New Faculty
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital welcomes these new faculty members.
K. S. Clifford Chao, MD
Dr. Chao is Director of the Combined Program in Radiation Oncology and Radiation Oncologist-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He is also the Chu H. Chang Professor and Chair in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Professor and Chief in the Division of Radiation Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a Member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Chao's Biography
K.S. Clifford Chao, MD, renowned for his skill in using image-guided targeted radiotherapy (IMRT) and intensity modulated radiation therapy for the treatment of head and neck cancer and other cancers, has joined NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital as Director of the Combined Program in Radiation Oncology. Dr. Chao also is Chu H. Chang Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Professor and Chief of the Division of Radiation Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Chao is radiation oncologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and a member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Chao brings extensive research expertise in IMRT and combining the use of positron emission tomography and computed tomography images to direct customized radiation treatment plans tailored specifically to the individual patient and the molecular characteristics of each tumor. In addition to his responsibilities at NewYork-Presbyterian, Dr. Chao has supervisory responsibility for the Department of Radiation Oncology at New York Hospital Queens a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System. Dr. Chao wrote the widely read textbook, "Practical Essentials of IMRT." Prior to joining NewYork-Presbyterian, Dr. Chao was the Director of Image-Guided Therapy of Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Israel Deutsch, MD
Dr. Deutsch is the Director of the Brachytherapy Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and a Clinical Instructor of Radiation Oncology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Deutch's Biography
Israel Deutch, MD, a board-certified Radiation Oncologist, has been appointed Director, Brachytherapy Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. He is also Clinical Instructor of Radiation Oncology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Deutsch specializes in the treatment of prostate cancer, bladder cancer, gynecologic tumors, breast cancer, thoracic tumors, sarcoma, and head and neck tumors. His particular interest is in low and high dose rate applications of interstitial and intracavitary brachytherapy, including prostate seed implants, and partial breast brachytherapy. Dr. Deutsch received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, New York, and completed his residency at the State University of New York – Downstate Medical Center. He also completed a Brachytherapy Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Sheldon M. Feldman, MD
Dr. Feldman is the Chief of the Breast Surgery Section at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Feldman's Biography
A leading authority in minimally invasive breast cancer surgery and cancer prevention, Dr. Sheldon Feldman has been appointed Chief of Breast Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Feldman is helping to pioneer the use of the ductoscope, a tiny endoscope inserted through the patient's nipple used for diagnosis, surveillance and treatment of cancer patients. His research using the device may help lead to a simple test for early diagnosis that could eventually be the equivalent of a Pap smear for breast cancer. A leader in minimally invasive breast cancer surgery, Dr. Feldman was instrumental in developing the transmammary axillary lymph node evaluation (TANE) procedure, and is also an expert in oncoplastic skin-sparing and nipple-preserving mastectomy. In his new role, Dr. Feldman will oversee the breast cancer surgery program at the Comprehensive Breast Center of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/ Columbia University Medical Center. Prior to joining NewYork-Presbyterian, Dr. Feldman served as chief of the comprehensive breast service at Beth Israel Medical Center and professor of clinical surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He received his M.D. degree from New York University Medical School, and completed a surgical internship and residency training at New York University Bellevue Hospital Medical Center, Bellevue Hospital and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. In 1979, he was appointed clinical instructor in surgery at New York University Medical Center. In 1982, he was named director of the Noninvasive Vascular Laboratory at the Benedictine Hospital in Kingston, N.Y.; in 1994, he was appointed vice president of medical and dental staff and to medical director of its Fern Feldman Anolick Breast Center. In 1984, he was named clinical associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Westchester Medical Center. In 1994, he joined the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine as adjunct clinical assistant professor of surgery. In 2000, he was appointed chief of the comprehensive breast service at Beth Israel Medical Center. He has received professional honors, including the Award for Outstanding Service by the American Cancer Society (1998), and has been repeatedly listed in Castle Connolly's "Top Doctors: New York Metro Area" and America's Top Surgeons' "Guide to America's Top Surgeons."
More information about Dr. Feldman is available here.
Tomoaki Kato, MD
Dr. Kato is the Surgical Director of Adult and Pediatric Liver and Intestinal Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and a Faculty Member in the Department of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Kato's Biography
A world-renowned specialist in multiple-organ transplantation, pediatric and adult liver transplantation, Dr. Tomoaki Kato has been appointed Surgical Director of Adult and Pediatric Liver and Intestinal Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and is a faculty member in the department of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Kato is known for unique and innovative surgeries for adults and children, including a six-organ transplant; a procedure called APOLT (auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation) that resuscitates a failing liver by attaching a partial donor liver, making immunosuppressant drugs unnecessary; and the first successful human partial bladder transplantation involving the transplant of two kidneys together with ureters connected to a patch of the donor bladder. This March, in a highly publicized case, he led the first reported removal and re-implantation, or auto-transplantation, of six organs to excise a hard-to-reach abdominal tumor. Previously the director of pediatric liver and gastrointestinal transplant and professor of clinical surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Kato received his medical degree from the Osaka University Medical School in Japan and received his residency training in surgery at Osaka University Hospital and Itami City Hospital in Hyogo, Japan. He completed a clinical fellowship in transplantation at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, in Miami, Fla., where he was subsequently appointed to the surgical faculty in 1997, and promoted to full professor in 2007. He served as a surgeon and senior leader of the liver and transplantation center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, beginning in 1997, and at University of Miami Hospital (previously Cedars Medical Center), beginning in 2004. Dr. Kato is a member of numerous professional and honorary organizations, and the author or co-author of more than 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has also served on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) pediatric committee in 2005 and 2006 and is also helping to establish transplant services for children in underserved countries like Venezuela, where transplantation is not widely available.
More information on Dr. Kato is available here.
John M. Poneros, MD
Dr. Poneros is the Assistant Director of Endoscopy in the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Poneros's Biography
Dr. John Poneros brings clinical expertise in pancreatico-biliary disease and Barrett's esophagus to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. He is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His research interests extend to the early detection of dysplasia in Barrett's esophagus and biomarkers for its progression to cancer. As a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, his interest focused on the use of emerging imaging technologies, including optical coherence tomography, to study the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract, diagnose dysplasia in Barrett's esophagus and evaluate biliary tract disorders. Dr. Poneros received his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his internal medicine residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. He then pursued a clinical and research fellowship in gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital, following a combined Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Poneros has published several manuscripts of original research and invited reviews, editorials and chapters on technologies for the detection of Barrett's dysplasia. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
Francesco Rubino, MD
Dr. Rubino is Chief of the Gastrointestinal Metabolic Surgery Section at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr. Rubino's Biography
Francesco Rubino, MD, has been appointed Chief of the Gastrointestinal Metabolic Surgery Section at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also Assistant Attending Surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and heads up the Diabetes Surgery Center at the same institution, the first academic-based Diabetes Surgery Center in the country. A world-renowned pioneer of surgery for type 2 diabetes, Dr. Rubino is the proponent of a novel procedure, now known as Rubino's Procedure, which can bring diabetes type 2 into long-term remission for the first time. Instead of shrinking the stomach like most approaches to weight-loss surgery, his approach reroutes the small intestine, leaving the stomach intact. As one of the world's leaders in the research, teaching and practice of metabolic and weight-loss surgery, Dr. Rubino's pioneering approaches hold an enormous promise for the millions living with obesity and diabetes. In addition, Dr. Rubino offers clinical expertise in numerous laparoscopic approaches to metabolic and weight-loss surgery-including Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic redo surgery for failed bariatric procedures, and laparoscopic digestive surgery. Dr. Rubino recently organized the 1st World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes in New York City, which brought together for the first time over 1,000 multi-disciplinary diabetes experts from 46 countries; and he serves as a founding member of the International Diabetes Surgery Task Force. Most recently, Dr. Rubino was an assistant professor of surgery at the Catholic University of Rome, Italy, and director of the Metabolic Surgery Research Program at the IRCAD-European Institute of Telesurgery in Strasbourg, France, where he was also a surgeon in the Department of Digestive and Endocrine Surgery in the Hopital Civil. He received his medical degree and completed his residency in general surgery at the Catholic University/Policlinico Gemelli in Rome, Italy. He also completed fellowships in laparoscopic surgery at the European Institute of Telesurgery in Strasbourg, France; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York; the Cleveland Clinic; and a clinical/research fellowship in breast cancer at the Catholic University in Rome. Dr. Rubino is a member of various professional organizations, the recipient of numerous awards, and the author of 20 book chapters and more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
More information about Dr. Rubino is available here.
Jinesh N. Shah, MD
Dr. Shah is the Associate Director of the Radiation Oncology Residency Training Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Dr. Shah's Biography
Jinesh N. Shah, M.D., a board-certified radiation oncologist, recently joined the Department of Radiation Oncology of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. As a full-time faculty member of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, he serves as Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology and Associate Director of the Radiation Oncology Residency Training Program, directing all aspects of training of residents, fellows, and medical students. Dr. Shah specializes in the delivery of radiotherapy treatments for patients with cancer involving the lung/thorax, brain, and esophagus; he also delivers radiation therapy to patients with lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma. In addition, Dr. Shah performs Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery procedures for patients with benign and cancerous brain conditions, as well as stereotactic body radiotherapy for lung tumors and other cancerous lesions. Dr. Shah's research interests include optimizing techniques for trigeminal neuralgia Gamma Knife radiosurgery, studying standardization of radiation approaches for glioma treatment, and optimizing immobilization and delivery techniques for stereotactic body radiotherapy. Dr. Shah is a graduate of Harvard University, and he attended medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He conducted his residency training in radiation oncology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. He is conversant in Spanish and Guajarati.
