Craig Cheifetz, MD '95

Teacher at heart

Craig Cheifetz, MD ’95, has two professional loves – practicing medicine and teaching the practice of medicine.  Both roles were long-standing goals for the New City, NY native, who comes from a family of physicians. “I was always driven by the challenge and the intrigue of the science, and really understanding and becoming a scientist of the human body,” he says. 

As a medical student, Cheifetz would observe his instructors and gauge the effectiveness of their teaching.  One UB instructor in particular, the late Richard Sarkin, MD, EdM ’98, made a tremendous impression when Sarkin was able to call all the second-year medical students by name on the first day of class.  Perhaps a seemingly small feat, but not when you consider that Sarkin had never met the students – what he had done was to take the time to look up the class picture roster and memorize all 150 students.  “That just impressed me with the amount of effort that he put into wanting to teach.  I knew there was something special about what he had done,” Cheifetz says.  (In fact, Sarkin’s teaching acumen was so renowned that the UB Alumni Association instituted in 2005 the Richard T. Sarkin Award for Excellence in Teaching, which goes to a UB alumnus who has earned distinction as an educator at accredited institutions of higher learning.  The 2006 recipient is Joseph Natiella, DDS, PMCRT ’69.) 

Cheifetz himself has earned accolades for his teaching acumen, winning two Golden Apple awards and most recently being named “Young Internist of the Year 2005” by the Virginia Chapter of American College Physicians.

Learning to Teach

Cheifetz, who earned a BA in psychology from American University, says that UB’s School of Medicine provided him with a strong foundation for his career.  “It gave me excellent exposure to every aspect of medical care.  Not only were the first two years characterized by outstanding professors who had expertise in every area, but the third and fourth year training at the various hospitals in Western New York gave me great exposure to every kind of patient, including inner-city, rural and trauma patients.” Cheifetz also began teaching while still a medical student, volunteering with STAS (students teaching about AIDS to students) to teach high school students about AIDS awareness, and serving as a teaching assistant for the first year course on gross anatomy.  A member of the medical school honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha, Cheifetz received the Philip P. Sang award at UB for excellence in communication with patients, faculty and staff.

Cheifetz chose to specialize in internal medicine after working under Sanjay Ogra, MD ’93, an internal medicine resident at Buffalo General Hospital.  Of Ogra, Cheifetz says, “I was impressed with his wealth of knowledge and his complete attention to the entire patient.  He also took a unique interest in teaching the students.”  After earning his MD Cheifetz went on to complete his internship and residency at the Georgetown University Medical Center, where he then stayed on for a year as chief resident of internal medicine.

Training for teaching

The enthusiasm and unique teaching style of Georgetown’s Stephen Ray Mitchell, MD, reminded Cheifetz of Richard Sarkin.   Cheifetz learned that both men had been through teacher training, and that Mitchell had participated in a month-long faculty development program at the Stanford University School of Medicine.  Cheifetz promised himself that he would someday enroll in that highly competitive program, and, five years later, in 2000, he was invited to participate.  Cheifetz says that the 160-hour training teaches doctors “how to deliver a course and understand and analyze it so that you can return to your institution and work with physicians there to teach them how to improve their own teaching skills.”  Since receiving the training, Cheifetz has gone on to instruct more than 100 other physicians in how to enhance their classroom methods, an endeavor that he finds extremely rewarding.

Many Roles

In addition to instructing fellow physicians and teaching medical students, Cheifetz has numerous other professional roles.  He practices internal medicine as a hosptialist and is the co-section chief for general internal medicine for the Department of Medicine at Inova Fairfax Hospital.  He also serves as the assistant dean of medical education for the Inova Fairfax Hospital Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).  In fact, Cheifetz was the project director for building the regional medical school campus at VCU, which is the first branch campus in Northern Virginia and only the 27^th in the country.

Cheifetz, who is married and has three young sons, says that family is also extremely important to him.  He coaches his sons’ baseball teams and in his free time enjoys Tae Kwon Do and sprint triathlons.  Although he loves practicing medicine, Cheifetz says that if he were forced to choose between practicing medicine and teaching, he would choose teaching.  Why?  Cheifetz explains, “Because when I treat one patient I only affect one patient.  When I teach, I usually teach many, and I have the opportunity to affect many doctors who go out to treat thousands of patients.  I think that imparting my knowledge and skills as an efficient educator has much more of a positive effect.”

Written by Jessica Dudek
March 2006

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