Surriya Colleen Ahmad, MD

I am originally from Louisville, KY, graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, GA with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Spanish, and received my Doctorate of Medicine from University of Louisville in Louisville, KY. I completed my combined Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine residency at the State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University (SUNY DHSU) and Kings County Hospital Center (KCHC) in Brooklyn, NY. I completed my Geriatric Emergency Medicine (GEM) Fellowship at Weill Cornell/New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. I am currently an Attending Physician at Bellevue Hospital Center and Clinical Faculty in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine at NYU Langone Hospitals in New York City.

I have been a member of SAEM and AGEM for three years, and have particularly enjoyed working with the AGEM Outreach Committee. In December 2020 I co-organized and co-hosted a Leaders in GEM virtual event with the aim of generating early interest in GEM amongst medical students and residents and helping to connect them with mentors who have been successful in the field. I served on the AGEM Executive Committee as a Member At Large. I am honored to be Treasurer for AGEM this year.

Between taking care of patients in both a public inner-city Level 1 Trauma Center and Tertiary care center in residency and having an octogenarian father and nonagenarian grandmother who I have watched navigate the sometimes treacherous walls of an Emergency Department from the lens of a patient their age, I grew interested in how we can best optimize the care of older adults in the ED. In addition, my interest areas lie in using novel tools to improve communication with older adults, screening for geriatric depression in older adults who come into the Emergency Department, decreasing loneliness and social isolation in this population, health disparities in geriatric patients, physician wellness, streamlining transitions of care, geriatric ED accreditation best care practices, as well as enhancing diversity in the field of Geriatric Emergency Medicine.