Arnar Geirsson, MD

Dr. Ratner is Professor of Surgery and Director of Renal and Pancreatic Transplantation at Columbia University. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Dr. Ratner was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and served as the Chief of Solid Organ Transplantation at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Ratner was responsible for dramatic growth of the kidney transplant program at CUIMC. He also established the pancreas transplant program, and the Kidney Autotransplant Program. He introduced robotic surgery to our kidney transplant program. Access to organ transplantation has been Dr. Ratner's major academic interest. Dr. Ratner has been a leading innovator in transplantation for over two decades. In 1993, he performed the world's first dual renal transplant. In 1995 (with Dr. Louis Kavoussi) he performed the first laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, and set the stage for its widespread adoption, which resulted in a profound increase in living donor kidney transplantation. Dr. Ratner has made significant contributions in overcoming immunologic incompatibilities that prohibited transplantation. He devised the plasmapheresis/IVIg protocol for alloantibody desensitization in 1998. In 2001, Dr. Ratner orchestrated the second paired-kidney exchange in the U.S. Subsequently, he arranged the first paired kidney exchanges in both Pennsylvania and New York. More recently Dr. Ratner has been a leading proponent of including compatible donor/recipient pairs in kidney exchanges. And, his more contemporary work has looked at the organizational and regulatory barriers to access to care. All of these strategies have increased organ availability and access to transplantation. Additionally, he has made important contributions to improve living donor safety. For his work, Dr. Ratner has received numerous awards and honors. And, he has been invited to speak and operate at various venues around the world. Dr. Ratner has authored or co-authored over 240 peer-reviewed publications, and has been a federally funded investigator. His publications have been cited over 20,000 times. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the LiveOnNY (formerly the New York Organ Donor Network), and has served on numerous national committees including the Board of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). He recently completed a term as the President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and previously served as that Society's Treasurer.Dr. Ratner originally hails from Brooklyn, NY. He received his undergraduate education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He received his M.D. from Hahnemann University. His general surgery training was obtained at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He completed a Fellowship in Transplantation Surgery and Immunology at Washington University. In 2011 Dr. Ratner completed a Master of Public Health with a focus on health care policy, administration and management.

Patricia Vuguin, MD, MSc, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Endocrine Fellowship Program at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). She is also Medical Director of the Pediatric Thyroid Center at CUMC and NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Her expertise includes thyroid disease, metabolic syndrome, glucose metabolism, growth, puberty and disorders of puberty, and fetal programming of adult disease. Dr. Vuguin is an accomplished clinician, researcher, and educator. She is fluent in Spanish and English and empathetic to the medical needs of New York’s Hispanic community. In her leadership role for the Pediatric Thyroid Center, she collaborates with a multidisciplinary team of specialists to care for children and adolescents with thyroid disorders, such as thyroid nodules and papillary thyroid cancer. In addition, Dr. Vuguin was the recipient of K08 and R21 awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), independent grants from pharmaceutical companies, and funding from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in research journals; presented her research findings at national and international meetings; and is an active member of the Pediatric Endocrine Society and the Society of Pediatric Research. Dr. Vuguin also completed a Master of Science Training Program in Clinical Research, an NIH-funded program offered by the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Prior to Columbia, Dr. Vuguin provided clinical care at Jacobi Medical Center, Montefiore Medical Center, and North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System (now Northwell Health). She is a member of the SuperDoctors ® list and received an Outstanding Teacher Award from North Shore-LIJ Health System. The American Medical Association’s Board of Trustees also selected her to serve on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Review Committee for Pediatrics.

Dr. Joseph Riad is a Colon and rectal surgeon with expertise in the full spectrum of benign and malignant colorectal diseases including colon and rectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, anorectal disorders and pelvic floor conditions, as well as minimally invasive procedures. He is experienced in Robotic surgery. He has special interest in colon and rectal cancer, having done an advanced fellowship in colorectal oncology. Dr. Riad is board Certified from the American Board of Surgery and American Board of Colorectal Surgery. Dr. Riad obtained his medical degree with highest honors from Cairo University School of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt, followed by General surgery residency at Cairo University hospitals. He then finished a surgical internship at University of Southern California in Los Angeles, followed by a general surgery residency at New York Medical College, Metropolitan Hospital in New York. Dr. Riad then completed a Colon and Rectal surgery fellowship at Mount Carmel Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio followed by one year of Advanced Colorectal Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He then worked in Florida for two years before joining the New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.