Residency program at Greater Seacoast Community Health names new docs, associate director

SOMERSWORTH — Greater Seacoast Community Health has announced that three years after becoming the first community health center in New Hampshire to train medical residents as part of the Portsmouth Family Medicine Residency Program, it has welcomed its first associate residency program director and its fourth cohort of family medicine residents.

Michael Samaan, MD, the associate program director, has two decades of experience in family medicine at hospitals and practices in Alaska and Texas. He also served on the faculty of the Alaska Family Medicine Residency and is a Marine Corps veteran. In his faculty and administrative role, he will he will oversee residents’ training and supervise them directly in the clinical setting. Samaan also sees patients as a primary care provider at Goodwin Community Health in Somersworth, one of two community health centers — along with Families First Health Center in Portsmouth — that comprises the Greater Seacoast network.

“I have always felt that the patient/physician relationship should be rooted in a genuine feeling of mutual respect, with both parties able to express their frustrations and hopes and to work together in achieving health related goals,” Samaan said. “A similar relationship can be applied to the medical education environment in preparing new doctors to enter the extremely challenging and dynamic practice of family medicine.”

Joining the program this summer are new resident physicians Samuel Backman, MD, a graduate of Saba University School of Medicine in the Caribbean; Charelle Allen, MD, from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada; Anna Byrne, DO, a graduate of Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine; and Antara Chakraborty, from Calcutta National Medical College in India.

The 12 residents based at Goodwin serve more than 2,500 patients as one of six primary-care teams at Goodwin Community Health and Families First Health Center. In addition, they complete rotations in the prenatal, mobile health, medication-assisted recovery and psychiatric programs at Greater Seacoast and at Portsmouth Regional Hospital and local specialty practices.

Supervising the new residents along with Samaan are Greater Seacoast Community Health Chief Medical Officer Joann Buonomano, MD, and Portsmouth Regional Hospital core faculty and community physicians, including Nancy Braese, DO; David Gagnon, MD; and Robert Mathes, MD.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Greater Seacoast Community Health residency: new associate director