Internal medicine residents Dr. Rayan Harb, Dr. Marco Romero Lorenzo, and Dr. Dilpreet Phangureh stand outside DAP Health’s Centro Medico Cathedral City with attending physician Dr. Victoria Malkhasyan.

DAP Health Partners With Internal Medicine Residency Program at Its Centro Medico Cathedral City

The collaboration with Desert Regional Medical Center will hopefully help retain these newly minted providers in the desert, putting an end to the long-term shortage.

Words and photo by Daniel Vaillancourt

In an innovative step forward for health care education and community medicine, DAP Health has joined forces with Desert Regional Medical Center (DRMC) in Palm Springs to support and participate in a new internal medicine residency program that began July 1.

This academic collaboration takes shape at DAP Health’s Centro Medico Cathedral City (CMCC) and is designed to train and inspire the next generation of primary care physicians — many of whom will hopefully choose to stay and establish practices in the desert.

“Part of the mission of our new internal medicine residency program is to help address the primary care physician shortage in the Coachella Valley,” says DRMC Internal Medicine Residency Program Director Dr. Joel Trambley. “We wanted our residents to have a positive primary care experience, see a wide variety of patients, and start engaging with the community. I felt that DAP Health was an ideal partner to meet those goals.”

DRMC, part of Tenet Health, is no newcomer to graduate medical education. Since launching its residency training programs in 2014, it has offered instruction in family medicine, general surgery, transitional year, emergency medicine, surgical critical care, and ultrasound.

DRMC has collaborated with other medical establishments, but this new internal medicine program is unique in that DAP Health is the first community health center to fully host a continuity clinic experience with DRMC.

A boon for DAP Health

For DAP Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Aquilina, the collaboration is a natural evolution of the organization’s longstanding commitment to medical education and holistic care. “We’ve had nurse practitioner students and infectious disease fellows rotate through before,” he says, “but we haven’t done residency training since absorbing the Borrego Health system in August of 2023. This was the right time and opportunity.”

The collaboration brings many rewards. For residents, DAP Health offers the kind of patient diversity and integrated care model that deepens learning. For DAP Health, it enhances clinician satisfaction, promotes evidence-based teaching, and allows physicians to model and pass on the organization’s values of inclusive, culturally competent, team-based care.

“It helps with retention because lot of physicians are happier at work when academic training is included in their job description,” offers Aquilina. “Teaching residents also keeps us sharper in our own clinical skills. And residents get to see what makes DAP Health special. It becomes a two-way interview process — by the time they graduate, we know who’s a good fit, and they know if they want to stay with us.”

“The benefits of this residency program are mutually advantageous,” says CMCC board-certified internal medicine physician Dr. Victoria Malkhasyan, the program’s chief preceptor. “The residents benefit from gaining real-world experience, and DAP Health benefits from shaping the next generation of great physicians. I enjoy teaching tremendously, and I hope that by working alongside us at Centro Medico Cathedral City, some of our residents will choose to remain with us in the Coachella Valley.”

The program at a glance

The internal medicine residency program will grow to include 18 residents across three years of training, with six new first-year residents (PGY-1s) and two second-year residents (PGY-2s) already onboard. Each resident will maintain their own patient panel, ensuring the kind of longitudinal care that is a hallmark of excellent training and patient continuity.

Two to three residents will rotate at Centro Medico Cathedral City on any given day in this first year, with shifts changing every two weeks. By year three, up to six residents will be working steadily. Every patient encounter will be initially supervised by Malkhasyan. DAP Health is actively recruiting a second internal medicine physician to join the team.

“Preceptors are involved in all the care, they’re aware of everything, they sign all the notes,” says Aquilina. “The goal is to have the residents work increasingly independently over the three years so that by the time they graduate, they are truly ready to fully function as attendings and independent clinicians elsewhere.”

What it means for patients

For patients receiving care at CMCC, this exciting new alliance may mean being seen by a resident physician. “They are not students — they are doctors,” maintains Aquilina. “They’ve graduated medical school. Their badges may say ‘internal medicine resident,’ but they’re completing their training, not beginning it.”

Patients will always be informed when they’re scheduled with a resident, and will have the opportunity to ask questions or request clarification.

DAP Health is proud to offer this model, which upholds the highest standards of care. “Being a teaching institution is a feather in our cap,” says Aquilina. “It means we’re leading. We’re shaping physicians who may one day work right here in our community, or elsewhere in the country or throughout the world.”

“It’s been incredibly rewarding to grow alongside a team that’s committed to delivering thoughtful, patient-centered care,” adds PGY-2 resident Dr. Rayan Harb. “Every day brings new opportunities to collaborate, improve, and make a lasting impact on the diverse communities we serve.”

Why Centro Medico Cathedral City?

“There are a lot of space and resource requirements for hosting residents,” reveals Trambley. “The Cathedral City location met those needs and provides the patient variety we were hoping for.”

The collaboration is designed to be long-term and may expand in the future. “We hope it lasts for many, many years,” says Aquilina. “If it goes well, we would love to extend it to subspecialty rotations in infectious disease, HIV specialty, sports medicine, women’s health, and primary care.”

“We look forward to accessing the learning experiences at other DAP Health sites and clinics as the collaboration grows,” echoes Trambley.

“For both institutions, the message is clear,” concludes Aquilina. “Training tomorrow’s primary care providers starts now — and it’s happening in the heart of Cathedral City at DAP Health thanks to our invaluable relationship with Desert Regional.”

If you would like to become a DAP Health patient at Centro Medico Cathedral City, or at any other of our 25 fixed locations, please click here.