Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) recently announced that Daniel G. Nicastri, M.D., has joined the health network as section chief of thoracic surgery within the department of surgery.
Nicastri comes to WMCHealth from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he served as an associate professor in the Department of Thoracic Surgery and held leadership roles supporting lung cancer care and quality, including coordinating the thoracic surgery tumor board and morbidity and mortality conferences. A veteran of the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve who attained the rank of commander, he held clinical and operational leadership assignments, including staff surgeon at U.S. Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay; chief of surgery at a NATO Role 3 hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan; chairman of the Cancer Care Committee and chief of thoracic surgery at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital; and attending thoracics surgeon at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
A Brooklyn native, Nicastri earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and received his medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine. He completed a general surgery residency at Mount Sinai, a cardiothoracic surgery residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and a minimally invasive thoracic fellowship at Mount Sinai. He is board certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and is licensed to practice medicine in New York.
His clinical expertise includes minimally invasive and robotic lung and esophageal surgery, foregut surgery (including antireflux and hiatal hernia repair), and mediastinal surgery. Nicastri has authored peer-reviewed publications and textbook chapters on topics, including early lung cancer screening and surgery, minimally invasive (VATS) lung cancer surgery, lung cancer outcomes, chest wall tumors, and tracheal surgery.
“For patients facing a lung or esophageal diagnosis, access to the most advanced, least invasive surgical options — close to home —can be life-changing,” said Peter Paige, M.D., MMM, CPE, FACEP, executive vice president and chief clinical officer. “Dr. Nicastri strengthens our ability to deliver minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery, paired with a proven commitment to early lung cancer detection and coordinated, multidisciplinary care.”
Nicastri will provide thoracic surgical care for patients throughout the WMCHealth Network and will support its commitment to clinical, quality and academic missions.
The Westchester Medical Center Health Network is the pre-eminent provider of integrated health care in New York’s Hudson Valley region, serving nearly 2.5 million residents across more than 6,000 square miles. A 1,700-bed health-care system headquartered in Valhalla, New York, including nine hospitals on seven campuses and 60 ambulatory care sites, WMCHealth is home to the region’s only Level I (adult and pediatric) trauma center and the only Academic Medical Center between New York City and Albany. The network employs more than 13,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians – seeing nearly 300,000 unique patients every year, and is the state’s largest Medicaid provider north of New York City, serving 1 in 3 Medicaid patients in the region. WMCHealth also features Level II and Level III trauma centers, a nationally renowned pediatric hospital that is the region’s only acute care children’s hospital and leading pediatric hospital across the country, the region’s only Level IV NICU, the region’s only organ transplant center, several community hospitals, and dozens of specialized institutes and centers. The network also includes comprehensive and primary stroke centers, burn center, skilled nursing, and one of the largest mental health systems in New York state.
