Loma Linda University Health Resident Will Serve on National Board

Loma Linda University Health resident Abhishek Dharan has been selected to serve for two years on the board of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the national governing body for all physician residencies and fellowships in the United States.

Dharan, a preventive medicine resident, previously served on the Board of the Texas Medical Association as the student representative. He said he plans to help create systematic change that outlasts his time on the ACGME board, which is based in Chicago.

“This is a unique and awesome opportunity, both to contribute a resident’s voice on behalf of residents across the country and to learn from outstanding physician leaders,” Dharan said. “My goal is to contribute to the creation of systems that help residents thrive in the changing landscape of medicine.”

A native of Chandler, Arizona, Dharan previously worked as a systems engineer at Texas Instruments and later as a consultant helping startup companies grow. He graduated from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech in El Paso in 2023.

Dharan is also working on a master’s degree in public health, as required of all preventive medicine physicians. He plans to finish the degree he started as a medical student, from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, at the end of his residency.

“His engineering and consulting background give him a unique perspective to help make health care better and improve systems,” said Karen Studer, chair of LLUH’s Department of Preventive Medicine and program director of the preventive medicine residency program.

Dharan said Loma Linda University was his first choice for residency, and he was thrilled to learn he had been selected.

“The mission-based approach here aligns with my efforts in my professional life. ‘Making man whole’ really spoke to me,” he said. “It’s an amazing training institution, and it has so many resources to serve a large area.”

Dharan’s choice of attending medical school at Texas Tech enabled him to volunteer in many community clinics, an option he says was important to him. The school teaches medical Spanish throughout its four years, training he uses to help care for patients in underserved communities in the United States or on global health opportunities.

During his time on the board of the Texas Medical Association, Dharan advocated for the creation of mentoring programs, lobbied for more resources for mental health support of community members following trauma, and helped create the organization’s strategic plan to support the nearly 60,000 physicians and medical student members in the state.

He also mentors on his own, taking time to volunteer to teach youth in martial arts. He is a master instructor in Taekwondo and holds a fourth-degree black belt.

In the future, he hopes to maximize what he will learn on the ACGME board and one day help create and oversee training programs.

The original version of this story was posted on the Loma Linda University Health news site.