Urology

Didactics

Our primary focus is on resident education, and urology residents will be expected to participate in several didactic sessions weekly to provide them with a complete exposure to all areas of urology. Our goal is to prepare residents to consistently perform well in urology in-service exams and easily pass American Board of Urology exams upon graduation.

Several of our conferences are hosted in conjunction with the Columbia University Department of Urology. This is achieved through state-of-the-art teleconferencing equipment from our departmental conference room. Our current conference schedule includes the following conferences.

• AUA Guidelines/Case Conference: Mondays, 7 – 8 a.m. (weekly)
• Grand Rounds: Thursdays, 7 – 9 a.m. (weekly) which includes monthly morbidity and mortality conference, journal club, and guest lectures
• GU-Radiology conference (monthly)
• Tumor Board, Fridays, noon (weekly)

Conferences are “protected time” for residents and each resident is expected to fully prepare and participate in each conference. As a result of our affiliation with Columbia University, our residents will also have the opportunity to participate in various visiting professorships organized by Columbia University in New York City.

Clinical Rotations

Based on our faculty’s clinical practices and interests, we expect that our residents will be exposed to all facets of urology. Our department is clinically very busy and between our academic and voluntary faculty, we expect that each resident will gain significant clinical exposure and, upon graduation, will have far surpassed the Residency Review Committee requirements for minimum operative cases.

Specifically, our residents will graduate with expertise in:

• Urologic oncology
• Robotic surgery and laparoscopy
• Complex endourology
• Female urology and pelvic reconstruction
• Pediatric urology
• Male voiding dysfunction
• Prosthetics
• Urethral reconstruction

Our residents each spend on average at least one day a week in the Departmental office seeing patients along-side faculty members. This allows the residents the ability to learn to manage all aspects of outpatient urology in a concise and directed manner. During assigned clinic hours, residents will be expected to evaluate and work-up new patients; perform office procedures (i.e., cystoscopy, prostate biopsy and MRI-fusion biopsy, video-urodynamics and vasectomy), schedule operative procedures, and see and follow patients postoperatively.

Research

Our academic faculty is very active in clinical research. Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Comprehensive Cancer Center runs clinical trials that are funded by the National Cancer Institute. Our faculty are co-investigators on several of these projects. Residents will have the opportunity to be involved in numerous clinical research projects, and we expect each resident to initiate and complete a research project of their choice during each year of their training. We expect residents to present their research at various regional and national urologic meetings, including the American Urologic Association Annual Meeting, Southeast Section of the AUA, Florida Urologic Association, Society of Urologic Oncology and others.

Sub-Internship Rotation

We offer a sub internship rotation for students to get a first-hand experience at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Rotating students will have the opportunity to spend one month with the team at our main clinical center in Miami Beach. Students will participate in all aspects of urologic care including operative procedures, managing post-operative patients, assessing inpatient consults, and attending specialty clinics. Students will also participate in our academic conference schedule and be expected to give a lecture at grand rounds at the conclusion of their rotation.  We aim to incorporate our rotating students into the team and work flow, enabling them to broaden their urologic knowledge while also experiencing our team culture and what it is like to live in our community of Miami Beach.

We encourage all fourth-year medical students with an interest in rotating with us to directly email the program director, (Alan.Nieder@msmc.com) and the program coordinator (Antoinette.Barrett@msmc.com).

Application Process

Mount Sinai Medical Center participates and accepts applications only through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Candidates must contact their medical school to request delivery of their application, transcripts, Dean’s letter and faculty recommendations to our program via the internet.

Required Documents for Application

1. Letters of Recommendation: At least three letters of recommendation that attest to your personal qualifications and to your scholastic and clinical ability. One of these should be from the Chairman of the Department of Urology or the Urology Clerkship Director.
2. Transcripts/Diploma: A copy of your most recent medical school transcript should be included in your application. International Medical Graduates should also include a copy of their medical school diploma.
3. USMLE Scores: Copies of your actual USMLE test scores should be forwarded with your application.

Please note that the deadline for receiving all applications is October 1.

Interview Process

Upon receipt of the completed application, our selection committee will review all materials. Invitations for interviews with other details of the interview process will be offered via e-mail from our Residency Program Coordinator, Antoinette Barrett.

Alon Weizer, MD
Chief Medical Officer

Alan Nieder, MD 
Program Director
Co-Chief, Columbia University Division of Urology at Mount Sinai Medical Center

Akshay Bhandari, MD
Co-Chief, Columbia University Division of Urology at Mount Sinai Medical Center

Scott Polackwich, MD
Assistant Program Director

Leonardo D. Borregales, MD

Billy Cordon, MD

Ricardo Palmerola, MD

Jorge Pereira MD

Janice Santos Cortes, MD

Nicholas Smith, MD

George Wayne, MD

Rafael Yanes, MD

In addition, there are multiple part-time voluntary faculty that are also actively involved in the residency training program. Our residents will also be rotating with a group of pediatric urologists at Miami Children’s Hospital. The pediatric urologists are extremely busy both clinically and academically, as they are the only full-time pediatric urologists in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The clinical rotations occur mainly at Mount Sinai Medical Center located in Miami Beach and Miami Children’s Hospital.  Mount Sinai Medical Center is a 550-bed multi-specialty hospital with multiple active residency training programs, including general surgery, internal medicine, emergency medicine, cardiology anesthesiology, radiology, pathology, ob-gyn, and psychiatry.

Joaquin Michel, PGY-5
Hometown: Watsonville, CA
Undergraduate: UC Davis
Medical School: UCLA
Hobbies: traveling, finance, hiking, soccer

Spencer Liem, PGY-5
Hometown: Walnut, CA
Undergraduate: University of California, Berkeley
Medical School: Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Hobbies: competitive gaming, weightlifting, basketball, cooking

Andres Elovic, PGY-4
Hometown: Miami, FL
Undergraduate: FSU
Medical School: George Washington University SMHS
Hobbies: running around Wynwood, tennis, reading, and hanging out at the beach

Elias Atri, PGY-4
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Undergraduate: Yeshiva University
Medical School: FIU
Hobbies: peloton, dogs, legos

Nicole Carpio, PGY-3
Hometown: Miami, FL
Undergraduate: Wake Forest University
Medical School: University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine
Hobbies:  Running, traveling, hiking, going on boats, cinema, reading, scuba diving, spending time with friends/family/my dog

Nicole Matluck, PGY-3
Hometown: Ardsley, NY
Undergraduate: Northeastern University
Grad School: George Washington University
Medical School: New York Medical College
Hobbies: F1, baking, crocheting

Dhaval Jivanji, PGY-2
Hometown: Lakeland, FL
Undergraduate: University of Florida
Med School: Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at FIU
Hobbies: Tennis, Scuba Diving, Gaming, F1, Trying new restaurants   

Sarah Silver, PGY-2
Hometown: Clayton, North Carolina
Undergraduate: of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Grad School: George Washington University 
Med School: University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Hobbies Cycling, playing Nintendo, watching movies, spending time with friends

Christopher McNeill, PGY-1
Hometown: Patchogue, NY
Undergraduate: New York University
Med School: New York Medical College
Hobbies: surfing, running, traveling, reading

Priscilla Rodriguez, PGY-1
Hometown: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Undergraduate: Rutgers University
Med School: Albany Medical College
Hobbies: cooking, baking, lifting

Rafael Yanes, MD 
Fellowship: Endourology & Stone Disease, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Current employment: Assistant Professor, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami FL

Joan Delto, MD
Fellowship: Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery & Robotics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Current employment: Associate Professor of Urology, Creighton University Medical Center, Omaha NE

Ajaydeep Sidhu, MD
Fellowship: Pelvic Reconstruction & Voiding Dysfunction, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Current employment: Private Practice Urologist, Wake Med Physician Practices, Raleigh NC

Maurilio Garcia, MD
Fellowship: Endourology & Minimally Invasive Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Current employment: Private Practice Urologist, San Antonio TX

George Wayne, MD
Fellowship: Andrology & Prosthetic Urology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Current employment: Assistant Professor, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami FL

Juan Cedeno, MD
Fellowship: Genito-Reconstructive Urology, University of Illinois Chicago
Current Employment: Baptist Hospital of Miami, Miami FL

Elizabeth Nagoda, MD
Fellowship: Robotic Oncology and Reconstruction, Temple Iniversity Philadelphia, PA
Current Employment: Private Practice, Salt Lake City, Utah

Diana Lopategui, MD
Fellowship: University of Miami – Desai Sethi Urology Institute Endourology Fellowship

Alejandra Perez, MD
Current Employment: Leon Medical Center

Anthony Bui, MD
Fellowship: Andrology, University of Washington

Adam Nolte, MD
Fellowship: Robotic Surgery and Minimally Invasive Urologic Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center