News

Aiken Regional Medical Centers recently welcomed its first group of residents to its three-year accredited Family Medicine Residency Program. Six physicians will complete three years of residency training taught by both hospital medical staff and community-based academic members.

“Welcoming our first residents is a momentous milestone for our hospital and the community, and our patients and the community will benefit most from the residency program,” says Jim O’Loughlin, Chief Executive Officer at Aiken Regional Medical Centers. “We are confident when residents are immersed in our community they will want to reside and practice here long-term. Our goal is to attract competent physicians, provide advanced training, and retain the physicians and their families in our community. This will provide Aiken and our surrounding communities increased access to quality healthcare.”

Aiken Regional’s Graduate Medical Education Program will help address physician shortage concerns within the CSRA and nearby areas of South Carolina. According to the American Medical Association, following residency training, 64.6% of family medicine residents practice in the same state in which they trained.

“Our Family Medicine Program will train physicians within both the hospital and community setting, with the goal of improving access to healthcare in our community, long-term,” says Sireesha Vemuri-Reddy, MD, NIPDD, FAAFP, Chief of Hospitalist Medicine and Family Medicine Program Director at Aiken Regional Medical Centers. “It’s a privilege to welcome the Family Medicine Program and it’s first group of residents to Aiken, and I look forward to the growth of the program and educating the next generation of exceptional physicians.”

Below are members of the first Aiken Regional Family Medicine Program who will graduate from the program in Spring 2025:

• Mohammed Almamun, MD
• Nicholas Jaeggi, MD
• Marwa Meguid, MD
• Huma Nawaz, MD
• Roberto Palou De Jesus, MD
• Tarun Parvataneni, MD

“We hope to continue to grow our graduate medical education program and become accredited for additional residency programs in the near future,” says O’Loughlin.

Aiken Regional received initial accreditation from the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) of its first graduate medical education program, Family Medicine, in Fall 2021. Aiken Regional’s Family Medicine Residency Program is a three-year (36-month) postgraduate program. The program will welcome its first six residents on July 1, 2022, with three years of structured, supervised training alongside highly qualified faculty and dedicated medical staff. By July 2024, Aiken Regional will have 18 family medicine residents on staff and training year-round.