MDNews - Long Island

on regulatory developments, industry trends and best practices. ACRP also serves as a career resource for job opportunities and maintains an online community to connect with peers. Dr. Brennan has more than 19 years of extensive clinical research experience, including over 15 years in management roles. Under her leadership, 375 active clinical trials are conducted each year at the Feinstein Institutes. She supports nearly 400 clinical investigators and their research delegates. Dr. Brennan is the immediate past President of ACRP's New York Metropolitan Chapter and is an active member of the Clinical Trial Transformation Initiative with Duke University and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Brennan also serves on the oncology advisory board with the Society for Clinical Research Sites and is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She has authored numerous textbook chapters and co-authored over 25 manuscripts and abstracts. Dr. Brennan is an Adjunct Professor at Yeshiva University, where she teaches a clinical trials and research management class for the Masters of Science, Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship program. St. Charles Hospital's Chief Operating Officer Ronald Weingartner is the 2019 recipient of the Patrick J. Scollard Award for Leadership. Chosen from more than 50 nominees from across CHS, Weingartner was presented with the prestigious award at the health system's 16th annual leadership conference. Named in honor of Catholic Health Services (CHS)'s former President and Chief Executive Officer, the Scollard Award is the highest level of leadership recognition within the health system bestowed to management staff. This year's conference featured keynote speaker Robyn Benincasa, founder of World Class Teams. Her company works with organizations to provide exceptional team- building techniques and experiences. A resident of Sag Harbor, Weingartner successfully advanced key projects, including the renovation of the Port Jefferson-based hospital's newly refurbished maternity unit. The $4 million project now offers 16 modern private rooms with the latest amenities for newborns and their parents. Also, he was instrumental in obtaining a $4.3 million grant to change the footprint of the St. Charles Emergency Department to better meet community needs. Scollard Award finalists are Eileen Dwyer of St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn and Roberta Levesque of St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown. With more than 30 years of oncology experience, Dwyer has served as Nursing Manager of the Infusion Unit at CHS's Cancer Institute at St. Francis since 2013. The Garden City resident is tireless in her efforts to deliver the highest quality patient care. A resident of Patchogue, Levesque has spent the past eight years promoting the principles of palliative care, as part of an effort to further enhance patient comfort and assist families at St. Catherine. Consequently, palliative care consultations have risen from 693 in 2011 to nearly 1,500 in 2019. Also, she was the driving force behind the creation of the Butterfly Program, a six-bed palliative care unit. Levesque sets the example when it comes to continuing education and recently earned her MBA from St. Joseph's College. Ronald Weingartner, COO for St. Charles Hospital and recipient of the 2019 Patrick J. Scollard Award for Leadership (third from left), is honored by Alan Guerci, MD, CHS President & Chief Executive Officer (fourth from left) and CHS colleagues. Diane Burshtein, Director of Patient Experience Catholic Health Services (CHS) has named Diane Burshtein Director of Patient Experience at St. Charles Hospital and St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center. The Plainview resident will collaborate with senior leadership and key stakeholders to drive quality and service excellence in further enhancing the patient experience at both hospitals. Burshtein joins CHS with extensive experience in both hospital and post-acute services administration from Northwell Health, Health & Hospitals Corporation and Visiting Nurse Service of New York. CHS's commitment to providing patients the highest level of care led to the creation of the patient experience position to further enhance patient satisfaction at hospitals across the system. This past year, Medina Kurtovic was named Director of Patient Experience for Mercy Medical Center and St. Joseph's Hospital and Anthony Anitra was named Director of Patient Experience for Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center. They join Karen Allen, who has served as Director of Patient Experience for St. Francis Hospital since 2017. Chunyan Li, PhD Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research Assistant Professor Chunyan Li, PhD, has been awarded a 2-year, $460,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the therapeutic potential of electrical trigeminal nerve stimulation in the injured brain. The study, entitled "Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation to Modulate Cortical Spreading Depolarizations (CSDs) after Brain Injury," will be the first-ever research seeking to reduce the harmful effects of CSDs in the injured brain. CSD is a phenomenon of depressed brain electrical activity that has been clinically found in a variety of acute brain injuries, including 100 percent of patients with malignant hemispheric ischemic stroke. Several experimental and clinical studies have confirmed that CSDs are both a real-time indicator of brain damage and can also cause secondary damage in the already compromised brain. n M D N E W S . C O M /// M D N E W S L O N g I S L A N D ■ 2 0 2 0 1 1

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