Four new residents join the Adventist Health Family Medicine Residency program

Drs. Adeel Z. Amer, Kofi Asirifi, F.J. Castillo and Sherief Zamzam began caring for patients on July 1. They will receive training from many community physicians who serve as faculty members in the program. The residency program helps to address the Valley’s chronic shortage of physicians and receives hundreds of applications each interview season. Only four were selected of the more than 650 applications received for 2017.

Dr. Adeel Amer

Dr. Amer is very familiar with the Hanford residency program. He started his internship in Hanford in 2014, then completed the remainder in Brooklyn, New York. Amer remembers growing up in Pakistan and helping care for patients at Mission Hospital, where his father was a business administrator. At six years old, he helped nurses give patients baths and get them out of bed to walk around. This experience later grew into a passion for the medical field. Amer earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from California State University, Fullerton, and a medical degree from the American University of Antigua. He’s fluent in English, Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, collecting vinyl albums and golfing.

Dr. Asirifi was raised by a grandmother who was an herbalist in a small village in Ghana. He wanted to study conventional medicine so he could reach people in ways his grandmother couldn’t. He decided to pursue family medicine after his father suffered a stroke. He has a Bachelor of Science in Medical Sciences and a degree from University of Ghana Medical School. Asirifi completed pediatrics and surgery internships from 37 Military Hospital in Accra, Ghana, and medicine and OB-GYN internships at Holy Family Hospital in Berekum, Ghana. He migrated to Merced in 2014, where he began work as a clinical manager. Asirifi has family in Coalinga. He’s fluent in Twi and Fante, and enjoys cooking and playing soccer and football. 

Dr. F.J. Castillo

Dr. F.J. Castillo was influenced by his family physician while growing up in Granada, Nicaragua. Although just a toddler, he was impressed by the doctor’s charisma. When he was 13, he moved to Los Angeles with his father and learned about American culture. Due to family matters, he returned to Nicaragua, where he studied medicine. He has a medical degree from National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) and internship training in Orthopedics, Pediatrics, OB-GYN, Internal Medicine and General Surgery from Granada Regional Hospital. He moved back to the United States and graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles International Medical Program, which nourishes bilingual physicians. In his free time, he enjoys playing baseball, chess, and family. 

Dr. Sherief Zamzam

Dr. Sherief Zamzam was exposed to health care in the Philippines at the age of 10. His grandmother was ill, and he witnessed poor hospital conditions, such as overcrowding, under-staffing and the lack of resources. This experience was eye-opening for him. Wanting to make a difference, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior (NPB); a medical degree from Ross University in the Caribbean and completed an internship at California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles. Zamzam’s future ambition is to go on medical mission trips yearly to give back to those in need. He enjoys playing basketball, deep-sea fishing and participating in fitness activities.

The Hanford Family Medicine Residency, 1122 N. Harris St., Suite 105, is accredited by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The office number is 559-537-0224.