Check out what’s new with our residents with these monthly updates:

 

December 2023

Residents had a great time at our annual Holiday Party at Restaurant 618 in Freehold! Happy Holidays, everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, look who made Monmouth Magazine’s list of Top Doctors! Very proud of our faculty members Hammad Abdelquader, MD, Maria Ciminelli, MD, Alicia Dermer, MD, Zeeshan Khan, MD, and Steve Weintraub, DO. The recipients of this honor were selected by their peers in Monmouth County.

 

November 2023

Dr. Aasim Chaudhry and Dr. Forum Trivedi coordinated our annual Food Drive for Freehold Open Door, collecting and donating over $1,000 in grocery store gift cards for local families. It was our best year yet!

October 2023

Residents enjoyed a work-free day on Halloween to dress up and go out for brunch, followed by a trip to the driving range at Top Golf for this year’s residency retreat. It was a great day to relax and bond with each other!

July 2023

Welcome Class of 2026! We are excited to kick off a new year with this very enthusiastic group of new interns.

 

 

 

 

 

June 2023

Congratulations graduating class of 2023! We could not be prouder as we wish our grads the best of luck in their new positions.

May 2023

We are extremely proud to announce that our very own Sairah Johnson, MD was selected to receive this year’s NJ Family Medicine Resident of the Year Award from the NJ Academy of Family Physicians at the President’s Gala on Saturday, May 6th in Atlantic City.  Sairah has been a driving force in advancing resident scholarly activity, especially QI, and she is noted to be a formidable patient advocate, practicing patient-centered care and going above and beyond for her patients.

Dr. Johnson’s faculty advisor, Dr. Zeeshan Khan, presented her with the award.

 

 

 

We are thrilled to announce that all six of our graduating residents have passed the ABFM Board Certification Exam! Our 100% passage rate continues! Congratulations to Drs. Krishna Parikh, Akanksha Saxena, Deshanki Pandya, Resham Khan, Meetali Patel, and Sairah Johnson.

 

 

 

 

April 2023

Time for the Changing of the Guard! This month we had a special lunch and cake to thank our outgoing Chief Residents Deshanki Pandya, MD and Meetali Patel, DO, and to congratulate and welcome our newly elected Chiefs, Aasim Chaudhry, MD and Chandni Lotwala, MD. Looking forward to a great year under their leadership! Thanks for a job well done, Drs. Pandya and Patel.

 

 

 

February 2023

National “Thank a Resident Day” occurs in February. Residents received gift bags and were treated to lunch and an afternoon out. We appreciate all their hard work and dedication!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our “Thank a Resident Day” concluded with lunch and an afternoon of axe throwing at “Bury the Hatchet” in Freehold. In a close competition between the residents and attendings, the residents won 2 – 1!

 

January 2023

Faculty, residents, staff and “plus ones” celebrated the holidays in early January this year with a lovely dinner out in downtown Freehold. Happy 2023!

December 2022

Santa and her faculty elves visited today to distribute gifts to the residents, all of whom are on the “nice list”! Happy holidays to all from the Rutgers at CentraState FMRP!

October 2022

The residents enjoyed a Halloween party during their monthly wellness session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween from Gru (Dr. Abdel) and his Minions at the Freehold Family Health Center!

August 2022

Dr. Joshua Raymond, Family Medicine Faculty and Geriatrics Fellowship Program Director, has been promoted to Professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School! Dr. Raymond is the second faculty member of the residency to achieve this. Academic promotion requires a tremendous amount of effort and preparation and is a year-long process. We look forward to Dr. Raymond’s continued leadership and clinical excellence in the future.

 

 

 

Congratulations also to Dr. Hammad Abdelquader for achieving fellowship status with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)! The Degree of Fellow recognizes AAFP members who have distinguished themselves among their colleagues, as well as in their communities, by their service to family medicine, by their advancement of health care to the American people, and by their professional development through medical education and research. Fellows of the AAFP are recognized as champions of family medicine. They are the physicians who make family medicine the premier specialty in service to their community and profession. From a personal perspective, being a Fellow signifies not only ‘tenure’ but additional work in your community, within organized medicine, within teaching, and a greater commitment to continuing professional development and/or research.

July 2022

Welcome new residents! We are excited to introduce our Class of 2025: Drs. Marielle Jamgochian, Bernard Rosenthal, Jagtar Sekhon, Jonathan Deck, Millie Mohan, and Neha Basnet. We are looking forward to another great year!

June 2022

We are proud to announce that the Class of 2022 has successfully completed the program and are moving on to the next steps in their careers in Family Medicine. Four of our graduates are enrolled in fellowship programs, one is joining an outpatient primary care practice, and one will be a hospitalist at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Best of luck to all our graduates!

 

 

May 2022

May means it’s time for new Chief Residents! Many thanks to our outgoing Chiefs, Drs. Sydney Asselstine and Raahi Upadhyay (third and fourth from left) for a job very well done. Congratulations and welcome to our incoming Chiefs Drs. Meetali Patel and Deshanki Pandya (first and second on left). Looking forward to a great year!

 

 

 

 

 

Huge congratulations to our Class of 2022 graduates for passing their Board Certification Exams! We are proud to say that our passage rate remains at 100 percent! Congrats to Drs. Pudney, Cherian, Asselstine, Qazi, Kim and Upadhyay.

January 2022

We congratulate Drs. Sydney Asselstine and Robert Kim who successfully matched into competitive Sports Medicine Fellowship positions for this upcoming July. Dr. Asselstine will be at Rutgers Health/RWJMS in New Brunswick, and Dr. Kim will be at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS. Best of luck to our future sports medicine specialists!

December 2021

Once again this year the residents coordinated a hospital-wide Toy Drive during the month of December and collected lots of toys for area children. Residents Meetali Patel, DO, and Bianca Leuzzi, MD, delivered the items to the Freehold YMCA. Great job, residents!

 

 

 

 

December 1st is Medical Specialties Match Day and we are thrilled to announce that our third-year resident and Co-Chief, Raahi Upadhyay, MD, will be our Geriatric Fellow for next year. Also headed for geriatric fellowship training is third-year resident Jacey Pudney, MD, who will join the Upstate Medical University program in Syracuse, NY. We are proud of you both!

 

 

October 2021

We are extremely proud to announce that Dr. Sydney Asselstine, PGYIII and Co-Chief Resident, has been selected to receive the Graduate Medical Education Award of Excellence given by the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Asselstine is one of only 12 recipients nationally to receive this prestigious award for demonstrating exemplary patient care, interpersonal relationships with patients, physicians and faculty and for her leadership and community involvement. Congratulations Sydney!

 

 

 

For this year’s FMRP Olympics, we extended the games to include all four of the VNA’s CHC locations: Asbury Park, Red Bank, and Keyport, in addition to our Freehold office. It was great having all the sites participate! Here are a few shots of the ever-popular Hungry, Hungry Human Hippos and Stocking Bowing, as well as Freehold’s Team picture.

       

 

September 2021

Residents displayed several research posters summarizing recent scholarly activity at CentraState’s annual Research Day held in September. Here are PGY3 resident Jamie Cherian, DO, and PGY1 resident Chandni Lotwala, MD, ready to answer questions about the various projects.

 

 

 

 

 

July 2021

 

Welcome Class of 2024! July is always an exciting time with the start of a new academic year. Meet our new class: Dr. Bianca Leuzzi, Dr. Chandni Lotwala, Dr. Aasim Chaudhry, Dr. Matthew Facas, Dr. Ryan Narain, and Dr. Aida Abdul Majid. We are looking forward to a wonderful year!

 

 

 

 

 

June 2021

 

We are very proud to announce the graduation of our Class of 2021. Congratulations on a job well done: Drs. Kirk McCalmon, Kevin Ly, Anand Shah; Shalena Islam, Tomi Olaniyan, and Nicole Castro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 2021

 

We are extremely pleased to announce that our trend of 100% passage rate on the ABFM Board Certification Exam continues! The Class of 2021 is wrapping up their three years of hard work and is preparing for graduation at the end of the month. Luckily for us, we get to hold on to two of our graduates: Dr. Anand Shah will enter our Geriatric Fellowship program, and Dr. Nicole Castro will come on board as faculty. Dr. Islam plans to open her own outpatient practice in New York; Dr. Ly will work in an outpatient family practice, Dr. McCalmon will become a hospitalist at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, NY, and Dr. Olaniyan will be the Geriatric Fellow at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. As always, we are proud of our graduates!

Pictured are Dr. Kirk McCalmon, Dr. Nicole Castro, Dr. Kevin Ly, Dr. Anand Shah, Dr. Tomi Olaniyan, and Dr. Shalena Islam.

April 2021

 

Once a month the residents participate in a wellness activity and this April, both faculty and residents joined in for a horticulture session to create Kokedamas, or Japanese moss balls. Kokedama refers to plants grown tightly and compactly. The roots are wrapped in moss and held together with twine or wire. The goal of this activity was to provide stress relief, promote peacefulness to the mind, and elevate mood. Everyone enjoyed the experience!

 

March 2021

 

March 19th was Match Day! We are thrilled to welcome our new class of residents, the Class of 2024. Photos and bios to come!

 

February 2021

 

February 26th was the Arnold P. Gold Foundation “Thank a Resident Day.” We celebrated with lunch, a cake, gift bags and cards written out by the faculty and staff thanking each resident personally for what they bring to the program. Thank you residents!

 

December 2020

 

The residents ran a tremendously successful toy drive this month! Here are Drs. Anand Shah and Raahi Upadhyay getting ready to load their sleigh, I mean cars, to deliver the toys to the Freehold YMCA. Thank you to everyone in the CentraState community for your outpouring of support for children in the Freehold area. Wishing everyone happy holidays!

 

November 2020

 

On Behalf of the Freehold Family Health Center, Dr. Maria Ciminelli proudly accepted the Silver Gull Community Service Award from the Monmouth-Ocean Development Council (MODC) at its annual celebration dinner in November. For more than 50 years, the MODC has presented its prestigious Silver Gull award to deserving recipients who have made a difference in local business at the Jersey Shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This month, our residents did a great job conducting our annual Thanksgiving fundraiser for families in need in the area. With an initial goal of $500, we collected a total of $915! We purchased several ShopRite gift cards and donated them to the Open Door food pantry in Freehold. The employees expressed much gratitude and appreciation for all of the work we do with the VNA and CentraState Medical Center.

Pictured here are PGY2 residents Drs. Jacey Pudney and Mahvish Qazi with a staff member of Open Door.

 

 

October 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A highlight of the year is the Family Medicine Residency Program’s “Olympics”. All residents, faculty and staff of the Freehold Family Health Center are assigned to one of three teams to work on QI projects and discuss office procedures and suggestions for improvement at monthly meetings.

Come October, we close the office on a Friday afternoon and head over to a nearby park for a big barbecue lunch followed by various games for friendly competition. At the end of the afternoon, Team Amazing (red) won the Relay Race, securing the victory. Well done Amazing, and kudos to Team Epic (blue) and Team Sweets (green) for your valiant efforts!

 

September 2020

 

 

Residents ventured into Manhattan for their annual Resident Retreat, a full-day bonding and teambuilding experience. Everyone was excused from clinical duties so that all could participate. This year’s activity was something new – an outdoor scavenger hunt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2020

 

We are extremely proud to announce that all six members of our Class of 2020 passed their American Board of Family Medicine Certification Exams! Congratulations to our newest Board Certified Family Medicine Physicians!

 

 

 

 

 

July 2020

 

       

Congratulations to second year resident Sydney Asselstine, MD, and faculty physician Steve Weintraub, DO, on winning the 2020 New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP) Poster Session’s People’s Choice Award. Their poster was titled “A Curious Case of Clavicular Pain.”

Well done, Drs. Asselstine and Weintraub!

 

 

 

 

July 1 was the first day for our newest group of residents, the Class of 2023.

Please welcome Drs. Krishna Parikh, Meetali Patel, Akanksha Saxena, Resham Khan, Sairah Johnson, and Deshanki Pandya. It’s going to be a great year!

 

 

 

 

June 2020

 

The Residency Program is proud to announce that our own second-year resident Robert Kim, MD has been elected to serve a two-year term on the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP) Board of Trustees as the new Junior Resident Trustee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year’s Senior Resident Trustee is our own third-year resident and Co-Chief, Shalena Islam, MD. We are proud of our program’s consistently high level of participation and leadership in the NJAFP!

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to graduating resident, Thomas J. Wall, MD for being selected as this year’s NJ Family Medicine Resident of the Year!

Each year, the 18 Family Medicine Residency Program Directors in NJ receive a call for nominations from the NJ Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP) to recommend a graduating third year resident who exemplifies excellence as a family medicine resident and demonstrates the greatest future potential as a practicing family physician. Residents considered for the award make significant contributions to their residency by providing creative solutions to problems and volunteering their time for residency activities and duties. Nominees must demonstrate leadership, work effectively as team physicians, show support to co-residents, and be respected by peers and educators. Once all nominations are received, they are disseminated to all the NJ program directors for a vote. We are delighted to announce Dr. Wall as this year’s award recipient.

Dr. Wall not only served as one of our Co-Chief Residents but is also our Senior Resident Trustees on the Board of the NJAFP.  Tom plans to stay in New Jersey and will be joining the Cooper University Department of Family Medicine.

 

 

 

 

Wrapping up three years of hard work, the Class of 2020 graduated on June 26.

Please help us congratulate our grads (back row) Drs. Sean Sussman, Sherry Kumar, Arthur Kwok and (front row) Drs. Parneet Grewal, Thomas Wall, and Shirlynn Althea Chu. We will miss them, and we wish them all the best!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Alisa Reznikov, a 2019 graduate of the Residency Program, completed her one-year Geriatric Fellowship in June as well. We wish Dr. Reznikov the best of luck as she begins her new career with the Rutgers RWJMS Department of Family Medicine and Community Health Division of Hospitalist-Based Medicine.

 

 

 

 

May 2020

 

   

Each May, we usher in our new Chief Residents for the coming academic year, and “retire” out outgoing chiefs. Congratulations on being elected Co-Chiefs, Dr. Shalena Islam and Dr. Anand Shah!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, many thanks for a job well done, outgoing Chiefs Dr. Althea Chu and Dr. Tom Wall!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 2020

 

CentraState Medical Center has addressed the current health crisis with the formation of the COVID-19 response team.

The team takes a multidisciplinary approach and is comprised of Primary Care Physicians, Infectious Disease Physicians, Pulmonary and Critical Care Physicians, and our own Family Medicine Residents, among others. We thank them for their collaboration, hard work and dedication.