Dr. R. Peter Altman of NewYork-Presbyterian Becomes President-Elect of American Pediatric Surgical Association
May 22, 2002
NEW YORK
R. Peter Altman, Surgeon-in-Chief of Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs of the Children's Health System of NewYork-Presbyterian, has been elected the next President of the American Pediatric Surgical Association. He will take office at the Association's annual meeting in May 2002.
Dr. Altman is also Professor of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He was Director of the Division of Pediatric Surgery from 1980 until 2000, when he assumed his present position with the Children's Health System of NewYork-Presbyterian. He was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief at Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian in 1992, and retains that position.
Dr. Altman served his internship at the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. He trained in general surgery at the Tufts-New England Medical Center and in pediatric surgery at the Children's Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., completing his training in 1969. He remained on the staff of that hospital and the faculty of George Washington University until 1980, when he was recruited to Columbia University Medical Center to succeed Dr. Thomas Santulli as Chief of Pediatric Surgery.
Dr. Altman will be the 33rd President of APSA, which was founded in 1970. It has 700 members, who have all completed specialty training and hold Board certification in pediatric surgery. Members of the organization have committed their careers to the surgical care of children.
Dr. Altman has held numerous leadership positions in American surgery. He served as a member of the Residency Review Committee for Surgery and is currently on the Appeals Panel of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). He has served APSA as a member and Chair of the Education and Program Committees, and as a Governor of the Association from 1996 to 1999. He is on the Board of Directors of the Children's Oncology Society of New York (Ronald McDonald House and Foundation). Dr. Altman has delivered numerous prestigious invited lectures, nationally and internationally.