Northwest
Regional
Elections

Ryan Abe, MD

Bio-sketch

Ryan Abe, MD (she/her), is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Practice in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Washington and an academic hospitalist at UW Medical Center-Montlake campus. She serves as Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the division and directs the Internal Medicine Residency Health Equity Pathway, which she co-created to integrate health equity, advocacy, and structural competency into resident education. Her work focuses on medical education, mentorship, and advancing equitable clinical and learning environments. Dr. Abe is actively involved in undergraduate and graduate medical education as core faculty in the UW Internal Medicine Residency and as a college faculty mentor for medical students in the UW School of Medicine.

Personal Statement

I am honored to be considered for the role of President-Elect of the SGIM Northwest Region. SGIM has been my professional home since I first presented a poster at a national meeting as a medical student, and over time, I have had the privilege of becoming increasingly involved in the organization's leadership and community. Through these experiences, I have seen firsthand how SGIM creates space for general internists to connect, share scholarship, and support one another in navigating the evolving challenges of academic medicine.

My involvement with SGIM Northwest has grown over several years of service in regional leadership, including roles as DEI Chair-Elect, Chair, Past Chair, and now Membership Chair-Elect. Through these experiences, I have worked with colleagues across the region to build community and develop initiatives to better understand and expand our membership. These roles have given me a deep appreciation for the work required to sustain our community and for the close collaboration that makes SGIM unique. I am currently serving as Membership Chair-Elect and have been focused on strengthening connections with institutions across our region and on identifying new opportunities to engage trainees, early-career faculty, and clinicians who may not yet see SGIM as their professional home.

As President-Elect, I would hope to build on the strong foundation created by our current leadership while continuing to expand engagement across the Northwest region. Our region spans a large geographic area with diverse institutions and practice environments, and I am particularly interested in strengthening connections between academic centers and smaller or rural programs, supporting trainee engagement, and creating programming that reflects the wide range of interests represented within general internal medicine. I would be honored to help continue building a regional community where general internists can connect and advance the field together.

Luke Mirabelli, MD

Bio-sketch (CV Provided)

Personal Statement

I am honored to submit my candidacy for Secretary/Treasurer-Elect of the Northwest Region of the Society of General Internal Medicine. While early in my career as a dual board-certified internist and psychiatrist and Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Utah, I will bring a strong foundation of leadership, organization, and collaboration to the role of Secretary/Treasurer-Elect.

I completed combined Internal Medicine and Psychiatry residency training at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2024 and served as Chief Med-Psych Resident during my fifth year. This role required careful coordination of schedules, attention to policy, clear communication across departments, and responsible stewardship of program resources. In my current role, I serve as Curriculum Lead for Behavioral Health within the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Track, in addition to my clinical teaching roles. My past and current work demand organization, reliability, and longitudinal planning, qualities that align closely with the responsibilities of Secretary/Treasurer. My prior and current leadership experiences have required careful management of limited resources and transparent communication with residents and faculty on an ongoing basis, competencies that are essential for financial oversight and regional governance.

As an early career physician, I offer both energy and a long-term commitment to SGIM. I am attentive to detail, fiscally responsible, and comfortable working within structured systems while maintaining a collaborative approach. I am particularly motivated to enhance engagement within the SGIM Northwest region and to ensure that regional resources are managed thoughtfully to support programming, mentorship, and scholarly development.

I would be honored to serve as Secretary/Treasurer-Elect the Northwest Region and respectfully ask for your consideration.

Vince Raikhel, MD

Bio-sketch

Dr. Vincent Raikhel is an Assistant Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Washington and a practicing nocturnist at the VA Puget Sound Seattle Division. Dr. Raikhel began his academic career in music, earning a Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, followed by advanced training in Berlin and a Master of Music from the University of California, San Diego. He later transitioned into medicine, completing post-baccalaureate studies at Columbia University and earning his MD from Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Raikhel completed his internal medicine residency and served as Chief Resident in Quality and Safety at the University of Washington, where he has remained on faculty since 2021. He currently directs multiple educational initiatives within the Internal Medicine Residency, including the Clinician Educator Pathway and the Academic Half Day curriculum, and serves as core faculty for both the residency program and the Center for Learning and Excellence in Medical Education. His work focuses on improving clinical teaching, feedback delivery, curriculum design and simulation-based education.

Dr. Raikhel has developed and led numerous innovative curricula, including simulation programs for rapid response training, behavioral emergencies, and post cardiac arrest care. His scholarship emphasizes the science of feedback, experiential learning, and equity in medical education. He has secured multiple grants as principal investigator and collaborator, exploring topics such as feedback quality, simulation-based learning, and resident experiences in high-stakes clinical settings.

Dr. Raikhel’s contributions have been received several awards, including the Society for General Internal Medicine Northwest Regional Teaching Competition Award and the Paul B. Beeson Award for excellence in teaching and mentorship.

In addition to his academic and clinical roles, Dr. Raikhel is actively involved in national organizations, including the American College of Physicians, where he serves on the MKSAP CORE committee. Dr. Raikhel has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications spanning clinical medicine, medical education, and quality improvement. His work has been presented at regional, national, and international conferences, reflecting a sustained commitment to advancing physician training and medical education.

Personal Statement

Serving as Membership Chair for the Society for General Internal Medicine NW chapter would be a natural extension of my career as a clinician-educator and my longstanding commitment to building educational communities within academic medicine. As Clinician Educator Pathway Director, and Core Faculty for both the Internal Medicine Residency and the Center for Learning and Excellence in Medical Education, I have focused my work on developing structured pathways that support trainee growth, mentorship, and engagement. I have also been an active participant in SGIM at the regional and national levels, presenting multiple workshops, abstracts, and educational innovations. This role would allow me to more intentionally connect trainees and faculty, particularly those interested in medical education, quality improvement, and health equity, to the professional community that has shaped my own development.

The practical responsibilities of the role are also well aligned with my current professional activities and leadership experience. I have extensive experience serving on institutional and regional committees, including co-chairing the Housestaff Quality and Safety Committee, participating in Graduate Medical Education committees, and contributing to national efforts such as the American College of Physicians MKSAP CORE committee. These roles have prepared me to collaborate effectively across local and national organizations, contribute consistently to monthly meetings, and help implement longitudinal initiatives. Additionally, my active involvement in the SGIM Northwest region, positions me well to support engagement efforts.

Qian Leng, MD MPH

Bio-sketch (CV Provided)

Personal Statement

Thank you for considering my nomination for the DEI chair position with SGIM Northwest. The issues of social justice and furthering health equity have been dear to my heart for a long time. As a young child, I emigrated to the US from mainland China due to political persecution faced by my father. We arrived with few resources or social connections to our new home country. Growing up in suburban Arizona, I witnessed intimately how the intersection of poverty, limited English proficiency, xenophobia, and racial biases took a profound toll on my family.

These early experiences led me to pursue my undergraduate degree in Spanish linguistics as well as biology to prepare for a career in medicine and public health that would enable me to address the disparities I saw every day in the community I lived in, close to the USMexican border. In our many Mexican immigrant neighbors, I saw in their struggles to navigate language barriers and complex systems of health care and immigration a calling to work with the underserved.

Today, that has translated into my becoming certified as a multilingual provider in Spanish and Chinese so that I can build trust with patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) by speaking directly to them in their preferred language. This journey inspired me to become a health equity fellow through a national Providence initiative to train frontline healthcare workers on methodologies for alleviating health disparities. A key aim of the fellowship is that each fellow must submit a grant proposal to implement a project furthering health equity. I was fortunate to be awarded $200,000 for a pilot project that is currently underway to incentivize language-concordant primary care, which has shown early signs of success and which I will be presenting at the national SGIM conference this year.

In addition to addressing racial bias and language barriers, another issue I am passionate about is equality for transgender care. As a member of the gender affirming care (GAC) provider collective at Providence and as the spouse of a transgender person, I am an advocate for GAC because I have seen firsthand the difference it makes in a person’s quality of life and even survival, a finding that has been corroborated in studies showing decreased mortality and improved mental health among trans individuals receiving GAC. Preserving access to GAC for both adults and adolescents, improving education on GAC in medical school and residency curricula, and augmenting LGBTQ+ inclusion among physicians are core priorities that I would like to be a part of.

In my current role as a core faculty member of the Providence Portland internal medicine residency, I have the privilege of helping to shape anti-bias education through co-leading the Diversity Dialogues, a multidisciplinary, longitudinal training program for our residents and clinic staff to address systemic and personal biases that stem from a variety of causes. Our work in this area was presented as a workshop at the NW regional SGIM conference in 2025.

My specialty among the core faculty is directing the resident research elective, for which I mentor residents completing research and QI projects. I’ve had the chance to mentor impactful projects ranging from examining biases in diagnosing anemia among Black birthing parents to disparities in screening for delirium among ICU patients with LEP. For projects that don’t explicitly have to do with disparities, I still offer residents perspective on: “How would this affect those with marginalized identities? How can we ensure that this project furthers health equity rather than widening the gap?”

Thank you for considering my nomination for this important role within SGIM. I’m especially enthusiastic about the opportunity to connect with like-minded people with whom we can mutually stoke the fire for always fighting the good fight for greater diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. What I love about my current position in resident education is the opportunity to expose trainees to the importance of health equity. I hope to inspire the next generation of physicians and educators to make DEIB their true north that guides them in each stage of their career. I'm excited about the opportunity to engage in even more richly in this work if selected to be the DEI chair.