Officials from the Maimonides Medical Center, 4802 10th Avenue in Borough Park, and SUNY Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue in East Flatbush, today convened to make a historic announcement: the creation of a new, unified regional chair of neurology.
The new chair position will provide three key benefits to Brooklyn: facilitating quality neurological medical care borough wide, improving the quality of education for Brooklyn-based medical students, and developing new opportunities for neuroscience research in the borough.
“SUNY Downstate and Maimonides Medical Center both have a distinguished history of providing high quality neurological and neurosurgical care, education and research,” said SUNY Downstate Medical Center President Dr. Wayne J. Riley. “I am confident that this new position will bring greater access to the most advanced neurological care possible in this borough of more than 2.5 million people.”
Maimonides Medical Center President & CEO Kenneth D. Gibbs concurred, stressing the importance of making sure that Brooklyn’s residents don’t have to travel out of borough to receive respectable medical care.
“Making expertise accessible to [Brooklyn] is something we’re highly committed to,” said Gibbs. “Historically, there have been a range of services that residents of Brooklyn have traveled to Manhattan for. We think it’s important to have them available here.”
The announcement marks the latest chapter in both institutions’ continued effort to provide accessible medical care to Brooklyn residents, a cause that both institutions have been devoted to since they were founded over a century ago.
“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with SUNY Downstate,” said Maimonides Board of Trustees Chair Eugene Keilin. “We are two of the most important institutions of any kind in the borough. But this is an expanded and enhanced relationship.”
Dr. Daniel Rosenbaum, the appointee to the newly founded position, provided detailed examples of what the new department will be able to accomplish in the coming months. By his account, the unified department will, “take advantage of the strengths of both institutions,” while enabling them to compensate for each others’ weaknesses.
Rosenbaum noted Maimonides has some outstanding sub-specialities, such as headaches, which are lacking of here at Downstate. “This [unified chair] will enable us to perform, on an educational level, sub-specialty care that was not formerly available,” he said.
Rosenbaum ended his remarks expressing gratitude for his appointment, and a promise to see to it that the new department fulfills its intended purpose.
“Our overall goal is to become the premiere provider of neurological care within the borough of Brooklyn,” said Rosenbaum. “I look forward to working with all of you to make this come true.”
