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Residents and Fellows
CHIEF RESIDENTS (PGY 6)
PGY 4 Edward Kloniecke, MD, MHA
Medical School: Sidney Kimmel Medical College Undergraduate: University of Scranton Interests: Skiing, Eagles and Phillies, craft beer and bourbon, coffee, Philly food scene, traveling
Brian Calio, MD
Medical School: Sidney Kimmel Medical College Undergraduate: University of Delaware Interests: Eagles football, movies, Fantasy sports, golf
Andrew Salib, MD
Medical School: Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Undergraduate: Rutgers University Interests: Traveling, craft beer, reading
Halle Foss, MD
Medical School: Medical College of Wisconsin Undergraduate: St. Olaf College Interests: Tennis, coffee, card/board games, exploring new bars and restaurants
PGY 3
Courtney Capella, MD
Medical School: Sidney Kimmel Medical College Undergraduate: Dickinson College Interests: Plants, National Parks, and Peloton
Maria D'Amico, MD
Medical School: Boston University School of Medicine Undergraduate: Columbia University Interests: Yoga, Peloton, traveling, the beach
PGY 2
PGY 1 (INTERNS)
Mauro Dispagna, MD Medical School: SUNY Upstate Medical University's College of Medicine, Syracuse Undergraduate: University of Central Florida Interests: Soccer, Formula-1 racing, traveling, wine
Matthew Buck, MD
Medical School: Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University Undergraduate: University of Connecticut Interest: U Conn basketball, hiking, coffee, urological oncology, observational research
Zachary Prebay, MD
Medical School: Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee Undergraduate: University of Michigan Interests: Michigan football, reading, coffee, running
David Fu, MD
Medical School: University of Nebraska Medical Center Undergraduate: Boston College Interest: golf, basketball, cooking
Anthony Tokarski, MD
Medical School: Sidney Kimmel Medical College Undergraduate: Pennsylvania State University Interests: Video and photo editing
Radhika Ragam, MD
Medical School: Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Undergraduate: The College of New Jersey Interests: Golf, snowboarding, movies, beer gardens, biking on the Schuylkill River Trail
Joon Yau (JY) Leong, MD
Medical School: Sidney Kimmel Medical College Undergraduate: International Medical University Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Interests: Hieroglyphics, Oreos, being "niceee"
Afzal Shakir, MD
Medical School: University of Oklahoma College of Medicine Undergraduate: University of Oklahoma Interest: Trivia night, table tennis, bass guitar, flight simulators, 3D printing, movie character impersonations
Carlos Perez, MD., PhD
Medical School: Minnesota Undergraduate: University of Puerto Rico at Cayey Interest: Long-distance running, anything related to reggaeton and Latin trap (merengue, salsa, bachata), cooking Puerto Rican food and trying to blend with midwest cuisine, a good beach day with friends
ENDOUROLOGY & ROBOTIC SURGERY FELLOW: Daniel P. Simon, MD
Welcome to Dr. Dan Simon our new Endourology and Robotic Surgery Fellow. Dan was born in Illinois and moved around the Midwest in childhood, ultimately landing in Overland Park, KS, where he attended high school. After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Kansas with a B.S. in Microbiology (2009-2013), he completed his medical education at the University of Kansas School of Medicine (2013-2017) in Kansas City, KS. Dr. Simon recently completed his urology residency at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL (2017-2022). Dr. Simon’s interest in urology started during his urology rotation in medical school. According to Dr. Simon, “My desire to pursue a robotics fellowship stems from my passion for improving patient outcomes and shortening surgical recovery through leading-edge minimally invasive techniques”. Outside of work, Dan enjoys traveling with his wife and dog, sailing, and skiing. On weekends in the fall and winter, you will catch him rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs or cheering on the Kansas Jayhawks during March Madness.
Partial support of the Jefferson Fellow in Endourology and Robotic Surgery was provided by a grant from Boston Scientific.
RESEARCH FELLOW: Rishabh “Rishi” Simhal, MD
Dr. Rishabh Simhal joins us as our new research fellow after completing medical school at the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. Prior to that, he was an undergraduate student at Duke University in Durham, NC, where he graduated with distinction. He then went on to complete a yearlong research fellowship at the Robert J. Lefkowitz laboratory at Duke, where his work primary focused on allosteric drug discovery for G protein-coupled receptors. Rishi’s work was presented and published numerous times, including in the academic journal, Science. So far, he has been a great addition to the Jefferson urology team with his enthusiasm and workethic. He has been extremely productive for the department, and has presented numerous abstracts at academic conferences. He’s had a particular interest in preoperative frailty and surgical risk prediction as well as work in diversity, equity, and inclusion in urological training. He also has been performing basic science research in collaboration with the orthopedic surgery department at Jefferson investigating drug binding and device infections for inflatable penile prosthesis. Dr. Simhal is from Northern Virginia but has lived all over the country as his father was a military contractor, and even lived in Allentown, PA, for a year.
He is extremely passionate about urology, and is currently applying for urology residencies. Outside of medicine, Dr. Simhal is an avid guitar player and musician, and enjoys playing live blues and writing original music.
JY Leong
PGY3 JY Leong has been elected to the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Urology International (CJUI). The CJUI Editorial Board elects two resident representatives who assist with the review of publications with a focus on the development of the “Residents Corner” section of the journal. The term is for two years starting July 2022.
PREVIOUS ENDOUROLOGY SOCIETY FELLOWS 1996-2023 1996-1997- Michael J. Conlin, MD- Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon 2000-2001 – Gregory Chen, MD- Kaiser Permanente, Hayward, California 2002-2003 – Eric Chenven, MD –Broward Health Medical Center, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 2003-2004 – Sanjay Razdan, MD – International Robotic Institute for Prostate Cancer, Miami, Florida 2004-2005 – Pankaj Kalra, MD – MidLantic Urology, Pottstown/ Phoenixville, Pennsylvania 2005-2006 – Sameer Chawla, MD – WakeMed Urology, Raleigh, North Carolina 2006-2007 – Brent Yanke, MD, MPH– New York Health, Brooklyn, New York 2007-2008 – Raymond Pak, MD, MBA – Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida 2008-2009 – Nicholas T. Leone, MD – United Urology Group, Chesapeake Urology, Pikesville, Maryland 2009-2010 – Arturo Colon Herdman, MD – Private Practice, San Juan, Puerto Rico 2010-2012 – Kelly Anne Healy, MD – Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York 2012-2013 - Sanjay S. Kasturi, MD –New Jersey Urology, Vineland, New Jersey/Linwood,NJ 2011-2013 – Nir Kleinmann, MD – Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel 2013-2015 – Ryuta Tanimoto, MD – Professor, Okayama University, Japan 2014-2015 – Mark J. Mann, MD –New Jersey Urology, Milburn, New Jersey 2016-2017- Daniel Verges, MD - St. Luke’s Center for Urology, Easton, Pennsylvania 2018-2019 – Thenappan Chandrasekar, MD – UC Davis Urology/Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center, Sacramento, California 2019-2020 – Katherine Smentkowski, MD – United Urology Group, Chesapeake Urology, Annapolis, Maryland 2020-2021 - Abhay Singh, MD –St. Luke’s Center for Urology, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 2020-2021 – Asaf Shvero, MD –Sheba Medical Center, Israel 2021-2022 – Aseem Malhotra, MD – Potomac Urology, Alexandria, Virginia 2022-2023 – Current Fellow: Daniel Simon, MD – Instructor, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Our new Urology interns Drs. Carlos Perez, Matthew Buck and David Fu.
Welcome New 2022 Urology Intern Class
Carlos Perez, MD, PhD, joins us from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Matthew Buck, MD is from Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and David Fu, MD, graduated from the University of Nebraska.
This Endourology Society Fellowship at Jefferson was established in 1996. Through 2022, 21 fellows have completed the training program (see page 59). The fellowship is a one-year program certified by the Endourology Society.
Fellows work with the physicians who specialize in advanced endourology and minimally invasive urologic oncology in the Department of Urology and the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center of Thomas Jefferson University.
Dr. Scott Hubosky is responsible for the endourologic aspects of the training. Laparoscopy and minimally invasive urologic oncology are managed by Dr. Costas Lallas with the other urologic oncologists who work in the Department of Urology and the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.
The fellowship focuses on ureteroscopy, percutaneous nephroscopy, and laparoscopic/ robotic reconstructive surgery and oncologic procedures, including nephrectomy, partial nephrectomy, pyeloplasty, prostatectomy, cystectomy, and more advanced procedures. Pure laparoscopic and robotically assisted approaches are employed.
The Fellow attends the Multidisciplinary GU Oncology Clinic at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. They are expected to participate in weekly urology conferences and be involved in teaching residents and medical students.
There is a dedicated Endourology Suite at TJUH, with a wide range of endourologic equipment, and five daVinci Robots with dual consoles, including a single port (SP) system. The Fellow is expected to participate in research endeavors in the department, which includes writing abstracts and manuscripts, and presenting at major regional and national meetings. The fellow is appointed as an instructor at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College and has full attending privileges.
AUA Fellowship Awarded to SKMC Student
Yash Shah SKMC Class of 2025
Yash Shah, a second-year SKMC medical student, was awarded the AUA Summer Medical Student Fellowship through the Herbert Brendler, MD, Research Fund for his project titled "Utilizing NSQIP to Identify Factors Impacting Surgical Approach for cT2 Renal Cell Carcinoma: Partial and Radical Nephrectomy." Under the mentorship of Drs. Thenu Chandrasekar and Costas Lallas, this study aimed to describe patient-specific factors influencing peri-operative morbidity following partial versus radical nephrectomy for localized RCC patients. The AUA Summer Medical Student Fellowship Program is a chance for outstanding medical students to pursue urology research by engaging in a research fellowship mentored by worldclass urologic scientists. Fellows receive a $4,000 stipend to support them during a ten-week mentored research experience and is awarded based on a competitive application process.
Throughout the summer, Yash also had the opportunity to work on various other projects with the Jefferson Urology Research Scholars and develop his clinical research skills while learning more about urology. Several abstracts have already been accepted and presented at the Mid-Atlantic AUA and other meetings. According to Yash “I am immensely grateful to the AUA and Herbert Brendler, MD Research Fund for providing me with the opportunity to expand my interests and skills within urology and clinical research. Although I am still early in my medical education, my summer experience has made me certain that I would be interested in pursuing a future career in urology.”
Jefferson Urology Research Scholar
Kerith Wang has been accepted as Kerith our next Jefferson Urology Research Wang, 2022 Scholar for the 2022-2023 academic Jefferson year. Kerith is originally from Delaware Urology and just finished her 3rd year at Sidney Research Scholar Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC). She graduated with a BA in Ecology and a minor in Global Health from Princeton University, which promoted her interest in Public Health. Kerith decided to pursue medicine after working at SKCC on the bone metastasis biorepository and other translational research studies for several years. She was interested in joining the department after discovering the intersection of medical management and surgery and the potential impact urology has on an individual’s quality of life. Outside of work, you’ll find her running along the Schuylkill, decorating fancy cakes, creating 3D origami, traveling (42 countries so far), or enjoying all kinds of art from music to theater and reading books. Kerith is excited to be a part of Urology and to work with and learn from everyone this year. As of December 2022, Kerith has already submitted numerous abstracts that have been accepted at national meetings.
