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INFORMATION FOR

Current Residents

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  • PGY 6

    • Matthew Pichert, MD, MPH

      Hospital Resident

      Matt was born and raised in Saint Paul, MN, where he attended Saint Paul Academy and Summit School and enjoyed playing baseball and soccer. He obtained his undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in Germanic Languages/Literatures and Neuroscience. In Saint Louis, he discovered a passion for medicine through volunteering as an EMT and working in Brent Matthews' MIS lab under the direction of Corey R. Deeken.  Matt attended Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he took part in clinical outcomes research involving hearing/balance, liver transplantation, and thoracic surgical outcomes. After matching at Yale for thoracic surgery residency, Matt has continued to take part in clinical outcomes research in the Divisions of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery and completed a Master of Public Health degree at the Yale University School of Public Health during his dedicated research time. Matt enjoys hiking in the rolling hills of Connecticut, the nearby beaches and the great food scene in Connecticut.
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  • PGY 5

    • Aaron Lin, MD

      Hospital Resident

      Aaron grew up in NYC and on Long Island, NY. He went to Case Western Reserve University for his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering, then he returned to Long Island for medical school at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. There, he dedicated a year to doing clinical outcomes research in various areas of cardiac surgery, with focus in aortic diseases and TAVRs. His cardiac surgical interests include heart failure and mechanical circulatory support devices, as well as aspects of aortic surgery. During his free time, Aaron enjoys traveling, working out, and practicing his newly acquired skill of cooking.
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  • PGY 4

    • Clancy Mullan, MD, PhD

      Hospital Resident

      Raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Clancy attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his undergraduate degrees in Chemistry (Biochemistry, Honors and Distinction) and Traditional Mathematics. While there, he worked in the Department of Genetics under Dr. Mark Heise, studying non-coding complementary strand transcription products of alphaviruses and working on validating a methodology of producing sequence independent cDNA libraries from multiple RNA viruses. He then attended the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.  While a student, he studied the role of nicotinic signaling in mitochondrial membrane preservation during ischemic preconditioning with Dr. Kaie Ojamaa.  He was selected for Alpha Omega Alpha and received the 2018 graduation award from the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.  Since joining the Yale Integrated Thoracic Surgery program, he has produced numerous outcomes research publications using institutional, national, and international databases.  He continues his basic science training during his research hiatus as a graduate student in the Investigative Medicine Program. In the lab of Dr. Jordan Pober, he is studying endothelial alloreactivity, NF-κB regulation of endothelial cytokine expression, and novel nucleotide-based therapeutics during ex vivo organ perfusion to reduce alloreactivity.  He plans to pursue a career in surgical heart failure.
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  • Lab Residents

    • Alan Chou, MD

      Hospital Resident

      Hometown: Huntsville, ALUndergraduate: Dartmouth College Medical School: University of Pennsylvania Professional Interests: Thoracic surgery, cardiac surgery Personal Interests: Distance running, backpacking, skiing, cycling, cooking
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    • Irbaz Hameed, MD

      Hospital Resident

      Irbaz Hameed, MD, is an integrated cardiothoracic surgery resident at Yale and a Ph.D. candidate in Investigative Medicine - Neurocardiology at the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Sestan Lab). He received his early education in various West African countries and earned his medical degree from Southeast University, China. He subsequently completed a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Hameed has presented at several national and international conferences and authored over 130 peer-reviewed publications, including book chapters and high-impact articles in The Lancet, JAMA, European Heart Journal, Circulation, and JACC. He is the recipient of multiple awards and serves in various editorial roles, including associate editor, guest editor, editorial board member and reviewer for multiple clinical and basic/translational science journals in cardiovascular medicine. His translational research is focused on neurocardiology, with a particular emphasis on the heart-brain axis and organ recovery after warm ischemia, utilizing single-cell and spatial multi-omics profiling technologies in live porcine models. His clinical research is centered on cardiac surgical outcomes, as well as the methodologies of randomized controlled trials, observational studies, and meta-analyses. Dr. Hameed is currently the vice-president of the North American Thoracic Surgery Residents’ Association and holds positions in various workforces and councils within the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. He is also the past president of the Yale Residents’ and Fellows’ Senate.
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    • Dustin Lieu

      Hospital Resident

      Dustin completed his undergraduate education at the University of Southern California, followed by his medical education at the Keck School of Medicine. He is currently an Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgery Resident at Yale and plans to pursue a career in adult cardiac surgery.
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  • PGY 3

    • Theresa Ermer, MD, Dr Med

      Hospital Resident

      Theresa is an integrated cardiothoracic surgery resident and clinical outcomes researcher at Yale and plans to specialize in academic cardiothoracic surgery and lung failure. During medical school in Germany, she spent one year working with the Red Cross in Mexico and received a TRENAL Student Scholarship to complete predoctoral clinical research in Nephrology at University Hospital Erlangen and Yale School of Medicine as part of a 6-year medical research doctorate (Dr. med.), for which she received the Gerda-Weller Prize awarded for one outstanding doctoral thesis per year. She validated a methodology to measure oxalate in the plasma of dialysis patients, led an international clinical study, and helped identify a new risk factor for sudden cardiac death. Before residency, Theresa completed two additional years of research with the Section of Thoracic Surgery at Yale focused on outcomes and disparities in thoracic oncology, an effort she continues during her surgical training. In her free time, she enjoys climbing and running, as well as exploring snowy Northeast hills, shows in the City, and the myriad vegetarian food options in New Haven.
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    • Mina Zaky, MD

      Hospital Resident

      Professional Interests: Adult cardiac surgery, thoracic aortic disease, heart failure and transplant Personal Interests: Traveling, cycling and medical illustration
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  • PGY 2

    • Cameron Best

      Hospital Resident

      Dr. Best hails from rural Maine and graduated from Yale University as a member of the Lightweight Crew (Y150) with a BA in Linguistics. During this time, he volunteered in the laboratory of Drs. Christopher Breuer and Toshiharu Shinoka (Vascular Biology and Therapeutics Program) where he dedicated his efforts to the development of a tissue-engineered vascular graft. He followed the laboratory to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH to support an FDA-approved clinical trial evaluating the graft as a Fontan conduit in patients with congenital heart disease. He earned a PhD in Biomedical Science from the Ohio State University and co-founded Lyst Therapeutics, LLC which developed novel immunomodulatory therapies to facilitate tissue engineering in the pediatric population. He then graduated from the Ohio State University College of Medicine. He is honored to return to Yale as a member of the Integrated Cardiothoracic Residency Program and aims toward a career as a surgeon-scientist, continuing the translation of tissue-engineered solutions to the field of congenital heart surgery.
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  • PGY 1

    • Andrea Amabile, MD

      Hospital Resident

      Dr. Andrea Amabile is a first–year integrated cardio–thoracic surgery resident at the Yale School of Medicine. After graduating as valedictorian from medical school and obtaining a Master’s in Biostatistics in Italy, he joined the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Yale University where he led the Clinical Outcomes Research Group as postdoctoral associate (2021–2022) and research faculty (2022–2023). He has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, with a particular interest in minimally invasive and robotic cardiac surgery. His work has been presented at national and international conferences, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS), the Western Thoracic Surgical Association (WTSA), the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society (ECTSS), the Heart Valve Society (HVS), the American College of Cardiology (ACC), and American Heart Association (AHA). He was the first trainee invited to sit on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS). He also served as President of the Junior Researchers Committee of the Association of Italian Surgeons in North America (AISNA), and as Secretary of the Yale Italian Society. Outside of work, he is a classically trained pianist.
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