Mary Klotman, MD, chair of the department, announced today that, effective May 1, Aimee Zaas, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine (Infectious Diseases) will become director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program, taking over from Diana McNeill, MD, FACP.
"Diana has led the program for a decade and now will focus her efforts on other parts of the educational mission in the department and the School of Medicine, including ways to support the careers of our physician educators. Diana has earned my deep and sincere thanks for her leadership of the training programs and, most importantly, for the care, devotion and mentoring she has given trainees through the years."
In her 10-year tenure as Program Director – and five years as Vice Chair of Education – McNeill oversaw the implementation of new duty hour standards, the addition of the hospitalists as attending physicians on the general medicine services, and recent patient safety and quality initiative activities. During this time the program increased the number of residents participating in the Clinical Investigator Pathway and the number of resident research activities.
McNeill also spearheaded Duke's application to be an inaugural Educational Innovations Project (EIP) awardee, and she lead initiatives in peer review, Teach the Teachers and Evidence-based Medicine, each funded through Duke Innovation Fund grants. She has represented Duke at national meetings and served as a respected leader among the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine.
Zaas, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, has served as an associate program director for the residency program since 2007. In that role, Zaas has been in charge of the Educational Innovations Project, led several programmatic strategic summits and worked closely with the leadership team to evaluate and improve rotation structure and evaluation.
A graduate of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, she completed her residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital– where she also served as chief resident and earned the Chairman's Award for Excellence – and then came to Duke to complete a fellowship in infectious diseases and a Masters of Health Sciences in genomics through the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Zaas's interactions with housestaff and medical students alike have been highly regarded, as indicated by the Golden Apple Teaching Award she received from the medical students.
"Like Diana before her, Aimee will bring out the best in our trainees," said Klotman. "I know that she will build on the successes orchestrated by Diana over the past decade, while also taking our training programs in new and exciting directions in the years ahead."
In her 10-year tenure as Program Director – and five years as Vice Chair of Education – McNeill oversaw the implementation of new duty hour standards, the addition of the hospitalists as attending physicians on the general medicine services, and recent patient safety and quality initiative activities. During this time the program increased the number of residents participating in the Clinical Investigator Pathway and the number of resident research activities.
McNeill also spearheaded Duke's application to be an inaugural Educational Innovations Project (EIP) awardee, and she lead initiatives in peer review, Teach the Teachers and Evidence-based Medicine, each funded through Duke Innovation Fund grants. She has represented Duke at national meetings and served as a respected leader among the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine.
Zaas, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, has served as an associate program director for the residency program since 2007. In that role, Zaas has been in charge of the Educational Innovations Project, led several programmatic strategic summits and worked closely with the leadership team to evaluate and improve rotation structure and evaluation.
A graduate of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, she completed her residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital– where she also served as chief resident and earned the Chairman's Award for Excellence – and then came to Duke to complete a fellowship in infectious diseases and a Masters of Health Sciences in genomics through the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Zaas's interactions with housestaff and medical students alike have been highly regarded, as indicated by the Golden Apple Teaching Award she received from the medical students.
"Like Diana before her, Aimee will bring out the best in our trainees," said Klotman. "I know that she will build on the successes orchestrated by Diana over the past decade, while also taking our training programs in new and exciting directions in the years ahead."