Becker's ASC Review

October 2021 Issue of Becker's ASC Review

Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1416329

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 49 of 63

50 GASTROENTEROLOGY Weill Cornell Medicine names GI division chief By Ariana Portalatin R obert Brown, MD, was named chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Brown, who began his new role Aug. 1, succeeds David Cohen, MD, PhD, who served as the division chief since 2016. Dr. Brown will also continue to serve as medical director of the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center, which he co- founded in 1998. Dr. Brown specializes in liver diseases, including alcohol-related liver disease, chronic hepatitis C infection and cirrhosis. He earned a medical degree from New York University and a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed internships at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a fellowship at the University of Califor- nia San Francisco. Dr. Brown joined NewYork-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center as an attend- ing physician in 2000. He previously served as an adjunct faculty member at Weill Cor- nell Medicine from 1999 until 2015, when he joined the school's full-time faculty as clini- cal chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology. He also served as vice chair of mentoring and academic development in the school's department of medicine from 2018 until 2021. Dr. Brown has co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and served in editorial roles for several hepatology journals. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Liver Trans- plantation. He is also the co-founder and vice president of the Empire Liver Founda- tion, which works with the New York City Department of Health to assist patients with liver diseases. Dr. Brown has received numerous awards and research grants, including the Physician of the Year from the New York chapter of the American Liver Foundation. n GI provider waited 'months' to tell 161,000+ patients their information were exposed in ransomware attack By Patsy Newitt H ouston-based Gastroenterology Consultants allegedly waited months before informing the more than 161,000 patients that their data was exposed in ransomware attack, KHOU 11 reported Sept. 9. The provider notified patients Aug. 6 of a "data security incident" that occured Jan. 10 and had potentially exposed 162,163 patients and employees. Texas state law requires businesses to notify the attorney general's office within 60 days of any data breach affecting more than 250 people. A KHOU 11 investigation found that Gastroenterology Consultants didn't notify the attorney general until Aug. 9, seven months after the data breach. The medical group said March 19 that it had resolved the cyber issues and remediated and restored its systems. After undergoing an extensive data-mining process to determine specifically which patients or employ- ees had their information exposed, the group felt it was more cost effec- tive to notify all patients and employees instead. The letter to the patients also indicated that the company paid the hackers ransom and then trusted the criminals to keep their word about deleting the data. "You can pay them off, but how do you know? How do you know that they really got rid of your information?" patient Amber Wietlispach told KHOU 11. "How do you trust somebody that you had to pay money to?" n 5 fast facts on Gastro Health's CEO By Patsy Newitt Joseph Garcia has been the CEO of Miami-based Gastro Health since February 2018. Five things to know: 1. Mr. Garcia previously served as CEO of Sage Dental for more than four years. Under his leadership, the group expanded from 20 practices to more than 60 in Florida and Georgia. 2. Before joining Sage Dental, Mr. Garcia was COO of 21st Century On- cology for more than two years and division vice president at DaVita for almost four years. 3. Mr. Garcia received a BSBA and an MBA from Omaha, Neb.-based Creighton University. 4. Under Mr. Garcia's leadership, in the last three months, Gastro Health has acquired two locations in Florida and a seven-physician practice in Virginia, and secured a $90 million investment from Penfund, a Toronto- based fund management company. 5. Gastro Health has more than 270 affiliated physicians, more than 100 locations and more than six states with centers. n

Articles in this issue

view archives of Becker's ASC Review - October 2021 Issue of Becker's ASC Review