Lee Health welcomes 21 new resident physicians

Lee Health welcomes 21 new resident physicians

This summer, new doctors will begin their residency training at Lee Health through one of two Florida State University College of Medicine residency programs.

Twelve of the physicians will work in internal medicine and nine will work in family medicine.

After graduating with an M.D. or D.O degree, physicians are required to complete residency training in their chosen specialty to practice medicine independently. These new resident physicians were selected after a rigorous vetting and interview process from 5,733 applications received from graduating medical students and physicians from around the world.

This marks the third class for the internal medicine residency program, which is based at Cape Coral Hospital and accepts 12 new doctors each year for three years of training. The family medicine residency program, based at Lee Memorial Hospital, accepts nine new doctors each year and is also a three-year program.

“We are pleased to welcome another diverse group of internal medicine residents from around the world to Lee Health and Cape Coral Hospital,” said Maja Delibasic, M.D., program director of the internal medicine residency. “They all graduated from different medical schools from 10 countries, and we can’t wait to see what unique perspectives they’ll bring to the Southwest Florida community as they continue their medical training.”

Alfred Gitu, M.D., family medicine residency director, likewise was “thrilled to welcome the next class of family medicine residents to Southwest Florida.”

“Our residency program continues to be a top choice among graduating medical students from around the world,” he said, “and we are excited that our residents choose to stay here in Southwest Florida to continue serving patients in our community.”

Lee Health launched the family medicine residency program in 2012 to address the shortage of primary care physicians in Southwest Florida. The internal residency program was launched in 2022. Eight residents graduated last year from Lee Health’s family medicine program and half of them remained in Southwest Florida to practice. The internal medicine residency program will graduate its first class in 2025.

The new residents were announced at the annual Match Day celebration on Friday, March 15. At noon Eastern time on the third Friday in March each year, graduating medical students across the United States are allowed to open their envelopes, learning where they “matched” for residency. ¦

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