31 physicians, dentists graduate

Published June 13, 2011
By Dr. Kenneth Levin
81st Medical Group

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Thirty-one physicians and dentists graduated from 81st Medical Group Hospital internship and residency training today.

Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Gerard Caron, assistant surgeon general for dental services, delivered the commencement address.

Physician graduates include seven residents with three years of specialty training in internal medicine. his comprehensive training platform includes rotations at other facilities such as the Biloxi Veterans Administration Medical Center and the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, providing all graduates with balanced instruction in all core competencies evaluated by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education. In 2009, Keesler's internal medicine residency received a three-year accreditation status from the ACGME.

Physicians who complete these programs are eligible to take board certification examinations in their specialty and are assigned to hospitals in the United States and overseas. Four of the graduating internal medicine residents were selected for fellowship training in cardiology, hematology-oncology and critical care medicine. All seven of the internal medicine and four general surgery graduates completing one-year internships will continue their residency training at Keesler.

Eight graduating dentists are completing a one-year advanced education in general dentistry residency and two are completing a one-year general practice residency. They receive advanced training in all dental specialties including oral surgery, endodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics, pedodontics and orthodontics.Upon graduation, they will be assigned as military dentists throughout the world. Keesler hosts the Air Force's largest one-year AEGD.

The two-year dental graduates are completing a residency in endodontics. They completed didactics and research at the LSU School of Dentistry in New Orleans the first year and predominantly clinical work at Keesler in the second year. The endodontic residents help provide supervised teaching for the AEGD/GPR program as part of their curriculum. Both endodontic graduates will be assigned stateside following graduation.

Graduates are:

Third-year internal medicine -- Capts. (Drs.) Kuang Chang, Hugh Coke, Brian Hampson, Johnathan Henderson, Adam Marler, Christopher Nelson and Liana Rodriguez.

First-year internal medicine -- Capts. (Drs.) Adrian Barron, Timothy Davis, Matthew Fain, Andrew Maley, Talayeh Rezayat, Benjamin Smith and Derek Smith.

General surgery first-year -- Capts. (Drs.) Mason Hunt, Hameed Jafri, David Northern and Ramon Riojas.

Research -- Capt. (Dr.) Andrew Hall.

Dental second-year endodontic -- Majs. (Drs.) Rhett Casper and Arezoo Barani.

One-year AEGD -- Capts. (Drs.) Robert Brandt, Anthony Carter, Mandy Riggin, Jamie Smith, Justin Smith, Shelby Tessendorf, Tonya Barry and Damian Black.

One- year GPR -- Capts. (Drs.) Erin McNamara and Evan-Yutaka Masunaga.

USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)