The best in the medical profession in Westchester County were lauded for their work at the Doctors of Distinction awards Oct. 30 at The Bristal at Armonk.
The event was presented and co-founded by the Westchester County Business Journal, Citrin Cooperman and the Westchester County Medical Society, and sponsored by Simone Healthcare Development and Danziger & Markhoff LLP. It was the second annual Doctors of Distinction event for Westchester County, honoring outstanding physicians for their achievements in five categories.
“Medical care is really about patients and really about the community,” said Alan Badey, the managing partner of Citrin Cooperman, in his remarks that opened the evening. “What we expected to come out of this a few years ago is really what has come out of it. We”™ve enabled Westchester to honor some of its top givers to the community. It”™s all about giving back to the community and we applaud all the doctors for that.”
- From left, Drs. Augustine Moscatello, Martin E. Lederman, William Bauman, Kira Geraci-Ciardullo, Thomas Lee and Mary Beth Walsh all were honored at this year’s Doctors of Distinction awards at The Bristal at Armonk.
“It”™s amazing that after the inaugural Doctors of Distinction awards in Westchester, the inspiring stories by the winners still resonate with the attendees and Business Journal readers,” said Dee DelBello, publisher of the Westchester County Business Journal.
“I think there are two great incentives in human endeavor ”” altruism and self gain,” said Lou McIntyre, the vice president of the Westchester County Medical Society. “Medicine, more than any other, encompasses altruism as a guiding force.”
Giving the keynote address, Ed Halperin, a radiation oncologist and the CEO and chancellor for health affairs of New York Medical College, urged cooperation between science and government to further medical research.
“We live in a world of considerable pessimism, when it comes to medicine in biomedical research. This even was created in opposition to that,” Halperin said. “We live in a world of pessimism in which it is popular for sanctimonious people to say that government isn”™t the answer, government is the problem. But all those medical triumphs were reached because of medical research funded by the U.S. and foreign governments in partnership with academic researchers.”
Martin E. Lederman, of Lederman & Lederman LLP, was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award, presented in recognition of a physician or physicians for a project or service that impacts humanity by significantly improving or enhancing the quality of life for people in the region, nationwide or worldwide.
Lederman recalled his childhood, when his parents would quarantine him when he was sick and only a doctor was allowed to visit him in his room at their home in Brooklyn.
“My older brother died of a disease we don”™t really think about any more, diphtheria; we used to lose 10,000 babies a year,” Lederman said. “The only person who could come visit me in my room was the doctor. I said to myself this man who can do this wonderful thing, I”™m going to do that and learn his secrets.”
As a pediatric ophthalmologist, Lederman has practiced in Westchester County since 1984, and has headed teaching and surgical missions to Panama, Kenya, Morocco, Dubai and Belize.
“I was asked to go to Panama and perform surgery on children with strabismus,” Lederman said. Strabismus is the medical term for what is commonly known as crossed eyes. “I was told when you have strabismus in a country like Panama, no one will marry you and no one will employ you. So I went and did surgery on 150 children, and then went back and did that again.”
Later, he co-founded One World, One Vision, an organization devoted to bringing pediatric ophthalmologists to developing countries to treat children and adults with strabismus and children with cataracts.
“Once you see an area where if you don”™t do it, no one else will, it gets in your blood,” Lederman said of his charitable efforts. “There are 70 million people who need our work, and we can only do 100. Why don”™t we train the local ophthalmologists to do what we do? And we”™ve been to Mombasa and Katmandu and trained them to do our work, and they”™ll train others, and eventually, we”™ll lick this problem.”
Kira Geraci-Ciardullo of Westchester Health Associates and Mary Beth Walsh of The Burke Rehabilitation Hospital earned the Lifetime Achievement Award, given in recognition of a physician who is respected by his or her peers for a lifetime career in medical service to the community.
A graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Geraci-Ciardullo has served as chief of the allergy division of White Plains Hospital and president of the Westchester Allergy Society.
“I accept this award with great humility,” Geraci-Ciardullo said. “Every single physician I”™ve ever dealt with has done just as much. It”™s not enough that the doctor is excellent ”” we need to engage people and that”™s a skill that so many great physicians have.”
Walsh is the executive medical director and CEO of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains. She is also an associate dean and associate professor of clinical medicine at Burke”™s academic affiliate, Weill Cornell Medical College and an assistant attending physician at New York City”™s Hospital for Special Surgery.
“A lifetime achievement award is a truly special achievement, especially one recognized by your peers, and I”™m truly grateful,” Walsh said. “I”™ve been privileged to practice through the decades this specialty. Patients diagnosed early now rarely develop the severe disability and lessened life expectancy that was the rule” when she began practicing medicine.
Thomas Lee was recognized with the Leadership in Medical Advocacy Award, given to a physician who has provided exceptional leadership in the form of advocacy on behalf of the medical profession at the local, state or national level or has provided tireless volunteer time to help fellow physicians.
“I have worked with many, many other excellent doctors,” said Lee, who also holds an MBA. “Despite the many negative factors that have come up in the last few years in the medical profession, it”™s still a noble profession and we”™re proud to do what we do.”
A neurosurgeon who went to medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles, Lee”™s practice is based in Tarrytown.
Augustine Moscatello of Westchester Medical Center was this year”™s recipient of the Community Service Award, presented in recognition of a physician for outstanding service to his or her community in providing free medical and patient care services for people in need ”” the underserved, homeless, uninsured or indigent.
“When you”™re in a foreign country and you”™re away from all your problems, you can give all your attention to the medical problems of the patient,” Moscatello said in his acceptance speech. “The feeling of joy is a gift, it”™s a reward that no money can buy. You do it once, and you”™re addicted to it for life.”
Moscatello serves as director of the department of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. He is also an associate professor at the New York Medical College.
This year”™s Excellence in Medical Research Award, given in recognition of a physician whose ingenuity or clinical research significantly contributed to the advancement of medical practice, was given to William Bauman of the VA Medical Center in the Bronx.
Earlier this year, Bauman, along with colleague Ann Spungen, received the Samuel J. Heyman Science and Environment Medal for their work in improving the health care and quality of life of paralyzed veterans.
“My mother, who has been a practicing pediatrician for only 60 years, instilled in me a work ethic, and my father instilled in me a love of science,” Bauman said in his remarks at the event. Of his Rehabilitation Research & Development National Center of Excellence for the Medical Consequences of Spinal Cord Injury at the VA Hospital in the Bronx, Bauman said he and his colleagues are “very lucky to have the backing of the VA. I can”™ think of another organization that would support us the way the VA has for the last 25 years.”
