Medical professionals with diverse backgrounds and specialties from throughout Westchester and Fairfield County were recognized for their achievements on Sept. 22 at Westfair Communications’ 2022 Doctors of Distinction event.
Presented by the publisher of the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals, the ninth annual event was held at The Stamford Hotel in downtown Stamford. Anne Jordan Duffy, Westfair Communications’ associate publisher, served as master of ceremonies, introducing each honoree and enumerating their contributions to the health and safety of their communities.
Serving as judges for the event were Gary Sastow, a partner at the Danzinger & Markhoff LLP law firm who has focused primarily on representing healthcare professionals in his more than three decades of practice, and Janine Miller, who has served as the executive director of the Westchester County Medical Society and the Westchester Academy of Medicine since March 2015.
Dr. Andrew Kleinman, a plastic surgeon with more than 30 years in practice in Westchester and a past president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, the Westchester County Medical Society, and the New York State Society of Plastic Surgeons, took to the stage to put the accomplishments of the honorees in perspective.
“You are truly leaders,”said Kleinman, who was a 2015 Doctors of Distinction Honoree. “I have to say that although the quote ”˜business of medicine’ has changed the calling of physicians has not. The number of people applying to medical school is up, the way we practice might be different, but we are still the best representatives for our patients. We are the ones who really stand up for our patients.”
Kleinman also recounted his efforts to have comprehensive breast reconstruction added to Employee Retirement Income Security Act and Union medical plans in the 1990s. For many cancer patients the value of having their body resemble what it was before surgery was immeasurably valuable but unaffordable. He recalled shaking the hand of a senator when his efforts came to fruition and saying, “You’re going to be helping more patients than I am going to touch in my entire career.”
“He said something very nice about no, I’m the one who takes care of the patients. But a light bulb went off and I realized that through advocacy we can also do as much for our patients as when we take them one at a time,”Kleinman concluded while urging the night’s honorees to become involved in medical societies so they can help craft legislation that will protect patients beyond their own.
The recipients of this year’s awards were the following:
Dr. Jyotindra Shah and his son S.J. Shah received the All in the Family Award for founding Amari Health in Scarsdale, New York. They take a functional and integrative medicine approach which emphasizes finding the root causes of health problems instead of rapid treatment of symptoms.
Dr. Judith Shea and Dr. Nitin Gupta were honored with the Compassionate Concierge Doctor award for their work in establishing service-oriented practices. Dr. Gupta thanked the Business Journals for recognizing small independent private practices as well as his family for their support towards his work.
The Cutting Edge Award went to Dr. Jeffery Geller for his work in advancing robotic surgery to treat arthritic disorders of the hip and knee.
“As physicians we really need to push the envelope, be innovators and take chances sometimes,”Dr. Geller said when accepting the award, adding thanks to New York Presbyterian for giving him the opportunity and support he needed to succeed.
For their internationally minded efforts, Dr. Charles Kutler and Dr. Mario J. Garcia were both recognized with the Doctors Without Boundaries Award. Dr. Kutler is an experienced infectious disease specialist who has performed multiple medical missions to Nicaragua, Honduras and Tibet, and Dr. Garcia is known both for his work as a leader in advancing cardiac diagnostic technology, and his decades medical missions to the Dominican Republic.
“I have to say that going to the Dominican Republic is not much of a hardship for me,”Garcia said as he accepted his award.
Dr. Tabassum Firoz and Dr. Beth Shubin Stein were both honored with the Female Innovator Award. Dr. Firoz established the Bridgeport Hospital Obstetric Medicine Clinic to provide enhanced medical care before, during and after pregnancies, while Dr. Stein was recognized for work arthroscopic and reconstructive surgery of the shoulder and knee undertaken as the Co-director of the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Dr. Anthony L. Pucillo and Dr. Spike Lipschutz. Dr. Pucillo, the Director of Cardiology Operations at New York Presbyterian Westchester was recognized for his long career at New York Presbyterian Hospital where he became an experienced cardiologist working with coronary artery and peripheral arterial diseases. He thanked his parents, the administrative and nursing staff at New York Presbyterian Westchester.
“I can’t remember a time in my life when I did not want to become a doctor,”said Dr. Pucillo. “To receive this honor tonight is both humbling and gratifying.”
Greenwich Hospital Vice President Dr. Lipschutz was honored for his 25 years spent in clinical medicine, and two years in the Army Medical Corps.
“I’m sure you realize that a lifetime in medicine has given me the opportunity to be with a lot of people,”he said as he accepted his award. “I’m very, very fortunate to spend 25 years in clinical medicine and so had the opportunity to be involved with many trusting relationships with my patients and their families ”¦ It’s been wonderful learning from my patients, from my colleagues, and from all the many staff and people at the hospital that I’ve been fortunate enough to work with.”
Jennifer Corbett and Samantha Ruff were recognized as Outstanding Nurses. Ruff, a perioperative nurse, expressed gratitude for the recognition for important work she loves doing. Corbett¸ also a surgical nurse, thanked her family for their support when she became a nurse.
“I became a nurse later in life and it wasn’t easy, but it was well worth it,”Corbett said, telling her family that she could not have done it without them.
Rachel Snider, recipient of the Physician’s Assistant (PA) Award, was recognized both for her work in New York Hospitals and establishing rural mountain clinics across the Dominican Republic between 2012 and 2016. Snider said she was “excited that PAs continue to be more and more recognized in medicine”as she accepted her award and thanked her current employer Open Door.
Redab Alnifaidy, a fourth-year medical student at New York Medical College, received the Promise for the Future Award. Though she joked that she is “probably the least credentialed person here,”her resume includes a bachelor’s degree in Near Eastern Studies, an MS in biochemistry and molecular biology, work with the FDA focused on Hematology, and certifications in translation and Arabic language and culture.
“Hopefully I can be as impactful as you have been in the community,”she told her fellow honorees.
Three Team Awards were given out as well.
The first was given to the White Plains Hospital ICU Team, consisting of Drs. John Cardasis, Nelky Ramirez, Beata Popis-Matejak, Artur Alaverdian, Walter Chua, Miriam Lagunas Fitta, Piotr Wyrwinski, Francisco Salgueiro, Erica Bang and Joseph Taddeo. As the pandemic set in, they found the means to increase the number of beds in their intensive care unit by 500%, saving lives and maintaining a high quality of care at a critical moment.
The New York-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital’s Interventional Cardiology Team were recognized for their pioneering work in diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease throughout the region. Drs. Alan H. Slater, William J. Prabhu, Giora Weisz and Howard Tarkin extended their thanks to other cardiologists on their team, the nurses, the techs, and everybody else who is involved in making it possible to care for their patients with a standard of excellence.
The third honoree was the New York Medical College Health Services Team. Consisting of Ruby Lantigua, Katherine Kowalski, Donna McKenna, Christine Moronta, Rosemarie Raffa, Rochelle G. Saks and Dr. Marisa A. Montecalvo. The award was accepted on behalf of the team by Dr. Montecalvo. Even before the pandemic, they had the unique responsibility of seeing to the health needs of future generations of medical providers.
The event was sponsored by some of the region’s most prominent medical providers. The Gold level of sponosrship was provided by Yale New Haven Health and Montefiore Einstein. CCLEAN, white Plains Hospital, and the Hospital for Special Surgery Westchester were silver sponsors while the Open Door Family Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian served as Bronze Sponsors.
