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Schneider Hospital Adds New Physicians

Sept. 7, 2004 – Three new permanent physicians have joined the medical staff of the Roy L. Schneider Hospital this month, including a husband and a wife team who specialize in caring for diverse populations in inpatient and outpatient care.
The new physicians are Dr. Brikti Ytbarek, who specializes in internal medicine; Dr. Kidane Assefa, an ophthalmologist who specializes in different diseases of the eye; and Dr. Selwyn Mahon, originally from Trinidad, who will work in the hospital emergency room.
"These new physicians will definitely help the hospital in its ability to care for our diverse population in the U.S. Virgin Islands and in the Caribbean," said Rodney E. Miller, chief executive officer and president of the Roy L. Schneider Hospital. "This will also help decrease our reliance in traveling physicians, especially in our emergency room, and decrease the amount of patients who go off-island for their health care," he said.
Dr. Thelma Watson, hospital medical director, said all three new physicians are well trained, and are all board-certified or board-eligible, and will complement the existing staff of nearly 60 full-time physicians.
"Dr. Assefa, an ophthalmologist, brings expert care to our community as a retinal specialist. Along with our present ophthalmologists, he will be able to perform various eye surgeries here, including those for age-related degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma-related disorders," Watson said. She also noted that he has extensive training in laser eye surgery and eye treatments for diabetics.
Assefa obtained his medical degree from the Brooklyn College of Medicine in New York before serving his internship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. In 2002 he completed his residency at St. Vincent Hospital in New York, where he was chief resident in 2001-2002, and followed with his two-year fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery in Memphis Tenn., before moving to St. Thomas.
Assefa said he and his wife were both very excited about becoming part of the St. Thomas community and helping grow the health care system here. "In conjunction with the other ophthalmologists on island, I think our hospital now has the capability of handling all major eye diseases and disorders that arise in the territory, so residents don't have to go off-island to get treatment," he said.
Assefa's wife, Dr. Ytbarek, will be practicing internal medicine at the hospital – diagnosing, treating and preventing diseases in adults. After graduating from the University of California in Irvine, she obtained her medical degree from UCLA School of Medicine in 1998. She completed her three-year residency at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York before serving as a fellow at that hospital. She worked as an internist at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles, Calif., for three years before moving to St. Thomas. Ytbarek's special interest is in preventive medicine.
Mahon comes to the Virgin Islands from Southern Maryland Hospital Center, where he has worked since November 1999. Born in Trinidad, Mahon performed his internship and residency training at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He is board-certified in Emergency Medicine.
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