March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and I am delighted to report that we have a newly rebuilt and rapidly growing colon and rectal surgery program at MSBI.
Last July, we welcomed Sanghyun Alexander Kim, MD to the MSBI and downtown campus as our Division Chief. He was previously at Mount Sinai Hospital where he completed his training and spent 15 years providing care as a part of the Faculty Practice while also training residents and fellows.
Both Mount Sinai and Beth Israel have had a long history of leadership and innovation in digestive health. The first people to describe Crohn’s disease were Dr. Burrill Crohn at Mount Sinai, and Dr. Leon Ginzburg who began at Mount Sinai and then served at Beth Israel as Chief of Surgery from 1947-1969.
Dr. Kim and his team are now seeing ambulatory patients at Union Square and operating on more complicated cases at Petrie. These patients have all sorts of conditions including Crohn’s disease, colon and anorectal cancer, diverticular diseases, and other digestive disorders.
Just last week, we welcomed a new colorectal surgery physician assistant, Hayden Hopkins. We are also in the process of recruiting another surgeon who will likely join us in July.
Members of our colon and rectal surgery team: Tina Vercueil, medical assistant; Claire Song, medical assistant; Hayden Hopkins, PA; Danielle Scribani, PA; Sanghyun Alexander Kim, MD; Junghee Benitez, medical assistant.
We are lucky to have Dr. Kim and this stellar team serving the MSBI community.