preventative Cardiology Fellowship: Lenox Hill Hospital, NY

Deval Desai, MD   

• Medical School:  Drexel University College of Medicine                         
• Residency:  Temple University Hospital                                                     
• Hospitalist: NYU  Tisch Hospital and NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital

Pamela Fazio, DO       

• Medical School:  Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Residency: Jefferson Northeast Hospital /Aria

Benjamin Rosen, MD   

• Medical School: Georgetown University School of Medicine
• Residency: Hahnemann University Hospital/Brown University Alpert Medical School

Thomas Price, DO                                                                                  

• Medical School: Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine         
• Residency: UPMC Pinnacle

Michael Sobieraj, MD 

• Medical School:  Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University
• Residency:  Northwell Health North Shore University Hospital/LI Jewish Medical Center

Todd Prol, DO   

• Medical School:  Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Residency:  Morristown Medical Center

Dr. Pompili added: “It is a great honor to bring this new talent to Deborah to train the next generation of cardiologists. Their energy and fresh ideas, combined with our exacting training program and standards, enriches both us and them. Our team always is excited to welcome a new group of physicians moving into the next step of their medical training.”