Darius A. Rastegar, MD
- Medical Director, Addiction Medicine Unit, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
- Associate Professor of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University Addiction Medicine Fellowship serves to train the next generation of leaders in addiction medicine by preparing trainees for addiction medicine certification and clinical and academic leadership in the field.
The fellowship program will provide a strong foundation in the components of prevention, identification and treatment of substance use disorders and co-occurring conditions though a variety of supervised clinical experiences in a wide range of inpatient and outpatient settings, including longitudinal experience in caring for patients with addiction in a primary care setting. Fellows work with diverse faculty with backgrounds in internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and psychiatry.
Following completion of training, each fellow will be able to:
For more information about the fellowship, please contact program coordinator Amy Ziemski.
We are pleased to announce that our program now participates in ERAS for applications.
Savitha Racha, M.D., completed her internal medicine residency at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ. She discovered her interest in addiction medicine as a student at Boston University School of Medicine where she volunteered with the Outreach Van Project. Her research focuses on the medical complications of addiction such as endocarditis as a result of injection drug use. After fellowship, she be returning to Cooper University Hospital as an addiction medicine consultant.
Publications
Lea Selitsky, M.D., MPH earned her medical degree at Wayne State University before completing her residency in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is passionate about harm reduction and expanding access to addiction treatment in primary care. She will be working at the Philadelphia Veteran's Affairs Hospital after completing her fellowship.
Publications
Ashish Thakrar, M.D., is an Internist and Addiction Medicine Specialist in the National Clinician Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Before his addiction medicine fellowship, he completed residency at the Johns Hopkins Osler Internal Medicine Training Program in the Urban Health-Primary Care track. His research and advocacy focus on improving clinical care for patients with severe substance use disorders, with a focus on responding to the unique challenges of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. He continues to work clinically in primary care and hospital-based addiction medicine.
Publications
Jessica Ratner, M.D., is a primary care doctor trained in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. She completed medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and residency at the Hopkins Urban Health Med-Peds Program, before joining the Addiction Medicine fellowship at Hopkins Bayview. She is interested providing clinical care, developing programs, and strengthening policies that support underserved families impacted by addiction and trauma. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Hopkins Division of Addiction Medicine, seeing patients at the Comprehensive Care Practice and the Center for Addiction and Pregnancy and working as a consultant to the Baltimore City Health Department on efforts related to peripartum substance use disorders.
Publications
Jarratt Pytell, M.D., was the 2018-19 fellow in Addiction Medicine at Johns Hopkins. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Afterwards, he was accepted into Teach for America and worked as a math teacher at a public school located in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward. He then earned his medical degree from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans. During medical school, he was accepted as an Applied Epidemiology Fellow at the Centers for Disease Prevention and worked for a year in the Division of Waterborne Diseases. He completed his medical residency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. After completing his Addiction Medicine fellowship, Jarratt completed a General Internal Medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins and accepted an academic position at the University of Colorado, Denver in 2022.
Publications