Ermias Tilahun, M.D., F.A.C.P.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Tilahun is a proud native of Ethiopia, but after traveling worldwide, he settled in Chicago. He completed medical school at the age of 23 at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, but not before undergoing rigorous British oral exams from experts such as James Watson, who along with Crick discovered the molecular structure of DNA. Perhaps influenced by his humble upbringing, he served a rural community of 200,000 in Ethiopia with diverse skills such as surgery, medicine, and obstetrics for one year. Before completing his residency in Internal Medicine, he was awarded a scholarship to Israel to do a fellowship in Diagnostic Radiology, followed by a scholarship for Internal Medicine residency at Cook County Hospital (now Stroeger Hospital) in Chicago. At Cook County, he went on to become the Intern of the Year and later Chief Medicine Resident.

Dr. Tilahun has a passion for teaching which began as a tutor to his fellow classmates in medical school to make extra money, and then later as a chief resident. He channeled that interest to become associate program director at the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center where he taught weekly morning reports, morbidity and mortality conferences, and clinical pathology conferences.

In 2002, Dr. Tilahun was awarded a grant with the Jewish Federation to screen women for breast cancer by offering free mammograms to women in the United States. As countries like Ethiopia have no emphasis on preventive medicine such as mammograms, Dr. Tilahun has a special interest in preventive health.

At the same time, his training was to diagnose adult medical problems. His background made him sensitive to the unique situation of immigrants to this country, and Chicago's multi-cultural society brought another opportunity. He went on to develop and eventually run the Touhy Health Center affiliated with Sinai Medical Group to assist immigrants and foreigners. Dr. Tilahun redesigned the center, set up regularly scheduled colonoscopies, pap smears, mammograms, and vaccination schedules, among others, to make it a model of immigration health care around the United States.

Dr. Tilahun considers it a great honor to have been awarded to be a Fellow to the American College of Physicians in 2003. He was invited to speak to Illinois representatives at Washington DC regarding his experience and concerns on health care for the nation.

With Dr. Tilahun's variety of skills and background, he developed the confidence to thoroughly treat his patients in complex infectious diseases, cardiovascular problems including heart attack and heart failure, cancer, rheumatology, gastrointestinal, diabetic and endocrine disorders, dermatology, obesity, respiratory problems such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease including office pulmonary function testing, dialysis and kidney disorders, and a wide range of neurological diseases such as cerebrovascular infarctions, and peripheral neuropathies with office EMGs.