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Dr. Stephen J. Ferrando Joins Westchester Medical Center And New York Medical College

Dr. Ferrando is joining WMC and NYMC at a time when New York State is planning for a complete revamp of our health care delivery system

Date: June 17, 2014
Media Contact:

Jennifer Riekert, M.B.A.
Vice President of Communications
New York Medical College
(914) 594-4552
Jennifer_Riekert@nymc.edu

Psychiatrist, author and clinical researcher will serve as the Chairman of Psychiatry at New York Medical College and Director of Psychiatry at Westchester Medical Center

VALHALLA, N.Y., June 17, 2014Dr. Stephen J. Ferrando, nationally recognized physician, researcher, author and educator is the new Director of Psychiatry at Westchester Medical Center (WMC) and Chairman of Psychiatry at New York Medical College (NYMC).

Dr. Ferrando will be particularly focused on a regional, team-based approach to providing care through the integration of behavioral and physical health while advancing WMC’s and NYMC’s tertiary/quaternary and educational mission in the Hudson Valley region.

Dr. Ferrando comes to WMC and NYMC from the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center where he served as a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Clinical Public Health as well as Vice Chair for Psychosomatic Medicine and Departmental Operations in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Ferrando was also Dewitt Wallace Senior in the Department and the Associate Medical Director and Vice Chair for Clinical Programs for New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College's Westchester Division.

“We are thrilled to be able to welcome Dr. Ferrando, an experienced Physician and medical educator who has focused his clinical work and research on quality of life aspects of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, liver transplantation, and neurological diseases,” said Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer at NYMC. “We are very pleased to have identified such a worthy successor to the retiring department chair, Dr. Joseph English, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences."

“Dr. Ferrando will lead the Department of Psychiatry in creating integrated clinical, educational, and research programs with a focus on providing a patient-centered, evidenced-based model of care that meets the growing behavioral health needs of patients in the Hudson Valley,” said WMC President and CEO Michael Israel.”

WMC and NYMC remain committed not only to the outstanding clinical care of patients with mental illness, but to educating the next generation of Physicians.

Dr. Ferrando is joining WMC and NYMC at a time when New York State is planning for a complete revamp of our health care delivery system through a Medicaid waiver known as DSRIP (Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment). This is an important healthcare issue that WMC will be taking the lead on. Specifically, under DSRIP one of the key initiatives is a greater emphasis on care integration with behavioral health services as a means towards reducing avoidable hospital use and ED visits.

Dr. Ferrando attended Northwestern University Medical School, did his psychiatry residency training at the University of California, San Francisco and subsequently did a National Institute of Mental Health-funded HIV/AIDS research training fellowship at Weill Cornell. He is board-certified in Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine.

He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and is a peer-reviewer for journals that span multiple medical specialties. He is Editor-In-Chief of "Neurobehavioral HIV Medicine," a peer-reviewed journal; Senior Editor of "Psychiatry-in-Review," a multi-media Psychiatry board review guide; as well as "Clinical Manual of Psychopharmacology in the Medically Ill," published by the American Psychiatric Press, Inc.

Dr. Ferrando is past president of the New York Area Society for Liaison Psychiatry; is a Fellow of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine and is a 15-year member of the American Psychiatric Association Committee on AIDS.