Caitlin Whyte (Host): Welcome to the Health Headlines Podcast series. I'm Caitlin Whyte. And with me are two wonderful guests from Capital Health. Dr. Mark Kuhn is the OB-GYN Residency Program Director and Dr. Sanjana Das is a PGY-1 Class of 2029 resident in Capital Health's brand new OB-GYN Residency program.

Today, we'll be hearing more about Capital Health's OB-GYN Residency Program. So Dr. Kuhn, my first set of questions will be for you. Can you give us a quick overview of Capital Health's OB-GYN Residency Program?

Dr. Mark Kuhn: Sure. Capital Health is a hospital in Trenton, New Jersey. It's actually two hospitals, one in downtown Trenton, but we're talking about the residency that is in their flagship Hopewell Hospital. And Capital has decided to make the effort to start an OB-GYN residency, which if your listeners don't know, it's a four-year training program. It's after college, after medical school. These physicians come out and they start a four-year training program in OB-GYN so that, after four years, they will come out as an expert in the healthcare of women. Pretty much able to independently practice and provide specialty guidance regarding that.

So, it's not just the delivering baby's part that's a significant part of it. It involves learning GYN surgery; learning what we call high-risk obstetrics, which is maternal-fetal medicine. We have them get experience in cancer care for women, which is GYN-Oncology. There's infertility, which is called Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. There's what we call urogynecology, which is taking care of women and pelvic floor problems. And then, there's practicing in the office. So, it's a comprehensive training program so that these new physicians just coming out of medical school can spend four years and become proficient and fully trained to become women's healthcare providers.

Host: And what would you say makes Capital Health's OB-GYN residency so unique? And why should prospective residents apply for this program?

Dr. Mark Kuhn: Well, number one, it is a new program. We are a brand new program. We just started with our very first class of three residents. We don't really call them interns anymore. We call them PGY, or postgraduate year 1. That means they just finished medical school and now they're in their first year of training. So, we just started a brand new program. It is an opportunity as a resident to be part of building a brand new residency, which is nothing that any of us did. We all kind of trained in traditional programs. So, it's an opportunity for something exciting, an opportunity for growth. Again, it's a fully trained program so that after four years, you will come out fully trained as an obstetrician gynecologist. It's in an area. Trenton, New Jersey kind of straddles the inner city. It also has a huge suburban catchment area. We sit astride the Delaware River, kind of the barrier between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And it's just a really nice part of the country to live in. We're halfway between Philadelphia and New York. And in general, it's an exciting time to be in training. There's going to be an overwhelming need for women's healthcare specialists in the future. We've got artificial intelligence coming into play. So, we have a brand new program that is very exciting.

Host: Absolutely. So, what are some of the qualities that you looked for in applicants, and what can candidates do to stand out during that application and interview process?

Dr. Mark Kuhn: Well, obviously, these candidates are people interested in women's health, kind of that goes without saying. It's hard work. Residency's tough. Being a physician is tough. So, people need a good work ethic, and dedication. No training program is easy, but four years is a long time.

As again, I said, we are a brand new program, so a typical residency program, you'd walk in-- we talked about the PGY-1-- you'd walk in as a PGY-1, but there would be PGY-2s, PGY-3s, PGy-4s. There'd be a whole hierarchy of residents above you in the training program. We don't have that. We will get to that as our program matures. But we don't have that at the outset. So, coming into a program like that without necessarily the established hierarchy, I'm looking, we are looking for people that are a little bit more on the independent side, kind of self-starters, because they won't necessarily have all of the structure and rigor you'd have in an established residency.

But the upside to that is they're going to help build this residency. And the opportunities that they will be able to kind of take advantage of are things that really don't present themselves to other residents in kind of established programs. It's a very competitive specialty. It is tough nationwide. There aren't enough spots for the number of people who are applying. So, it is tough. I give every applicant credit. They are all so smart and they have studied so hard.

Other than what I talked about in terms of people looking to kind of be a little bit more on the independent side, self-starters, I would say to applicants, be honest, be genuine, be who you are, not what you think a program wants. I think that's the important thing, and that comes out when we interview people. Everybody's talented. The applicant pool is incredibly talented. It's how do we pick out the right people for the right program? And I would say, again, just be who you are because that's the type of doctor you're going to be.

Host: And what types of experiences will residents be exposed to during their training and where is training done?

Dr. Mark Kuhn: It's everything. It's all the basics. It's the specialties I talked about. Initially, the training of our residents will be at that Hopewell campus, which is outside Trenton. It's a gorgeous hospital. It only opened about 11 years ago. We have multiple offices on the Pennsylvania side and the New Jersey side of the river. They are also building in downtown Trenton, what we call the Maternal Innovation Center. This is going to be the flagship for women's healthcare in Trenton, which is an underserved area. So, our residents will be training at Hopewell. They will be training on the inpatient setting, in the hospital with, again, the surgery, the deliveries, the high risk patients, the infertility, the pelvic surgery, the robotic surgery, the laparoscopy. They'll also be training in the outpatient setting, which is where, you know, many people, that's how they encounter healthcare. They don't necessarily come to a hospital. They see a doctor in an office.

Host: Of course. And how does the program prepare residents for life after residency then?

Dr. Mark Kuhn: We talk about work-life balance. And it seems like it's a buzzword, but it's really important. Your job is your job. It is not your life. You need to have a life. It is hard work. But we're going to try to teach people, and kind of lead by example that you can work hard and you can have fun. There are other residents at Capital Health in other specialties like Internal Medicine and Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry. So, our residents will be exposed to other residents, but they're going to be exposed to the faculty. We've got old faculty, young faculty, faculty who come from an academic practice, faculty who come from a private practice. We've got generalists. We've got subspecialty people. The faculty have spouses, partners, kids, grandkids. We are all people just like the residents. You know, we're going to be examples to them of how you can work hard and have a work-life that is, I'll never say easy, but it's rewarding to an immense degree and basically have a, fun outside life as well. And we're all people and we're going to welcome the residents into our family.

Host: And as the program director, how do you hope to see the program grow and evolve, and what makes you excited about the future of it?

Dr. Mark Kuhn: Actually, there's nothing that doesn't make me excited about it. We are, again, a brand new program, so there's a whole bunch of requirements you have to have that are baked in before you even start a program. But then, you have the opportunity to train differently, to look at different ways of training, to look at different ways of teaching. Our program will eventually have 12 total residents. Again, it's a four-year program, and it's three per year. So when you have a brand new program, they say they really want it to grow organically, which means you only start out with three, and the next year you get another three, and we're actually starting to recruit for that right now. Then, the third year you get another three. And the final fourth year, you'll get three more. So, you'll have 12 total. So that from there on in, every year, you'll have three coming in and three going out, and 12 total residents.

As the volume of surgery and procedures and patients in the hospital gets bigger, which it continues to do, we have the possibility of adding more residents. It's an exciting time. I mean, medicine, it's a good gig. You will never be bored. It's never ending. There's stuff we do today that I would've considered science fiction or even non-existent 30 years ago. It's hard work, but I'm excited about building the program. I'm excited about passing along the fun part I've had over my career. You make lifelong relationships with patients. And the hope is we're going to pass on our experience, our knowledge, and maybe a little bit of wisdom. And ultimately, we are training our future partners and potentially our colleagues. These are people that we would love to have continue to stay at Capital Health and work as attending physicians. So , there's no part about it that's not exciting.

Host: Well, with all of that being said, Doctor, where can interested candidates learn more or get in touch with someone from the program?

Dr. Mark Kuhn: Well, one of the great things that our residents have done is kind of participate and coordinate. We have an Instagram page. It's just Capital Health OB-GYN Residency. You can go to Instagram. We will be having virtual open houses through the fall as interview season starts. You can also go to the Capital Health GME webpage. GME is graduate medical education, so you can do capitalhealth.org, capitalhealthgme.org, or if you just Google Capital Health OB-GYN Residency, it will take you to our page. There's contact info there and we can have someone reach out to you.

Host: Beautiful. And now, Dr. Das, I'd love to turn to you and get your perspective as a resident especially of this brand new program. So, what made you choose capital Health's OB-GYN residency program?

Dr. Sanjana Das: I'm from Georgia, but I cast a really wide net. I've lived in Georgia my whole life, and I was looking for something different in residency. I saw that there was a new program that opened on ResidencyCAS, which was exciting to me. I applied to a lot of new programs across the country, and Capital Health was one of them. I got an interview and I really, really enjoyed my interview process. I interviewed with Dr. Kuhn and Dr. Burke and a few others. And it was just such a lovely experience that I wanted to come back for a second look in January of this year, which is crazy that that was only this year, but it was January of this year. I came for a second look and I just loved the environment. It informed my rank decision. And on match day, I opened my letter and I was really excited to see Capital Health on that paper. And then, you know, two months later, I was a New Jersey resident and changing my license plate on my car. And now, I'm here.

Host: Well, what are some of the things that you're hoping to learn and experience during your time as a resident?

Dr. Sanjana Das: So already so far-- and, you know, it's, what, September now, and I started in July-- i've already experienced a wide range of things being on OB for the past eight weeks. And it makes me so excited for the next four years. This hospital has the ability to surgically treat such a wide range of complex OB and GYN pathologies and normal labor. We just really have the capacity and the staff to provide care for all of these patients, and I'm really excited to see what's to come in the next four years. I am confident in this hospital's ability to make me a very well-rounded OB and GYN in the future. So, I'm not sure what I'm going to see, like that's over the next four years, but I'm really excited and I've already seen so much already in my past eight weeks.

Host: And what are some of your personal career goals and how do you think Capital Health's OB-GYN residency is going to help you achieve them?

Dr. Sanjana Das: So, being only a few months into residency, I'm not really sure where I'll be in four years. Right now I'm looking to be a generalist. So, being a really well-rounded OB and a GYN is my goal over the next four years. But we've had conversations with Dr. Kuhn and Dr. Afzal, our Associate Program Director, about, you know, if we want to pursue a fellowship, we have the opportunity to do that and they will get us connected with the right people and we can start writing papers and be connected with the right people to achieve that goal if we want to.

We have amazing staff in each of the specialties. So, we have amazing urogynecologists, gynecologic-oncologists. We have a robust REI rotation, so we are going to be equally exposed to all of the fellowship opportunities. And we have a full MFM department in the building as well. So, that excites me as a PGY-1, because the world is my oyster in that way. I can really decide as I move through the four years. And we have a very robust block schedule over the next four years that ensures that we're exposed equally to all of these options.

Host: So, a brand new resident, a brand new resident of New Jersey even. In your eight weeks so far, would you recommend the program to your peers based on your experience so far?

Dr. Sanjana Das: Yes, of course. I have loved every day here. The best part of this program, and I know a lot of people say this, is the people. Everyone from the attendings that you work with, my lovely co-residents, Ashley and Latifah, to the nursing staff, to the environmental workers, to the cafeteria stuff, everyone is nice here and has made me feel so welcome. Especially after moving all the way from Georgia to New Jersey, I felt like I've found a new family even in eight weeks being here. So, that's the best part of this program.

OB is a notoriously difficult residency. And every day, on my drive into work, I'm happy to come in. And I know that not a lot of residents can say that because the hours are hard, the work is hard, but you want to enjoy what you do and who you work with. And I can say I do both. I like what I do. I love what I do, and I love who I work with. So, I would really recommend that because the days are long, but the years are short, so you want to enjoy those days. I think it's definitely worth it to come here and experience what it's like to be a resident at Capital Health.

Host: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for taking the time out of your long days to share more about this great program right here at Capital Health. Visit capitalhealth.org/obgynresidency to learn more about our program and how to apply. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it on your social channels and check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Caitlin Whyte. And this is the Health Headlines podcast series. Thanks for listening.