Wednesday, March 3, 2010

ALUMNI CORNER

Richard W. Westreich, MD
(’04), recently moved his Manhattan practice to the upper West Side and joined the voluntary faculty at Mount Sinai in the department of Otolaryngology. His practice is focused on nasal disorders and reconstructive/cosmetic surgery of the face and neck. He and his wife, Stacy, live on the Upper East Side along with their daughter, Ava.
Judith Lin,
MD (‘02), is a senior staff vascular surgeon at Henry Ford Hospital and the medical director of the Clinical Vascular Laboratory of the Henry Ford Health System. She is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in General Surgery and Vascular Surgery, board certified in Registered Vascular Technologist (RVT) and Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation (RPVI) by the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS), and has been elected to the Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons. Since 2006, she has been selected as one of the Top Docs by Detroit Hour Magazine in multiple years and American’s Top Surgeons by Consumers’ Research Council of America. She has successfully completed one of the world's first totally robotic aortobifemoral bypass using the daVinci S system in 2008. She is married to Ken and has two daughters–Camber, age 2 ½, and Danica, 6 months.
Charles E. Sloane, MD
(‘78), retired after practicing general surgery for twenty eight years outside of Pittsburgh, PA in September 2006. He relocated to Livingston, MT, just north of Yellowstone National Park. Dr. Sloane is currently enrolled in the Masters Degree Program in the field of Rangeland Ecology in the Graduate Studies Division of Montana State University.
Jason Pozner, MD
(‘92), is in private practice of plastic surgery in Boca Raton, Florida. He is a faculty appointment at Cleveland Clinic Florida. He specializes in revision plastic surgery and has published extensively on lasers and new technology in plastic surgery.
B. Todd Schaeffer, MD
(‘80), is a board certified surgeon who specializes in endoscopic surgery of the nose, face, neck, sinuses and skull base. He is the Chief and Associate Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology -Communicative Disorders at North Shore University Hospital at Manhasset. He maintains his private practice offices in Lake Success. Dr. Schaeffer performed the first Balloon Sinuplasty in New York State and he also was the first surgeon in the Northeast to perform an office based procedure to permanently drain sinuses under a local anesthesia with a balloon and ultra thin endoscope. He has partnered with Neurosurgery colleagues for endoscopic removal of skull base and brain tumors to be removed through the nose.
Michael Strauss, MD
(66-67’), entered the U.S. Navy after leaving Mt. Sinai. He remained active in the US Navy Ready Reserve as the medical officer for the Reserve SEAL teams until 2000 when he retired as a Captain after a 34 ½ year affiliation. Dr. Strauss has become internationally known in orthopedic applications of hyperbaric medicine, problem wound management and undersea medicine after completing training programs in these specialties in the Navy. He joined the Hyperbaric Medicine Department at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, becoming its medical director in 1992. Dr. Strauss has written over 100 articles and book chapters on his areas of expertise plus two textbooks, Diving Science (published in 2004) and MasterMinding Wounds (in press).
Andre Aboolian, MD
(‘00), after graduating from Mount Sinai Medical School and General Surgery Program, Dr. Aboolian went to University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery training. Dr. Aboolian currently has his own private practice in Beverly Hills, CA where he specializes in aesthetic/cosmetic plastic surgery, liposuction contouring and skin rejuvenation. He has worked with contestants from NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” as well as ABC’s “Extreme Makeover.”
Ian Soriano, MD
(‘00-01), completed his residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and went on to do a fellowship in Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Florida. He recently moved back to Philadelphia and joined the faculty at Temple University School of Medicine. He lives in Blue Bell, PA with his wife Jenny and son Luigi.
Frank Pindyck, MD
(’74), recently retired from Dartmouth Medical School where he held the title of Associate Professor of Surgery and Anatomy. He also was the Chief of Surgery at the White River Junction VA Hospital. He now lives in New York City.
Brooke Gurland, MD
(’00) Validated quality of life tools can be used to measure patient’s satisfaction and overall improvement of their care for specific periods of time. Capturing this information in discrete data fields and integrating this information into the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) provides a scalable method of capturing this information across health care business lines. Paper based questionnaires are labor intensive and do not integrate into the Electronic Medical Record. Physicians in Colorectal Surgery at Cleveland Clinic implemented software developed at Cleveland Clinic called The Knowledge Program to report the results of a novel electronic questionnaire process and provide transparency of patient reported information through their care cycle in the Colorectal Surgery department. Historically patient satisfaction and quality of life has been focused on in patient surveys like Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or HCAHPS. With the increasing government focus of transparency and value based reporting for healthcare organizations, electronic capture of quality of life information in The Knowledge Program begins the maturation of value based reporting from the in patient milieu to the out patient milieu without the increased operational and financial impact of adding hospital staff. Specific anchor dates captured through the patients care cycle (pre intervention, intervention, post intervention) will measure that patient’s quality of care from the patient’s perspective and provide the transparency the federal government and the health care industry