Monmouth Medical Center (MMC), an RWJBarnabas Health hospital, recently celebrated the 80th anniversary of its Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program – the oldest orthopaedic surgery residency program in New Jersey - as it bid farewell to its class of 2025 earlier this month. Chief residents Dr. Daniel Kerrigan and Dr. Suleiman Sudah were feted at a graduation ceremony held at the Hollywood Golf Club in Deal, gathering fellow residents, faculty and alumni, including about 20 faculty members who are themselves graduates of this prestigious program.
Dr. Kerrigan will soon begin a spine surgery fellowship at a private orthopaedic practice in North Carolina, while Dr. Sudah embarks on a shoulder and elbow fellowship at Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital. Both will return to MMC to join the medical staff following their fellowships, continuing a tradition of alumni reinvesting their skills and knowledge into the institution that trained them.
Dr. Sudah also was honored at MMC’s recent annual House Staff Manuscript Competition award ceremony for his outstanding research on pitching biomechanics, earning top honors for his paper titled “Professional Pitchers With Higher Combined Joint and Segment Velocities Respective of Sequence Order Demonstrate Faster Ball Velocity at the Cost of Increased Throwing Arm Kinetics.” Several teaching awards were also presented to faculty members during the graduation ceremony. Dr. Steve Paragioudakis received the “Golden Hands” award for excellence in surgical teaching; Dr. Allen Nicholson earned the “Golden Apple” for academic teaching; and program leaders Dr. Jason Cohen and Dr. Gregory Parker were recognized by residents for their mentorship and guidance.
A Legacy of Leadership and Learning
Founded in 1945, the MMC Orthopaedic Residency Program is the oldest of its kind in New Jersey. Accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and affiliated with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the five-year residency program admits two physicians per year. To date, 96 residents have graduated from the program.
“We are proud of our long tradition at Monmouth Medical Center of training the next generation of orthopaedic surgeons,” said Dr. Cohen, Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery at MMC and a 1999 graduate of the residency program. “Our graduates have a high success rate in passing their board certifications and consistently pursuing elite fellowship opportunities nationwide. What makes our program truly unique is how many of our alumni come back to teach and practice at Monmouth Medical Center. It speaks volumes about our commitment to mentorship, community and the legacy we’ve built here.”
Another hallmark of the program is its volunteer faculty model, Dr. Cohen says. Many instructors maintain private practices while contributing their time to residency training, ensuring that the curriculum remains aligned with both academic rigor and real-world clinical practice. The residency program with the support of MMC also runs an orthopaedic clinic that provides care to uninsured patients, further emphasizing its mission of service and accessibility.
In a historic development for the program, the incoming class of 2025 will consist of two women, Dr. Miranda Czymek and Dr. Jamie Bousleiman, marking the first all-female cohort in the program’s history.
“When patients come to a teaching hospital affiliated with a leading medical school, they know that they are coming to a facility that is on the forefront of medical innovation using the latest surgical techniques led by experts in their field,” said Dr. Cohen. “Patients have the added benefit of having extra physicians – both surgeons and residents – caring for them.”
RWJBarnabas Health also maintains a five-year orthopaedic surgery residency program at Jersey City Medical Center in affiliation with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Residents complete clinical rotations at Jersey City Medical Center, Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.
For more information about RWJBarnabas Health’s orthopaedic services, visit www.rwjbh.org/ortho.
