Reeni Abraham, M.D.
Associate Vice Chair for Undergraduate Medical Education
Associate Professor

Reeni Abraham, M.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of its Division of General Internal Medicine.

Dr. Abraham has trained and practiced in a myriad of locales including the Texas/Mexico border, the Bronx, and in socialized New Zealand. Practicing and learning medicine in such disparate environments served to underscore the importance of seeking to empathically understand each patient’s narrative and their social context as equally as elucidating their underlying diagnosis. Even so, her most powerful medical lessons have come not as a caregiver, but at the bedside.

Prioritizing quality healthcare is multi-faceted and requires our education system to rethink how we teach healthcare delivery and how we role model professionalism. Many of her medical education endeavors have focused on teaching and role modeling patient-centered care and communication for her trainees. To that end she has worked as a perioperative specialist coordinating the care of patients with many co-morbidities across healthcare systems to ensure a safe outcome, and most recently she has focused her clinical effort as an academic hospitalist at both Clements University Hospital and Parkland Hospital and a palliative care physician at Parkland Hospital.

She currently serves as the UT Southwestern Internal Medicine Associate Vice Chair for Undergraduate Medical Education and a Colleges Mentor, where her passions are creating a safe learning environment in which our learners continually strive to grow in the application of evidence-based medicine, aspire to view medicine from their patients’ perspectives with empathy and embed reflection into their daily practice. 

Medical School

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (2003)

Residency

Albert Einstein College of Medicine (2006), Internal Medicine

• Medical Education
• Mitigating the Negative Effects of the Hidden Curriculum

Featured Publications

The Impact of Internal Medicine Clerkship Characteristics and NBME Subject Exams on USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge Exam Performance.

Fitz M, Adams W, Heincelman M, Haist S, Whelan K, Cox L, Cao UT, Hingle S, Raff A, Houghton B, Fitzpatrick J, Nall R, Foster J, Appelbaum J, Grum C, Donovan A, Kiken S, Abraham R, Hlafka M, Miller C, Bansal S, Paauw D, Lai CJ, Pincavage A, Agarwal G, Burns C, Holzer H, Lappé K, John V, Barker B, Mingioni N, Rao D, Zakowski L, Chakraborti C, Williams W, Kelly W, J Gen Intern Med 2022 Jun

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and the Physical Examination.

Abraham RA, Brinker SK, Med Clin North Am 2022 May 106 3 423-435

AAIM Recommendations for the 2020-2021 Internal Medicine Residency Application Cycle in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Chretien KC, Raj JM, Abraham RA, Aronowitz P, Astiz DJ, Chheda SG, Esquivel EL, Garcia MM, Ismail N, Lane S, McLaughlin SE, Pereira A, Shaheen AW, Spencer AL, Tartaglia KM, Willett LL, Am. J. Med. 2020 Jul

Disseminated Coccidioidomycosis in an Immunocompetent Person Living in New York City

Chuang, A., Thomas, R., and Hoffman, R. Journal of Urban Health May 2005 82 339-345

• Distinguished Teaching Professor
  UT Southwestern (2019)
• The University of Texas Kenneth I. Shine, M.D. Academy of Health Science Education
  UT Southwestern Medical Center (2019)
• Gold Humanism Honor Society Inductee
  UT Southwestern Chapter (2018)
• Gold Humanism Scholar Award
  The Gold Foundation supports health profession educators who are developing and enhancing projects focused on achieving humanistic patient care that can be replicated across a variety of hospital or other healthcare settings. (2018-2019)
• Alpha Omega Alpha
  UT Southwestern Chapter (2017)
• Outstanding General Medicine Wards Teaching Award
  Internal Medicine Clerkship (2017)
• UTSW Core Clerkship Teaching Award
  UT Southwestern, Subinternship Class of 2011 (2011)
• Davidoff Teaching Award
  Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center (2006)

• CDIM Health Disparities Collaborative Learning Community Chair (2019-2020)
• CDIM Council Member (2018)
• Clerkship Directors of Internal Medicine (2012)
• American Medical Association (2009)
• American College of Physcians (2006)