Welcome new faculty to the Department of Medicine!
Anum Akhlaq, MBBS
Hometown: Lahore, Pakistan
Residency: Orange Park Medical Center
Division: Hospital Medicine
Tell us about you. I grew up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and attended medical school in Lahore, Pakistan. I love to travel and spend time with my family.
What are you looking forward to working at UMMC? I’m looking forward to working with and learning from experienced colleagues and helping my patients to the best of my abilities. I’m also excited about exploring academic and research opportunities at UMMC.
Yoshitsugu Obi, MD, PhD
Hometown: Osaka, Japan
Residency: Osaka General Medical Center, Japan
Fellowship: University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Division: Nephrology
Tell us about yourself. I grew up in Japan where I completed medical school and obtained my PhD. I had a well-established career as a board-certified nephrologist there, but my academic interests led me to the University of California – Irvine where I was fortunate enough to participate in NIH-funded epidemiological studies (please check out https://scholar.google.co.jp/citations?user=fpCWuvoAAAAJ&hl). This experience eventually made me determined to become a physician-scientist. I completed a Nephrology fellowship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and am very excited to join the UMMC. In my free time, I enjoy cycling and spending time with friends and family.
What are you most looking forward to working at UMMC? I will definitely contribute to our community through my patient care and the education of residents. In addition, I look forward to starting new research projects and collaborating with other colleagues here at the UMMC.
Maria Clarissa Tio, MD, MPH
Hometown: Manila, Philippines
Residency: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX
Fellowship: Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital Combined Nephrology Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Division: Nephrology
Tell us about yourself. I grew up in Manila, Philippines, and later on moved to Singapore to study medicine at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. As part of my medical training, I rotated at Duke University Medical Center and did metabolomics research for two years. Afterwards, I trained in Internal Medicine at the UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, TX. During my fellowship in Boston, I was awarded with the American Kidney Fund Clinical Scientist in Nephrology grant which supported my research training and allowed me to matriculate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where I obtained a Master’s in Public Health. My research interests include crystalline nephropathies, especially in the role of oxalate as a modifiable risk factor in CKD, and the interplay of HFpEF, obesity, and CKD. My personal advocacy is to help and advise non-American physicians like myself who have to navigate the very stressful and complex immigration system to pursue a career in academic medicine. Outside of work, I enjoy pilates, Muay Thai, cooking, and exploring the food scene with my husband.
What are you most looking forward to working at UMMC? I am very much looking forward to the mentorship, research opportunities, and collaborations that I hope to forge here in UMMC. I hope to be able to produce clinically relevant research that can translate to improving the care of our kidney patients. I hope to grow here professionally as both a clinician-educator and a clinician-scientist.
Progress Notes 