Mission Statement

The mission of the Piedmont Athens Regional Transitional Year residency program is to provide high-quality, evidence-based medical education to residents getting ready to pursue advanced subspecialty training.

Program Aims

Aim 1: Provide high-quality, evidence-based education in the fundamentals of clinical medicine for residents going into advanced subspecialty programs.

Aim 2: Role-modeling professional behavior that will help prepare them for their future as practicing physicians.

Aim 3: Create a supportive environment that will entice them to return to practice in their specialty field in Athens, GA.

Aim 4: Provide a well-balanced clinical year in multiple disciplines, including electives in PSQI, leadership and other non-clinical specialties.

About the Program Director

Dr. Pippim graduated from the University of Ghana Medical School in Ghana. He completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He completed two (2) fellowships in pulmonary and critical care medicine and occupational and environmental medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. He also obtained his master’s degree in public health from Yale. He has been practicing pulmonary and critical care medicine since 1999 and served as the medical director of Yale Saint Raphael campus MICU and chief of critical care medicine at Saint Vincent Medical Center in Bridgeport Connecticut. He has been involved in training of over 500 medical students, residents and fellows over the past 25 years. He has won 5 Teacher of the Year awards (CT) and 1 Educator of Year award (GA). He is the founding director of the Piedmont Athens Transitional Year Residency Program, a position he has held since 2014. In addition to being the TY program director, Dr. Pippim oversees Patient Safety and Quality Improvement rotation, Research elective rotation and the resident’s Pulmonary clinic. He is a professor of medicine at the Augusta University -University of Georgia Medical Partnership. He has led resident mission trips to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to expose his learners to healthcare outside the US and to teach them how to give back to those less fortunate than themselves. He is married with 3 adult kids and is an avid golfer who consistently walks at least 10,000 steps a day