Announcement from Dean and CEO Robert I. Grossman, M.D.
I am pleased to announce the appointment of our future Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Steven Flanagan, M.D., who has been Mount Sinai’s Vice Chair for Rehabilitation Medicine and Medical Director of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation unit there, will be succeeding Mathew H.M. Lee, M.D., as both Chair of the Department and Medical Director of the Rusk Institute, when Dr. Lee steps down on May 8, 2008.
Internationally renowned in his field, Dr. Flanagan received his medical degree from University of Medicine and Dentistry-New Jersey Medical School in 1988, and completed his residency training at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he served as chief resident during his last year of training. Since joining the faculty there in 1992, he has led a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Program that encompasses the physical, cognitive and emotional aftermaths of such injuries and that has been designated a model system—one of only 16 of its kind in the country.
He holds a major TBI grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, is chairman of the Brain Injury Special Interest Group of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) and an examiner for Part II of PM&R’s certification exam, and serves on a number of other national and international organizations, including the medical advisory board for the Brain Trauma Foundation and the advisory board of the Head Injury Foundation of India.
The legacy he inherits is a remarkable one. Dr. Lee’s caring and courage have enriched the Rusk Institute for 45 years. He is revered across the world for the depth of his humanism and for opening new avenues—including the management of chronic pain, acupuncture, music therapy and thermography—in restoring patients to more productive and satisfying lives. He holds three professorships, in rehabilitation medicine, music and dentistry. A protégé of Dr. Rusk himself and the last and youngest full professor whom the founder of the Institute ever appointed, Dr. Lee has earned a cascade of honors, including the Distinguished Clinician Award from the American Academy of PM&R and the 2006 Honor Award and Gold Key to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, bestowed since 1948 for outstanding contributions to medicine and distinguished service to mankind.
Under his leadership, the U.S. News & World Report ranked the Rusk Institute #1 in rehabilitation medicine in the New York area for 18 consecutive years. Over the past 50 years, the Department has trained 23 Departmental Chairs in the United States. Dr. Lee also founded “Rusk Without Walls” to utilize rehabilitation medicine to further world peace, and lectured and consulted in rehabilitation medicine in over 40 countries. He has authored and edited seven textbooks and 115 scientific publications.
Dr. Flanagan intends to build on Dr. Lee’s brilliant legacy through expanded collaborations with other departments, increased specialization along specific diagnostic lines such as musculoskeletal medicine, and further emphasis on continuity of care through all phases of the patient’s recovery. He will be joining us in April, allowing a smooth transition from one great leader to another.
Please join me in acknowledging Dr. Lee for his extraordinary contributions, both to our Medical Center and the field of Rehabilitation Medicine as a whole, and in offering the warmest of welcomes to Dr. Flanagan.
Sincerely,Robert I. Grossman, M.D.
Dean and CEO
