Born and raised in West Orange, and a recent graduate of Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University’s Internal Medicine residency, and current Fellow of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine with Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. My professional interests are in critical care/pulmonary medicine, clinical informatics, health policy, and the intersection of emerging technologies with all of the above. While I am still exploring my path forwards in those fields, I am always seeking out new opportunities to learn and lead. In the past ten years, my career goals have changed from computer science major looking at a career in programming, to training to become a critical care physician, so I have made it my goal to be adaptable to what opportunities present themselves and where my passions take me.
Class of 2022 Fellow of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine |
Class of 2019 Internal Medicine Resident Physician Chief Resident 2018-2019 |
Class of 2016 Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine |
Class of 2011 Bachelor of Science in Biology |
Charged with leading one of the residency’s cohorts (approximately 12 residents), I supervised all the educational, scholarly, and clerical activities of the residents of my cohort. All chiefs were also tasked to advocate for residency program education, assist in housestaff discipline, leadership succession planning, resident scheduling, interviewing and selecting residency applicants, and arranging educational conferences and lectures. During my tenure, I led and completed a project to amicably improve hospital admission procedures among the teaching and nonteaching services. I also created centralized policy guides for clinical rotations, and collaborated on creating a curriculum for starting a clinical ultrasound rotation in 2019.
Oversaw the effective and efficient implementation of all Quality Improvement projects within the internal medicine housestaff. This includes five cohort-based projects in addition to individual or small team-based projects independently undertaken by residents. Position included working closely with hospital informatics and data statistician experts at Cooper.
Implemented and organized a comprehensive, week-long curriculum for interns joining the Cooper internal medicine residency training program. The curriculum included training on commonly seen medical problems, advice on transitioning from the student to the physician role, and simulation experiences in patient care.
Department of Hospital Medicine, Cooper University Hospital, Camden NJ Project Leader (abstract submitted)
Led a team of Medicine Residents through a QI project designed to create a best practice advisory to assist in decreasing missed inpatient doses of warfarin. This included a database query to our electronic health record to monitor pre- and postintervention warfarin ordering habits with a goal of decreasing both patient hospitalization duration and risk of thromboembolism. Project was invited to present to the institutional year-end QI Report Out in June 2018.
Department of Molecular Biology, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford, NJ Advisor: Venkat Venkataraman, PhD
Managed preparation, treating, analysis, and automation of analysis of animal tissue samples in an ongoing project concerning the effects of various substances on animal models for Alzheimer’s Disease.
- Kramer D, Kiruparahan P, Flamenbaum M, Scharf M. Quality of Post-Discharge Follow-Up in Patients Admitted to TJUH with Intermediate High Risk Pulmonary Embolism. Presented at Thomas Jefferson University Annual Housestaff QI & Safety Poster Session. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 27, 2021.
- Flamenbaum M, Roman J. Endemic and Emerging Coronavirus Pulmonary Infections. Am J Med Sci. 2020 June 12.
- Kramer D, Khaing P, Flamenbaum M, Scharf M. Adherence to the 2015 ESC/ERS Guidelines for Testing and Monitoring Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Presented at Thomas Jefferson University Annual Housestaff QI & Safety Poster Session. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 28, 2020.
- Flamenbaum M, Wu H, Krishnan A, Rodriguez A, Spur B, Nagele R, Venkataraman V. Effect of NeuroprotectinD1 on Alzheimer’s Pathology: Analysis Using the Retinal Model. Presented at the RowanSOM Annual Research Day. Stratford, New Jersey, May 8, 2014.
State Licensure
2020 – present Pennsylvania Osteopathic Physician License
American Board of Internal Medicine
2019 – present Board Certification in Internal Medicine
American Heart Association
2012 – present Basic Life Support for Healthcare Provider
2016 – present Advanced Cardiac Life Support
National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners
June 2014 COMLEX-USA Level 1 – Pass
Aug 2015 COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE – Pass
Sept 2015 COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE – Pass
Oct 2016 COMLEX-USA Level 3 – Pass
National Board of Medical Examiners
June 2014 USMLE Step 1 – Pass
Aug 2015 USMLE Step 2-CK – Pass
Directed the charitable, wellness, representative, and advocacy activities of the residents and fellows of Cooper’s various training programs. Projects of the Council under my leadership included the creation of a quick-reference directory for common phone numbers used by residents, starting multiple recurring housestaff intramural sports programs, increasing options for institution-provided scrubs, and successfully lobbied for several improvements in work and call spaces for trainees. As a part of this position I also served as an executive member of the Cooper Medical School’s Graduate Medical Education Committee.
Managed and budgeted for the Council to provide community service, social and wellness events, and housestaff quality of life improvements. The council officers and I also represented the housestaff to the hospital and Graduate Medical Education leadership regarding workplace or educational issues.
Oversaw all student organizations and their compliance with the Student Council constitutional documents and maintained communications with their leadership. Took the initiative to create and chair the Task Force charged with creating a new permanent student government for all graduate and professional students under the umbrella of Rowan University. Performed as a representative for RowanSOM to the national Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents and actively developed resolutions while serving on their legislation committee.
Planned the clinical procedures education for preclinical year members, as well as representing the voice and opinions of the third and fourth-year students to the chapter executive board. Coordinated student attendance at events held by the New Jersey Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons.
Created such ongoing projects as Halloween for the Hungry and passed a resolution at the national House of Delegates to increase access for transgender individuals to appropriate healthcare, for which the chapter was nationally recognized for community service under my leadership. Organized the National American Medical Student Association’s Empowering Future Physicians Conference for 2013 hosted at RowanSOM as the lead coordinator from the local team around a healthcare innovations theme. Continued coordinating the ongoing educational Clinical Procedures Lab Series, as well as continued advocacy discussions and events for students and the profession, such as the ongoing lecture series: What Med School DOESN’T Teach You About Politics
Ensured the national organization had an up to date, appealing, and engaging web presence. Undertook a project to optimize the group’s website content into a more easily navigable format, significantly increased social media web presence, created the first-ever mobile app for the biannual SOMA conference, and organized the first ever live-streaming video broadcast of the SOMA House of Delegates proceedings that same spring.
Maintained communication between the class of 2016 and the local chapter. Created and organized the Clinical Procedures Lab Series program centered on teaching clinical procedure skills such as thoracentesis and cricothyrotomy to pre-clinical medical students.
Aided as a primary leader in the foundation of the clinic, and also acted as the primary manager for adoption and utilization of an Electronic Medical Record system for the free student-founded and student-run OMM Clinic that began operation in 2013 at RowanSOM. Led the student planning group that assisted in ensuring the clinic met HIPAA requirements for its record-keeping purposes.
2016 – 2019 | Technology Committee |
2015 – 2019 | Resolutions Committee |
2015 – 2019 | Government Affairs Committee |
2017 – 2019 | Sepsis Champion Committee |
2016 – 2019 | GME PI Steering Committee |
2016 – 2019 | Housestaff Council |
2016 | Event & Activity Reporting System Focus Group |
While time permits during my fellowship training, I have taken on a few overnight shifts per month moonlighting at a local community hospital as the sole in-house physician for their 12 bed MICU. This role places me as the only physician responding to emergencies and critical patients outside of the emergency department. Other common duties include leading rapid response teams, cardiac arrests, and stroke alerts throughout this 200-bed acute care hospital. Additionally, as the critical care capabilities of the institution are limited, I am responsible for triaging patients for transfer to a tertiary care center for continuous renal replacement, ECMO, or other advanced therapies.
Directed MCAT classes, instructing in class sizes of up to fifteen individual students as well as one-on-one tutoring. Graduated Kaplan’s Teacher Development Program qualified to teach all subjects (requiring an MCAT score over the 90th percentile in each subject taught), and completed multiple veteran instructor training programs.
Worked as an independent maintenance worker responsible as a part of a team of three for the reactive and preventative servicing of a high-rise apartment complex on the Jersey City waterfront. Work environment was primarily Spanish-speaking.
Self-employed performing freelance design and coding of web pages for some small businesses in the renovation and contracting field.
Served as a physician extender in the rural, medically underserved Western highlands for one month. Examined patients, conducted clinical ultrasound exams, and worked closely with the staff physician in an almost exclusively Spanish-speaking environment. Organized and executed a service project to teach over 100 local schoolchildren in small groups about sexually transmitted infections and family planning.
Created and refined procedures and policies for patient intake and student doctor workflow as a founding executive member of the clinic in charge of electronic records. Additionally responsible for patient examinations and care as a regular member of the student treatment team within the clinic.
Assisted with maintaining patient data, and assisted nurses and nursing assistants with various tasks. Responsible also for transportation of stat blood work and moving beds on the ward, and ensuring patient comfort post-operatively.
Accepted into a year-long national leadership training program designed to give osteopathic physicians skills to analyze, formulate and implement health policy.
Honored with a grant from the AOF aimed to empower members of the osteopathic profession to provide voluntary medical support on humanitarian medical service trips.
Recognized for excellence in and out of the classroom by the Alumni Association. Selection factors included academic progress, financial need, and support of alumni and school activities.
Inducted into the honor society for politically active osteopathic medical students who demonstrate excellence and commitment to physician positive change in healthcare politics.
Awarded a funded position with an SOM faculty mentor on a research project to promote and facilitate education in scientific research activities at a professional level.
Awarded the Translating Osteopathic Understanding into Community Health Silver Award for completing over 50 hours of community service during the prior year.
Earned the highest distinction offered by the Boy Scouts of America for planning, leading, and completing a community service project and many other requirements.
- American College of Chest Physicians
- American College of Osteopathic Internists
- American College of Physicians
- American Osteopathic Association
- DOCARE International
- Drinker Society for Critical Care in Philadelphia
- New Jersey Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons
- Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association
- Society of Critical Care Medicine
- Computer/Programming skills:
- Knowledgeable in HTML, Javascript, PHP, and the Java programming language.
- Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite, many GNU/Linux distributions, SQL Database software, Adobe Photoshop software, and many forms of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Two time half-marathon Finisher since 2017
- Amateur Harmonist since 2012
- Boat Safety Certified by the state of New Jersey since 2012
- Professional Association of Diving Instructors certified Open Water Scuba Diver since 2019
- Moderate proficiency in conversational Spanish (from international clinical coursework & domestic work experience) and limited Japanese (three college level courses)