USMLESarthi Panel to help you Match in USMLE Residency

About Us
Our Team
Our team consists of top physicians (former IMGs and AMGs), former program coordinators, journalists and MBAs . They are intimately familiar with the US Residency Match process and the determinants of a successful Match. Here are some of our panel members
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Dr. Sailaja Pisipati, MD, FRCS (Urol) Dr. Sailaja Pisipati, MD, FRCS (Urol) is an enthusiastic trainee and a trainer. After graduating from NTRUHS, Andhra Pradesh, India, she completed Urology residency in the United Kingdom, and is board certified from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, UK. With an intense commitment and passion for the profession and by leveraging her unique skills acquired from her prior research and clinical experience, she is completing Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Nevada, Reno, and will soon be embarking on Fellowship journey in Gastroenterology at Mayo Clinic, Arizona. With her diverse experience in both surgical and medical specialties in the UK and the US, Dr. Pisipati is an added asset to our team and is very enthusiastic about helping students cope with challenging situations through the match process and guiding future match aspirants, especially those considering switching specialties or pursuing surgical specialties and students with prior home country residency.
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Dr. Sandhya Kharbanda, MD, is Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Kharbanda graduated from Government Medical College, Jabalpur. She completed her Pediatrics Residency at State University of New York, and Fellowships at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and University of Minnesota.
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Dr. ​Ravali Veeramachaneni, MD is a vibrant young physician who graduated from NTRUHS, Andhra Pradesh, India. She started her journey in 2014 and developed a stellar CV. She laid out the specific stepping stones needed to match into residency. Her hard work and determination led to achieving her goals. She is now an intern in the department of Internal Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University, North Chicago. Dr. Ravali is immensely excited to help aspiring applicants and pass down the knowledge from the experience she has gained along her journey.
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Dr. Lulua Bahrainwala M.D is an international graduate from MVP Samaj Dr Vasantrao Pawar Medical College, Nashik, India and a M.S in Global Health from University of California, San Francisco. After graduating in 2012, she worked hard gaining valuable clinical, research, entrepreneurial and volunteering experiences in USA and Canada. Passionate about serving the urban underserved population and cross-cultural medicine, she matched into Citrus Valley Health Partners Family Medicine residency program in West Covina, California. Coaching the next generation of applicants to pass the torch along is the next challenge on her plate
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Dr. Hany Eskarous, MD, graduated from El Minya University, Egypt. He is one of our highly dedicated mentors. He has over a year tutoring experience and authored Step 2 notes of 1000 pages covering high Yield topics. He likes to guide students starting their USMLE journey until the match. He passed all steps with very high scores and is doing his residency in PA.
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Dr. Ashley Sobel Leonard, MD, PhD is a recent graduate of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Duke University School of Medicine. She is passionate about coaching medical students and young physician scientists to achieve their goals. Ashley is also very excited to pass on her knowledge and advice for residency application and interviews. She  matched at Pediatrics Residency Program at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
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​Dr. Stacey Thomas M.D, MBA, is a Caribbean medical graduate from Atlantic University School of Medicine and has an MBA from Walden University. After graduation she gained research experience at Mayo Clinic. She is a Family Medicine resident in Pennsylvania. She is excited to help and guide future residency applicants.
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Dr. Raina Garg, MD, will be starting a Fellowship in the University of Toronto in the Department of Preventive Cardiology and Ambulatory Care. She completed an Internal Medicine Residency in Mount Sinai St. Luke’s West, New York in 2019 and is a Medical Graduate from Manipal University, India.  She is interested in Preventive Cardiology, Population Cardiovascular Genomics Research and Global Cardiovascular Health.  Since the beginning of her career journey, she has chosen a unique career path and have learned through her own successes and failures.  She enjoys sharing the tips and tricks that she picked up along the way.  Over the years, she has formed strong ties and collaborations and has successfully mentored other students and trainees.  Dr. Garg has a passion for working with mentees to find their strengths and weaknesses so that they can put their best foot forward during the Residency Match. 
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Dr. Luba Kats is a psychiatry resident at Medical Colleges of Wisconsin and a graduate of West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.  She worked with young children with developmental disabilities while earning her Masters in Physiology from Case Western Reserve University and is passionate about providing care to vulnerable patient populations in undeserved communities.
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Dr Chintav Shah, MD is a graduate from MVP DR Vasantrao Pawar Medical College Hospital and Research Center , Nashik.  He worked as a scribe for 2 years and gained  valuable clinical experience and knowledge of EMR which made his application stronger and he recently matched into University of Arkansas for medical science (UAMS),  Internal Medicine Program .He believes in the fact that if you want anything you can achieve it no matter what . He always wanted to help the IMG and very early on he made decision that if he matched he would contribute in any way to help IMG achieve their dream.
Pawan Khera, MS, MBA
Pawan Khera, MS, MBA is the Chief Mentor for all Sarthi students and has guided and coached over a thousand IMGs and Caribbean applicants match in residency programs as part of their USMLE journey. He is an Adjunct Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and teaches MBA and Masters courses. Pawan He is a former Program Director and Admissions Committee Member, always passionate about helping students. He did his MS and MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. ​
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Dr. Chad B. Cogan, M.D. is a goal-driven and passionate recent graduate from Chicago Medical School completing his Transitional Year in Internal Medicine at Weiss Memorial Hospital. Subsequently he will embark upon his Anesthesiology training at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Currently training along side roughly 100 foreign-born US physicians has provided Dr. Cogan with novel insight into the unique challenges facing IMGs wishing to train in The Unites States, and his recent experience as both an Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology residency applicant provides him with a holistic understanding of the residency match.
Max Dibble, Chief Editor
Max Dibble  is a Journalist at the West Hawaii Today on the Big Island of Hawaii. He has been a professional reporter and editor covering news and sports for the last five years. Max has a B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa and a B.S. in Journalism from Iowa State University. He has been honored nationally, regionally and at a state level by several professional organizations including the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the Iowa Newspaper Association in the areas of feature writing, column writing and breaking news. 
Makayla Tendall, Journalist
Makayla Tendall is a journalist with Cedar Rapids Gazette. She has previously worked as a reporter and editor at her student newspaper at Iowa State University. She started post-graduate life as a reporter for Iowa's second-largest newspaper, where for two years she has reported on the news of the day and issues regarding social services in the state.
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Tiffany DeMasters is a journalist living on the Big Island in the state of Hawaii. Graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism fro Southern Utah University, she has been working in journalism for nearly 15 years. She has been a reporter for two daily newspapers in Utah covering community, schools and crime. She also worked as a community reporter in Iowa at the Des Moines Register. For the past two years, she has been the cops and courts reporter at West Hawaii Today. She also has experience in broadcast journalism as an assignment desk editor and web producer from KSTU-Fox 13 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has been recognized for her work by the Society of Professional Journalists as well as the Associated Press.
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Our team has collaboration with immigration attorney, Douglas Carman. He has been practicing immigration and nationality law with a focus on physicians and scientists since 2004. He worked in a leading law firm in New York, and he opened his own practice in Philadelphia in 2011. He has a great deal of experience handling cases particular to international medical graduates, such as waivers of the foreign residence requirement, national interest waivers, and extraordinary ability immigrant petitions. Our students can get legal advice from Douglas and team at special discounted rates. More information about his office and his contact information are available here
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Dr. Steve Shah, M.D. is a graduate from Medical University of Lublin, Poland. He is born and raised in Bombay, India and embarked upon his medical journey shortly after migrating to USA. Dr. Shah, has done extensive experience in research, teaching, mentoring students throughout his academic journey and finds this as his ultimate passion. He has published in research journals, presented at national conferences and has been awarded with Teacher of the Month for empowering his students. He previous completed GP residency in United Kingdom and is currently a Family Medicine resident in Michigan. His academic interests include aesthetic medicine, emergency medicine, ultrasound medicine and sports medicine. His personal interests include calligraphy, fountain pens and nature exploration. He is a highly energetic individual and is excited to help with your journey towards reaching success!
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Dr. Achint Patel, MD, MPH is an aspiring Clinical Researcher who has completed his medical school from NHL Municipal Medical College in Gujarat, India and Preliminary Medicine residency at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He has also completed Masters Public Health (MPH) specializing in Biostatistics from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has also worked as associate researcher at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has been part of more than 50 research articles in indexed in PubMed and around 100 abstracts as oral or poster presentations at national level conferences.
He is excited and hopes to help upcoming applicants and current residents in learning the fundamentals of research methodology and publish research articles via launching course on hands on clinical research. His hobbies include adventure, yoga and travelling. More information about his research profile and publications is available on Google Scholar and at Research Gate.
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​Kirsten Johnson is an award-winning journalist with more than a decade of professional writing experience. After completing a journalism degree with honors from the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash., she worked as a newspaper reporter at both the Idaho Falls Post Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho and the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in Hilo, Hawaii. She also has internship experience at several major media outlets including: KING-TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate; Breaking News, a mobile application inside NBC news; the Seattle Times and the Puget Sound Business Journal. She currently freelances for several Seattle area media publications.
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​ Dr. Raja Chandra Chakinala, MD is a foreign medical graduate from NTRUHS, India.  He has always been very active  in guiding his fellow applicants on various USMLE platforms since the beginning of his journey. His elaborate 70 page PDF titled "A path to USMLE" detailing every little aspect from preparing for steps to matching into residency, is used as a handbook by residency aspirants. He is currently a PGY2 resident in New York. He is very excited in making a difference in match aspirants' applications by being a part of our group.

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Dr. Shikha Kothari is an aspiring pediatrician who graduated from Pramukhswami Medical College in Gujarat, India. As an international medical graduate born and brought up in the United States, she has exceptional interpersonal/communication skills and a diverse blend of cultural, academic and clinical experiences which enable her to work well with individuals from varied backgrounds. Shikha is active on various residency-related social media platforms and always eager to share her unique clinical experiences and cultural perspective with international medical graduates. She hopes to help upcoming applicants and current residents in transitioning to American culture and hospital etiquette, and is excited to launch a course in this regard. Her hobbies include singing, dancing and learning new languages.

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