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Internal Medicine at Kaiser Santa Clara

Our Faculty

Danny Sam, M.D. - Program Director

"In Latin, "doctor" is derived from ‘docere,' meaning ‘to teach'. The physician should share medical knowledge with medical students, colleagues, and patients. There are many new advances in clinical medicine. I have a great interest in how one can teach and convey complex concepts in medicine. It is a great challenge to teach in many different ways and make it fun!"

Dr. Sam is an internist practicing both inpatient and outpatient medicine. He is heavily involved in the teaching of residents and medical students. He is also an Affiliate Assistant Clinical Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr Sam won the prestigious "Physician of the Year" award in 2007, chosen by his peers as the top physician here at Kaiser Santa Clara.

Rakesh S. Chaudhary, M.D. Assistant Program Director

"As long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a physician (with the possible exception of wanting to be a school bus driver when I was six). I cannot imagine a more noble or privileged profession. The partnership of the doctor and patient demands trust, caring, and communication as well as an intelligent application of a comprehensive fund of knowledge. The reward of providing excellent care to a patient is incomparable. It is the preeminent reason for my pursuit of medicine.

The development of my skills as a physician was accomplished through active mentoring by my attendings and senior residents. I looked to them as role models on which to pattern my own practice. As a clinical educator, I feel it is just as important to mentor developing physicians as it is to further their medical fund of knowledge. I very much enjoy working with residents in this capacity. These two pursuits of providing outstanding patient care and playing an active role in the development of physicians in training provides the fun and excitement I need to keep enjoying the challenging career of medicine."

Dr.Chaudhary completed his undergraduate degree at Yale University and his medical degree and residency at UCSF. He is an internist practicing both inpatient and outpatient medicine, and is an Affiliate Assistant Clinical Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. The internal medicine residents have awarded Dr Chaudhary their "Outstanding Teacher" award several years running.

James Baxter, M.D. - Associate Program Director

"I am fundamentally a clinician. I enjoy the challenge of each case and the problem-solving aspect. I like establishing a close personal connection with my patient even in the frantic inpatient setting. It is through conveying my enjoyment of medicine that I feel I have the most to offer students and residents. The residents and students in turn, through their questions about what they are learning, give me insights into my profession that I could never gain by just reading on my own. They push me to become better at what I do as I try to do the same for them. As a hospitalist, I work directly with residents on a daily basis on the inpatient service. This is the best part of my job because it is continually challenging, stimulating and rewarding."

Dr. Baxter is an internist practicing inpatient medicine, and is an Affiliate Assistant Clinical Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. He teaches and mentors medical students rotating through Kaiser Santa Clara. Due to his efforts and extraordinary teaching skill, Kaiser Santa Clara has been consistently honored as an Outstanding Core Clerkship Site by Stanford medical students. Dr Baxter is also a four-time winner of two prestigious awards: the Henry J Kaiser award for excellence in pre-clinical education, and the Arthur L Bloomfield award in recognition of excellence in the teaching of clinical medicine.

Joetta Maier, M.D. - Associate Program Director

“Residency is such a precious, fleeting time. You finally get the opportunity to be a 'real' doctor, but with a safety net of seasoned physicians all around you. It is a great opportunity to soak in knowledge and to ask questions of renowned experts.
That being said, it can also be a very stressful time in your life. As the mother of three small boys, I’ve had to work hard to obtain a balance between the demands of a busy career and family, so I know how challenging that can be. Here at Kaiser Santa Clara we hope to help our residents develop as many facets of themselves as they can. We believe in the value of first-hand experience caring for patients, of enthusiastic and interactive educational sessions, and of developing our residents as leaders within the organization. We also believe in the value of rest and time to read, and hope that our residents will continue to develop themselves as compassionate people as well as physicians.”

Dr. Maier grew up in Northern California but went East for college and medical school at Yale University. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente Oakland, where she served an additional year as Chief Resident. She now practices both inpatient and outpatient medicine, with an emphasis in primary care. She coordinates the outpatient resident experience here at Kaiser Santa Clara. Dr Maier is an Affiliate Assistant Clinical Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. She was awarded the "Outstanding Achievement" award in 2006 by her peers at Kaiser Santa Clara and the Sherman Award 2005 for excellence in medical education.

Susanne Mierendorf, M.D. - Associate Program Director

“My first exposure to Kaiser was an eight month rotation when I was a Stanford fellow. I knew I had to practice in this teaching environment. The subspecialty and teaching attendings are smart, well trained and practice evidence based medicine. The bar is set high but here it’s in a friendly, collegial atmosphere. I love inpatient medicine and the direct regular interactions with the residents and medical students. The housestaff are smart, hardworking but we also find time to have a little fun. They overall feel they have a good balance of autonomy and responsibility. The most rewarding part of my work is to see interns blossom into solid senior residents.”

Dr. Mierendorf completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and her medical degree from Wayne State University, where she also earned a Master of Science in cardiovascular physiology. She came out west to Stanford University to do her post-graduate training in Rheumatology and Immunology. She practices as a hospitalist and was formerly the Chief of HBS here at Kaiser Santa Clara. She now coordinates the resident inpatient experience. Dr. Mierendorf is an Affiliate Assistant Clinical Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Thomas M. Burns MD - Associate Program Director

"Being a physician allows one to partake in the best of both worlds - being both a perpetual teacher and student simultaneously. One of the challenges of our profession is to stay current with an ever-increasing field of medical information while being able to pass along that knowledge to succeeding generations of new physicians in training. I feel fortunate to be practicing in an environment that fosters both education and teaching. Our medical attendings are superbly trained and enjoy interacting with our staff and our residents in training. Our patient data base is unsurpassed in challenging cases and allows opportunities to do clinical research and to practice evidence based medicine."

Dr. Burns is double boarded in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. He did his undergraduate work at Princeton University, medical school training at SUNY Downstate, internal medicine residency and Chief Residency at Kaiser Santa Clara, and fellowship training at Stanford University Medical Center. He primarily practices Rheumatology. He enjoys teaching at AM report. He is responsible for directing the medical residency research program and their scholarly activities. He has been honored as the Physician of the Year in 1989 and as the Subspecialist Teacher of the Year in 2004.

Sheryl Sun, M.D. - Chief, Department of Medicine

"I joined The Permanente Medical Group in 1988. After serving as the Assistant Chief of the Department of Medicine for six years, I am now the Chief of the department. I am involved in Kaiser Santa Clara's residency program and enjoy working with residents periodically in my clinic or in the hospital. My medical interests include lipidology and preventive cardiology. I co-direct the Cholesterol Clinic at Kaiser Santa Clara. I also have two children who keep me busy while I am away from the medical center."

Dr. Sun is a native Californian. She obtained her undergraduate degree at UC Davis, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and received the University Medal, the highest honor awarded to a graduating senior. She received her medical degree at UCSF, where she was AOA, a Regent Scholar, and graduated second in her class. She also completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at UCSF.

Additional Faculty 2006-2007
Gurpreet Ahluwalia, MD Michael S. Ahn, MD Robert G. Alloo, MD MaryAlic Ambrose, MD Mari K. Asakawa, MD Rajeshwari Ayyar, MD Joseph A. Berrang, MD Reena Bhargava, MD Rohini V. Bhatia, MD Jonathan H. Blum, MD Thomas M. Burns, MD David H. Campen, MD Irene Y. Chen, MD Preeti R.Chhabria, MD Jai Cho, MD Joseph Chou, MD Stephanie Chu, MD David Clarke, MD Diane Craig, MD Clement Cuneen, MD Ethan H. Daniels, MD Thanh T. Dao, MD Amanda Dill, MD Caitlin Doan, MD Frank A. Fazzolari, MD Robert H. Feiner, MD Michael R. Fischetti, MD Steve Fisk, MD Christine Fong, MD Spencer T. Fung, MD Sudha Gattupalli, MD. Smita Gavaskar, MD David Goya, DO Kenneth T. Greene, MD Steven S. Guest, MD Ana Herdocia, MD Irene Ho, MD Jocelyn C. Ho, MD Lynn L. Huang, MD Paul I. Huang, MD	Shaun s. Hung, MD Radha Ivaturi, MD Waldo L. Joseph, MD Varsha V. Joshi, MD Andrea Juth, MD Orod Khaghani, MD Tariq A. Khasawinah, MD Minh Q. Kim, DO Sridevi Kolla, MD Wendy Lane, MD Jean Laumeyer, MD Philip C. Lee, MD Brian P. Lee, MD Eleanor G. Levin, MD Mark Lillo, MD Howard C. Lin, MD Thomas M. Dailey, MD Susan D. MacLean, MD Farida T. Madraswala, MD Ashwini Mahajan, MD Ajit Mahapatra, MD Waii Mak, MD Alan Man, MD Rupinder (Robin) Matharu, MD Sami Mazbar, MD Sami A. Mazbar, MD Mark Mendoza, MD Eric J.Messner, MD Stephen Moff, MD Mithu Molla, MD Frederic T. Moy, MD William P. Muldowney, MD Hekmat Nasiri, MD Holly Newman, MD Bic N. Nguyen, MD Tom Nguyen, MD Minggui Pan, MD Anna Park, MD Jong C. (JC) Park, MD Manjari K. Patel, MD	Maureen Pavy, MD Jeffery Phan, MD Michael Ponedelnikov, MD Salila Rajput, MD Jyoti Rau, MD Joanna B. Ready, MD Firozeh Rezvani, MD Paul C. Robbins, MD Atenodoro (Jun) Ruiz, MD Diane Sakai, MD Priya Saraf, MD Allison Schwanda, MD Shailan B. Shah, MD Paul Shone, MD Roshni Singh, MD Yong Sohn, MD Timothy B. Steck, MD Anthony E. Steimle, MD John Stoner, MD Jennifer Sumant,MD Jayashree Sundararajan, MD Charlene Sung, MD Santa Suryaraman, MD Steve T. Nguyen, MD Edwin (Ted) S. Tasch, MD Svetlana Tounkel, MD Tram T. Tran, MD Paul E. Turnquest, MD Uma Vadlakonda, MD Hyma Vempaty, MD Jeya Venugopalakrishnan, MD William Wang, MD Alexandra Wen, DO Aaron C. Williams, MD Bruce Wollman, MD Dale Yamashita, MD Susan Yang, MD Gordon Yip, MD UmaZamvar, MD Craig Zone, MD