Two New Internal Medicine Specialists Join Faculty as UA-Banner Clinician Educators

Logo for Division of Geriatrics, General Internal Medicine and Palliative MedicineTwo new faculty members have joined the faculty at the University of Arizona Division of Geriatrics, General Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine and Banner – University Medicine.

Malvika Varma, MD, and Bulbul Cibei, MD, are new general internal medicine clinician educators in the division, which is one of 14 in the UA Department of Medicine—the largest department at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson. They began their medical service in Tucson early this year.

Malvika Varma, MDDr. Varma completed her residency and was chief resident in internal medicine at Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill. She then joined the Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group/Ascension Medical Group in Milwaukee, as a clinical educator in primary care and hospital medicine settings. In that role, she was active in the Graduate Medical Education Committee, Ethics Committee and medical teaching service at hospitals where she worked, which were affiliated with the Medical College of Wisconsin. 

Bulbul Cibei, MDDr. Cibei also completed his residency in internal medicine at Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill., and worked for several years in Milwaukee before joining our faculty. He is committed to patient safety and quality improvement, and active in medical education.

Both physicians earned their medical degrees from Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical and Technological Sciences, in Gangtok, India. 

At the UA, Drs. Varma and Cibei will teach medical students and resident physicians in ambulatory clinic and inpatient hospital settings in addition to seeing their own patients in clinic by appointment as primary care providers. They will work at Banner – University Medical Group North Hills, Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and Banner – UMC South, which will host their primary care clinic once a week.

“Drs. Varma and Cibei bring expertise in clinical care and education, and we are delighted that they are part of our growing academic family,” said Division Chief Mindy Fain, MD, a professor of medicine at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson; associate professor of nursing at the UA College of Nursing; co-director, UA Center on Aging, and the Anne and Alden Hart Endowed Chair in Medicine at the University of Arizona.

For an appointment with Drs. Varma or Cibei—or any other of our internists at Banner – University Medicine Tucson—please call (520) 694-8888.

About the UA Department of Medicine
The University of Arizona Department of Medicine is one of six original departments and the largest at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson, with 14 divisions covering medical subspecialties from cardiology to rheumatology. The faculty includes more than 250 physicians who help train more than 70 fellows in 18 fellowship programs, 130 residents in internal medicine and dermatology, and 450 medical students engaged in clerkships, sub-internships and research opportunities. Affiliated with UA institutes and centers of excellence and collaborative cohorts across the nation and world, the department’s investigators are leading research into development of personalized precision medicine therapies for both simple and complex diseases to improve the lives of people in Arizona and abroad. Learn more: deptmedicine.arizona.edu

About Banner – University Medicine
Banner – University Medicine is the academic arm of Banner Health—one of the largest nonprofit health-care systems in the country, with 28 hospitals in six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. With a special emphasis on patient care, research and teaching, Banner – University Medicine includes Banner – University Medical Center PhoenixBanner – University Medical Center SouthBanner – University Medical Center TucsonBanner Children’s at Diamond Children’s Medical Center, physician clinics and a health plan division. They are affiliated with the University of Arizona Health Sciences colleges in Tucson and Phoenix. When you choose an academic medical center, you are experiencing the future of medicine today. Learn more: bannerhealth.com

Release Date: 
03/11/2019 - 4:30pm