Burke Health hosts Yale student


Melissa Tama

Melissa Tama

As a student in the highly competitive Physician Assistant program at Yale University, Melissa Tama could easily do clinical rotations wherever she wished, but she chose Burke Health.

“I was willing to travel in order to have a really good experience,” she said.

Tama will finish the Physician Assistant program in May 2024 and has completed rotations in pediatrics and surgery, but for cardiology she chose to shadow interventional cardiologist

Dr. Kendall Griffith at Burke Health.

“It’s been nice to be in a smaller town and see how you can really impact the community,” Tama said. “Access is so important.”

Tama believes one of the most rewarding parts of working with Griffith has been seeing firsthand how grateful the patients are to now have cardiology services locally. Coming from large academic facilities, she is also impressed with the technology offered.

“Dr. Griffith has his finger on the pulse of all the latest and greatest technologies and treatments,” Tama said. “People don’t have to travel to big cities to get great care.”

She has also found a home away from home with the staff at Burke Health.

“All of the staff that work at Burke are amazing,” she said. “Compared to big medical centers, they are efficient and on top of everything; they know what they are doing and everything runs smoothly.”

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