Northwell - Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Forest Hills Hospital is a more than 200-bed community hospital located in Forest Hills, N.Y. The hospital is a member of the North Shore-LIJ Health System headquartered in Great Neck, N.Y. Its emergency department, a certified heart station, designated stroke center and 911 receiving site treats more than 25,000 patients each year. The hospital s Women s New Life Center features labor-delivery recovery suites for mothers and their families, and its adult primary care center offers outpatient health care. Forest Hills Hospital offers general surgery, orthopedics, bloodless medicine and surgery, gynecology, bariatric surgery and gastroenterology services on-site. The hospital s modern emergency department provides treatment for various types of acute coronary syndromes.

I am a pediatric hematologist/oncologist who specializes in stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy. I graduated from the Upstate Medical University, completed a residency in pediatrics at the Schneider Children's Hospital, served as Chief Resident of Pediatrics at the Schneider Children's Hospital, and then completed my training with a fellowship in pediatric hematology / oncology at the Children s Hospital of Philadelphia. During my fellowship, I concurrently spent 3 years in the laboratory researching cellular immunotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, while also pursuing a clinical interest in the late effects of childhood cancer treatment. In 2008 I came to the Cohen Children s Medical Center to found Survivors Facing Forward, a long-term follow-up program to provide care to survivors of childhood cancer and stem cell transplantation. Since 2008, the program has grown to follow nearly 1,000 survivors of childhood cancer and has been a fertile source for clinical research. In 2021 I assumed leadership of the stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy program at Cohen Children's Medical Center, where I am the Transplant Center Medial Director and Marrow Collection Facility Director. Our transplant center participates in national and international cooperative group studies in the use of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy to treat cancers, bone marrow failure syndromes, immune deficiencies and hemoglobinopathies (sickle cell disease and thalassemia). Notably, we are one of a very limited number of Qualified Treatment Centers (QTC) for Zynteglo , an FDA approved gene therapy for transfusion dependent thalassemia, and are in the process of being named a QTC for gene therapy products recently FDA approved to cure sickle cell disease.