Aubrey Cawthon, MD
Academic Hospitalist Director
Chairman of Medicine
Dr. Cawthon is board-certified in Internal Medicine with special interests in teaching, physician leadership, and engagement in hospital and healthcare governance.
He graduated from Carson-Newman College (now Carson-Newman University) in 2008, earned his medical degree from Ross University in 2012, and completed residency at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia in 2015.
Stephen Jo, MD
Core Faculty
Windsor Pamphile, MD
Core Faculty
Dr. Windsor Pamphile is board-certified in internal medicine. He graduated from the Faculte de Medicine et de Pharmacie of the State University of Haiti and completed his Internal Medicine residency training at Memorial Health University Medical Center in 2011.
Internal Medicine
Abhijit Kanthala, MD
Core Faculty
Dr. Abhijit Kanthala is a board-certified internal and geriatric medicine physician at Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Georgia.
Dr. Kanthala attended medical school at Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College in Karnataka, India, completed his residency training in internal medicine at Unity Hospital-Rochester Regional Health in Rochester, New York, and his fellowship in geriatric medicine at VAMC Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami in Miami, Florida. In his spare time, Dr. Kanthala and his family enjoying hiking, biking, camping, cooking, and water sports.
Dr. Kanthala is trained in internal medicine and geriatrics. “I believe in comprehensive health of my patients. During every patient encounter, I focus on their medical problems as well as their social, psychological, and physical health in order to achieve whole-body wellness.”
Maheshkumar Desai, MD
Dr. Desai is board-certified in internal medicine with a special interest in teaching, patient compliance, and communication. He earned his medical degree at Medical College Baroda/The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. Dr. Desai did his internal medicine residency at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His motto is” Teaching is a powerful tool to learning. The more you teach, the better you learn -Richard Feynman”. His favorite pastimes include playing tennis, spending time with his son and wife, exploring new places, food and culture.
Payman Sabetghadam, MD
Dr. Sabetghadam is board-certified in internal medicine with special interests in palliative care. He graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology and earned his medical degree at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Sabetghadam completed his residency at Yale-New Haven Waterbury Hospital. His favorite pastimes include playing competitive online games, traveling, and attending live music venues.
Cardiology
Rajiv Verma, MD, FACC
Dr. Verma is board certified in Cardiovascular Diseases and Cardiac Electrophysiology. Dr. Verma graduated from one of the top medical schools in India, Maulana Azad Medical College. He completed his fellowship in Cardiology from Nassau University Medical Center, SUNY at Stony Brook. Dr. Verma did an advanced fellowship in Cardiac Electrophysiology from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He has a special interest in arrhythmias, ablation, pacemakers, and defibrillators. He loves teaching students, and residents. Dr. Verma’s wife Dr. Monica Verma is an Oncologist and Hematologist and is on staff at Hamilton Medical Center.
Gary Olson, MD
Dr. Gary Olson is a general cardiologist practicing with Hamilton Physician Group Cardiology. He has practiced in Dalton his entire career since he finished his training at UAB in 1983. He does cardiac caths, implants pacemakers, and reads echocardiograms and cardiac nuclear studies. He enjoys teaching students and residents, especially in small, informal groups. He looks forward to working with and getting to know our students and residents that come to Hamilton for their training.
Neurology
Jeffrey Glass
Dr. Glass is a board-certified neurologist. He went to medical school at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. He completed his neurology residency at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. He practiced neurology in Rome, Georgia from 1990 until coming to Hamilton in July of 2018. He has been involved in neurology education for many years and has been with the Medical College of Georgia as a clinical assistant professor since 2017. His practice is limited to the hospital and he has developed a particular interest in acute stroke care.
Ashish Kabir, MD
Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Dr. Kabir found his way to Georgia by way of Wisconsin where he completed his residency in Neurology and his fellowship focusing on Epilepsy. Dalton and Hamilton Medical Center have been his home since 2019 and he couldn’t have chosen a better group of people to work with. When not at work he can be found finding new theater productions to watch in Dalton, Chattanooga, or Atlanta or traveling the world. One of his favorite parts of being at Hamilton is the opportunity to work with residents, medical students, nursing, and other associated healthcare professionals who all contribute to the team approach taking care of the patient as a whole. We would love to welcome you to our family and will get you quickly involved in the myriad of academic and research opportunities open to you!
Juan Gonzalez, MD
Pulmonary – Critical Care
Vikas Jain, MD
Dr. Vikas Jain is a board-certified pulmonologist and critical care physician at Hamilton Physician Group – Specialty Care in Dalton, GA. He completed medical training at SUNY Upstate Medical University in New York. As part of Hamilton Physician Group-Specialty Care, he provides treatment for respiratory diseases, including asthma, bronchitis, COPD, occupational lung diseases, and lung cancer. Our multidisciplinary team at Hamilton Physician Group – Specialty Care uses advanced diagnostic techniques to treat complex conditions.
Angel Brown, MD
Dr. Brown completed her undergraduate education at William Patterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, obtaining her BSN.
Prior to medical school she worked as a critical care and pediatric nurse. She completed her medical school education in 2009 at the University of Mississippi, where she served as
the class president for four years and the university’s philanthropy chair. She then re-located to north Georgia where she trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga from 2009-2012. During her residency she was Chief Resident and active on the Sepsis Committee. Dr. Brown also initiated an addiction medicine education curriculum for residents. After residency Dr. Brown relocated to Birmingham, Alabama where she completed a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2015. During fellowship, she conducted research in lung transplantation, invasive fungal pulmonary infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pulmonary rehabilitation. In 2015, she was recruited to Emory University as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. Dr. Brown joined Hamilton Medical Center and the Hamilton Physician’s Group September 2020. Dr. Brown’s areas of interest include teaching, interstitial lung disease, lung transplantation, pulmonary rehabilitation and connective tissue related interstitial lung disease.
Her favorite pastimes include spending time with her husband and two golden doodles, as well as gardening, photography, and decorating.
Hematology-Oncology
J. Eric Turner, MD
Dr. Turner specializes in adult cancer and hematology disorders. After obtaining his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at North Carolina State University, he spent 5 years at Duke University Medical Center performing basic science and translational research within the Department of Molecular Cancer Biology. He attended medical school at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He subsequently completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Virginia Health Systems in Charlottesville, Virginia. After completing his residency, he returned to the University of North Carolina School of Medicine to complete his medical oncology fellowship training. Dr. Turner practiced medical oncology/hematology in Calhoun, Georgia for 15 years prior to accepting the position as Medical Director of Oncology at the Peeples Cancer Institute (Hamilton Health Care System) in Dalton, Georgia in February 2020. Over the past 15 years since completing his oncology fellowship, Dr. Turner has mentored students from many different backgrounds at various levels of training. Students have included nurse practitioners and physician assistants completing their clinical course hours, as well as, medical students and visiting residents from many different medical programs. He has also participated in a work-based learning high school program teaching and mentoring students interested in pursuing careers in medicine. Dr. Turner is extremely excited about the residency program at HMC and invites interested residents to rotate through the Peeples Cancer Institute for the continuation of their medical education and training.
Lisa Duhaime, MD
Dr. Duhaime is board certified in medical oncology and internal medicine. She graduated from The University of Toledo Medical College of Ohio. She then did her internal medicine residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit Michigan where she spent and extra year as a chief medical resident. Dr Duhaime attended H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa Florida for her oncology fellowship.
When Dr. Duhaime is not at work, she enjoys supporting her four children at their sporting activities and relaxing on their farm with her husband and children.
Qin Zhang, MD
Dr. Zhang is a board certified medical oncologist who specializes in adult cancer and hematology disorders and is based at Peeples Cancer Institute. She completed medical training at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama, and her medical oncology/hematology fellowship training at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Zhang practiced medical oncology and served as the medical director of an oncology center in Northwest Georgia before joining Hamilton.
Nephrology
Pradeep Chaganti, MD
Rafael Duchesne, MD
Infectious Disease
Lee Connor, MD
Dr. Connor is an infectious disease physician specializing in the treatment of viral and bacterial conditions such as HIV and AIDS, Staphylococcus aureus infections, hepatitis B and C, and tuberculosis.
Transition of Care
Farwa Hameed, MD
Dr. Hameed is board-certified in Internal Medicine. She completed medical school from Allama Iqbal Medical College, Pakistan followed by a residency in Internal medicine from the University of Toledo, Ohio. She joined Hamilton Medical Center as a hospitalist in 2016 and transitioned to the role of a post-acute care physician in 2019. She has a special interest in transition of care. Having worked in both the hospital and rehabilitation settings, she has come to acknowledge the huge challenges in transition of care and how they affect patient care. She hopes to impart this knowledge to future residents to help them recognize these challenges early in their training and work towards implementing methods to decrease adverse outcomes and rehospitalizations, improve communication and provide better patient care.
Cynthia Brown, MD
Dr. Brown is double board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics (Med-Peds) and received her medical training at Medical College of Georgia followed by Duke University Medical Center in Durham NC. She worked the first 16 years of her career as a Primary Care Physician seeing patients of all ages in both outpatient and inpatient settings and believes her training and practice have allowed her to have “the best of both worlds”. She is forever thankful for time spent with the multitude of families she cared for over the years and believes in always trying to treat the patient and their needs as if they were family. Her clinical interests include patient education, communication across the continuum of patient care, as well as patient safety (particularly with medication use); she says “that must be the old pharmacist in me”
Dr. Brown transitioned a few years back to hospital medicine and ultimately Long Term Care allowing more time with her family and their changing needs. She has a wonderfully supportive husband and four amazing children ages 7 to 16. Additional interests include time with family, reading, running, and painting furniture.
Gastroenterology
Brandee Albert, DO
Dr. Albert is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. She attended undergraduate and graduate school at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA, and earned her medical degree from the University of Pikeville, Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Albert completed her internship, residency and fellowship at Carolinas HealthCare System Blueridge in Morganton, NC. Her favorite pastimes include spending time with her family and pets, as well as fly fishing, hiking and backpacking.
Ganesh Aswath, MD
Dr. Aswath is ABIM board-certified in internal medicine as well as gastroenterology. He has a special interest in hepatology, Barrett’s esophagus as well as pancreaticobiliary disease. He is passionate about mentoring medical students and residents. He is also interested in improving and streamlining the use of electronic medical records among physicians.
He obtained his medical degree from St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore, India, and pursued his internal medicine residency as well as a gastroenterology fellowship at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY.
Dr. Aswath enjoys the outdoors, mainly hiking and kayaking. He also likes traveling and exploring new cultures, cuisines, and places.
Hospice/Palliative Care/Geriatrics
Syed Abid, MD, MPH
Dr. S. Ashad Abid is a Palliative care physician and his current role includes palliative care consult service, general inpatient hospice care along with an outpatient palliative care clinic for oncology and chronic illness management. He completed his internal medicine training at Harlem hospital affiliated with Columbia University in New York and dual fellowship training in Geriatric Medicine and Hospice and Palliative care from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He also holds a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Science and has an interest in health education and promotion. He has an interest in teaching and learning from trainees in nursing, physician assistant, medical students, and residents and mentorship for academic and scholarly work.
He enjoys tennis, hiking and is an amateur cook in his spare time.
Endocrinology
Chantal Lewis, MD
Dr. Lewis is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism with special interest in teaching and patient education.
She earned her medical degree at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. She later completed Internal Medicine Residency at Pennsylvania Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Endocrinology fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
She enjoys spending time with family and friends and hiking.
Radiology
Neil Patel, MD
He lives in Chattanooga with his wife, Jennifer and their 4 children. He enjoys teaching residents and students because he believes training the future doctors of this world is an important undertaking. He specifically enjoys showing how diagnostic imaging procedures and tests can help them provide precise and accurate treatment plans and options for their patients.
