Meet the Director and Team – Internal Medicine Residency at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital

Welcome from the Program Director

I would like to welcome you to our Internal Medicine Residency Program at Mercy Health St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. Thank you for your interest in our program.

We are a fully accredited internal medicine residency program with affiliations with three major medical universities. We will continue to strive for academic excellence and foster growth while providing a wide variety of clinical exposure, academic advancement and scholarly advancement.

Through a careful selection process, we accept 11 new residents each year. We are very much a multi-ethnic program and enjoy the diverse cultural atmosphere we have created.  Our Annual International Dinner is a yearly highlight! We will continue to foster our diversity both nationally and internationally with the hopes of adding candidates that share in our mission to serve the underserved within and around our community.  

We are committed to maintaining balance with clinical exposure, academic growth and scholarly advancement so that our program can help to advance each residents’ training toward excellence in internal medicine and match your individual curricular and career goals. 

Please take a few moments to browse through the pages of our website. I think you will be impressed with what our program has to offer!

Patrick Brine
Patrick Brine, MD, FACP | Program Director
Medical School: Northeastern Ohio Medical University
Residency: Summa Health Systems Akron City Hospital

Dr. Brine is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He currently serves as section chief for General Internal Medicine at NEOMED and is administrative director of the ambulatory clinic. He previously served on the Governor’s Council for the Ohio Chapter of the American College of Physicians, as well as chair of the Early Career Physicians Council. He has received grant funding from the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine to foster quality improvement in residency education and presented research at the annual ACGME meeting, as well as the ASHP meeting. His areas of interest include quality improvement and patient safety, as well as interdisciplinary diabetes management and resident wellbeing. Dr. Brine continues to serve as journal reviewer for The Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives.

Gregory Polcha
Gregory Polcha, DO | Associate Program Director

Medical School: Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM)
Residency: St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital

Dr. Polcha is a graduate of the St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program, class of 2021. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa. in 2018.  He graduated from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), class of 2018. His interests are in bedside medicine, ultrasonography, research and academic medicine. He is the current director of POCUS at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, is the LECOM internal medicine clerkship director and is involved with developing QI projects and patient simulation.  

Stephen Pupillo
Stephen Pupillo, DO | Associate Program Director

Medical School: Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine
Residency: St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital

Dr. Pupillo is a graduate of the St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program, class of 2018. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree from Cedarville University in 2011 and is a graduate of the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, class of 2015. His interests are in preventative medicine, cancer survivorship and academic medicine. He currently serves as the internal medicine section director for St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and is engaged in residency development through grant approval as well as quality improvement projects in the resident continuity clinic.

Core Faculty

Timothy J. Barreiro, DO, MPH, FCCP, FACOI, FACP
Jung Kim, MD, MPH
Cynthia A. Kravec, MD
Thomas P. Marnejon, DO, FACP
David Regule, MD
Charles Wilkins, MD

Contact Us

Program Coordinator: Gwendolyn Brown, C-TAGME
Email: gwendolyn_brown1@mercy.com
Phone: 330-480-7643

Academic Specialist: Franny Korby
Email: frances_korby@mercy.com
Phone: 330-480-7605