Transitional Year Residency Program
East Alabama Health's Transitional Year Residency Program serves a growing need to provide quality clinical instruction to medical graduates pursuing advanced residencies or desiring to gain hands-on experience in a variety of specialties.
East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) is a 314-bed acute-care hospital in Opelika, Alabama, with more than 16,000 inpatient admissions annually. The Emergency Department sees more than 80,000 patients each year between EAMC, EAMC-Lanier Rural Emergency Hospital in Valley, Alabama, and a freestanding emergency department located near Auburn University.
East Alabama Health's infrastructure also includes outpatient clinics focused on both primary care and specialties such as rheumatology, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, hematology/oncology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, and orthopedics, providing our residents with ample elective choices. East Alabama Health also serves an expanding percentage of the population in the surrounding 9 counties, giving each resident a broad base of diverse clinical experiences in the inpatient and outpatient settings.
Our curriculum will give you outstanding clinical experiences, but we also commit to developing your team leadership skills, which we believe are vital in the delivery of team-based health care. Because our program is smaller, you will receive great support from faculty and staff, creating a supportive environment and fostering your personal and professional development throughout the program.
Heath Parker, D.O.
Program Director
Transitional Year Residency Program
Meet the Program Director
Heath A. Parker, DO, FAAP, FACP, serves as program director for the East Alabama Health Transitional Year Residency Program.
Dr. Parker, who has over 20 years of academic experience in both graduate and undergraduate medical education, has served as Dean, Chief Administrative Officer, Associate Dean, Chair of Internal Medicine, Chair of Pediatrics, and faculty for two separate Family Medicine residency programs.
Dr. Parker earned his DO degree at Kansas City University of Medicine and Bio-sciences in 1996. He completed his Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Texas A&M University Health Science Center, where he was appointed chief resident and clinical instructor. Parker received his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Northwest Missouri State University in 1992, where he attended under a full football athletic scholarship. Dr. Parker is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and is an American Board of Pediatrics and American College of Physicians fellow.
Dr. Parker also has an extensive clinical leadership background in emergency medicine, adult and pediatric hospital medicine, primary care, and advanced wound care. He has served as Regional Medical Director and Medical Director for multiple emergency departments, primary care clinics and hospitalist programs including Director of Hospital Clinical Operations for a multi-specialty facility and Chief Medical Officer for an integrative care organization. He is passionate about sharing his diverse experience empowering young physicians towards compassionate patient care while thriving in medicine.