Annual Publication 2025 FINAL 05292025 accessible - Flipbook - Page 50
GUIDING THE
NEXT GENERATION
OF PHYSICIANS
BY LAURIE GARCIA
L
as Vegas has always been known for its dazzling
lights, beautiful casinos, and bountiful entertainment
options, but these were not what ultimately led
Edwin Avallone, DO – associate professor and
internal medicine residency associate program
director in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at
UNLV Department of Internal Medicine – to move to the city in
2020. With a wife who is a rock climbing guide and coach, the
amount of rock climbing locations within a city’s vicinity was
important, but, as a physician, Dr. Avallone was also looking for a
place with a need for medical educators.
With these in mind, the couple set their eyes on Las Vegas as
a new home, where Dr. Avallone began working as a hospitalist
in the Veterans Affairs (VA) Southern Nevada Healthcare System
in North Las Vegas. Gradually, he was exposed to working with
both the Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA) Healthcare
graduate medical education (GME) programs and the Kirk
Kerkorian School of Medicine’s GME programs.
“[I] just got more and more interested in residency program
leadership, which I wasn’t doing the 昀椀rst two years out here after
already having served in the residency program at University of
Kentucky as core faculty, so I was really looking to get back into
residency program leadership and formal medical education,”
says Dr. Avallone.
Due to this interest in medical education, Dr. Avallone went on to
become the residency associate program director for the school of
medicine’s department of internal medicine. In this role, he works
closely with the school’s residents, overseeing their education
50 KIRK KERKORIAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT UNLV
while rotating at the North Las Vegas VA Medical Center. “When
you’re operating in the APD [associate program director] role, you
just simply know the residents so much better to help mentor
them, and you’re also intimately familiar with the clinical and nonclinical strengths and weaknesses of the program,” he says. “I
love the ability to be able to understand those things and make
changes as we’re constantly evolving as a program.”
As a teacher, Dr. Avallone has a few goals for the residents
he’s supervising, such as having a better understanding of the
diagnostic process and building meaningful patient-physician
relationships with all of their patients. “I operate clinically at
the VA, in which we serve elderly patients who can be labeled
as complex,” he says. “I enjoy seeing them build relationships
with challenging patients and generate patient literacy, so that
patients understand more about their illnesses so that they can
be empowered to do the things we would love them to be able to
do.”
Along with making sure residents learn the necessary medical
skills and knowledge for them to become amazing physicians, Dr.
Avallone also emphasizes the importance of knowing who you
are outside of being a doctor. Residents are encouraged to not
only create goals related to medicine, but to also set personal
goals.
“I’d love to see my team develop their interests and goals inside
of medicine, but also outside of medicine,” he states. “I do
believe that your life outside of medicine does make you a better
physician.”
