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.

Leading the Fight for Health Care Reform This Year

President's Report by Dr. Toni L. Lewis

Make no mistake, CIR doctors have been leaders in this year’s historic fight to make quality, affordable health care for all a reality. I’ve had the good fortune to travel to every region and see the strong work so many of you achieved this summer. I know I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

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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 2009 - May 2010
President
Luella Toni Lewis, MD
Geriatric Medicine

Executive Vice President 
Elizabeth Burpee, MD
Internal Medicine
Division of Hospital Medicine
VA Medical Center
Albuquerque, NM

Secretary-Treasurer 
Farbod Raiszadeh, MD, PhD
Cardiology Fellow
Montefiore Medical Center
New York, NY

Regional Vice President:
Southern California 
Michael Core, MD 
Family Practice 
County of Los Angeles - Harbor
Los Angeles, CA

Regional Vice President:
Northern California 
Davida Flattery, DO
Chief Resident
Internal Medicine  
Alameda County Medical Center
Highland Hospital
Oakland, CA

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

Regional Vice President: Florida
Janetta Dominic Cureton, MD 
Forensic Psychiatry Fellow
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 
Michael Nagar, MD
Pathology
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
New Brunswick, NJ

Regional Vice Presidents:
New York
Gregory Dodell, MD
Internal Medicine
St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital
New York, NY

Matthew Harris, MD, MBA
Orthopaedic Surgery
Westchester Medical Center
Valhalla, NY

Anyka J McClain, MD
Emergency Medicine  
Lincoln Hospital & Mental Health Center
Bronx, NY

Vaughn Whittaker, MD
Transplant Fellow
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
New York, NY