About CIR

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About CIR

50 Years of Advocacy for Resident Physicians

CIR MemberThe Committee of Interns and Residents is the largest housestaff union in the country, representing more than 13,000 residents in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. CIR contracts improve housestaff salaries and working conditions as well as enhance the quality of patient care. CIR was founded in 1957.


In May, 1997, CIR affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which now has 2 million members and over 1 million healthcare workers all over the country. Our affiliation with SEIU has increased our strength wherever CIR represents housestaff.

CIR was originally founded by interns and residents in New York City’s public hospitals. In 1958, CIR achieved the first collective bargaining agreement for housestaff anywhere in the U.S. By the mid-1960s, CIR had established the only housestaff-administered benefit plan. By 1969-70, members in the private, or voluntary, sector started organizing and joining CIR.

CIR MemberIn a landmark achievement in 1975, CIR won contractual limits for on-call schedules of one night in three. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, CIR successfully negotiated innovative maternity leave clauses, won provisions for pay for housestaff covering for absent colleagues, and in 1989 helped shape New York State’s regulations that set maximum work hour limits for housestaff. Since then, CIR members have negotiated hours limitations and program security clauses in Miami, Los Angeles and Boston. These important advances have become models for improving residency programs across the country.

Off to a Great Start!

June 2008 President's Report

by Luella Toni Lewis, MD


Each year, CIR gains many new members who are just beginning their residencies at CIR-affiliated hospitals. As you find your way around and learn who your elected representatives are, please bear in mind that not that long ago, they were in your shoes, wondering just what CIR is, and what it can do.

 

Last year at this time CIR celebrated its 50th anniversary, and our convention included many CIR alums who really brought home what this union has accomplished in half a century.

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Links to Related Organizations and Resources

Links to third-party sites on issues and organizations of interest to physicians, general medical resources and legal information on residents' right to organize.

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CIR Executive Committee

May 2008 - May 2009
President
Luella Toni Lewis, MD
Geriatric Medicine
Caritas Health Care, Inc.
Jamaica, NY

Executive Vice President
Nailah Thompson, DO
Internal Medicine
Highland Hospital
Oakland, California

Secretary-Treasurer
Elizabeth Burpee, MD
Internal Medicine
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM

Regional Vice President: Southern California
Suganya Karuppana, MD
Family Medicine
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA

Regional Vice President: Northern California
Rachel Kreps-Falk, MD
Pediatrics
Children's Hospital and Research Center of Oakland
Oakland, CA

Regional Vice Presidents: New Mexico
John Ingle, MD
Otolaryngology
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM

Regional Vice President: Florida
Janetta Dominic Cureton, MD
Psychiatry
Jackson Memorial Hospital
Miami, Florida

Regional Vice President: Massachusetts
Michael Mazzini, MD
Cardiovascular Medicine
Boston Medical Center
Boston, MA

Regional Vice President: New Jersey/DC
Snehal Bhatt, MD
Psychiatry
Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center
New Brunswick, NJ

Regional Vice Presidents: New York
Kate Aberger, MD
Emergency Medicine
Lincoln Hospital
Bronx, New York

Matthew Harris, MD, MBA
Orthopaedic Surgery
NYMC
Westchester Medical Center,
St. Vincent's Manhattan

Farbod Raiszadeh, MD, PhD
Internal Medicine
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center
New York, NY

Vishal Jagmohan Verma, MD
Internal Medicine
Brooklyn Hospital Center
Brooklyn, NY

Vaughn Whittaker, MD
Harlem Hospital
New York, NY