Dr. Gizem Kaya joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine as an Instructor in July 2024. She was born in Izmir, Turkey. She was accepted to one of the top three medical schools in Turkey after being part of % 0.1 percentile students in national exam of Turkey. During medical school, she participated in multiple community serving projects with Rotary International Organization in Turkey including blood donation projects to raise awareness and mental/mood supporting projects for children in Pediatric Hematology and Oncology hospitals. During this time, she also served as president of her local Rotary Club in Turkey. After completing her medical school, she decided to come to USA to participate in more research activities. Dr. Kaya started to work as research fellow in Cleveland Clinic Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute in Cleveland, Ohio by 2020.
She participated in multiple research projects during her time in Cleveland Clinic about Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and advanced endoscopic procedures including endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). She completed her Internal Medicine training in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) at Central Pennsylvania prior to joining the division. During residency she mentored multiple residents and medical students from Drexel University College of Medicine and Penn State College of Medicine. Among all training sites of Drexel University in Pennsylvania she was nominated and chosen for Gold Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award by her medical students for her commitment to teaching and kind, compassionate treatments of patients, families, students and colleagues. Dr. Kaya was inducted into Gold Humanism Honor Society during her internal medicine training as resident inductee.
She participated in multiple research projects and presented on multiple national scientific meetings and conferences. Due to her exceptional presentation skills, she received “Outstanding Poster Presenter” award during American College of Gastroenterology 2022 annual meeting for one of the research projects she participated and presented. Dr. Kaya’s current areas of interests are inflammatory bowel diseases, motility disorders in gastroenterology and inpatient care. She enjoys teaching and working with medical students and residents. Outside of medicine she enjoys attending classical music concerts and ballets. She enjoys participating in cooking classes to explore different world cuisines and recipes. She traveled to more than 25 countries, and she enjoys visiting new countries while exploring new cultures. She looks forward to providing care for her patients as a member of the Division of Hospital Medicine and continue her research activities in Washington University in St. Louis.