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New York Medical College Receives $3 Million to Establish The Catherine and Ladislav P. Hinterbuchner Professorship and Chair

The Catherine and Ladislav P. Hinterbuchner Endowed Chair and Professorship in Rehabilitation Medicine Established

VALHALLA, N.Y., June 22, 2017—A gift of $3 million to New York Medical College (NYMC) has endowed the professorship and chair in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan to support teaching and training of medical students and residents and to foster research.  The benefactor is the estate of Catherine Hinterbuchner, M.D., a physician who served as chair of NYMC’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine from 1971 to 2004 and earned emeritus status in 2005. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 88. The endowed chair will be named “The Catherine and Ladislav P. Hinterbuchner Endowed Chair in Rehabilitation Medicine,” named after her and her late husband.

“I met Dr. Hinterbuchner in 2012," said Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer, NYMC. "She was a force of nature and deeply devoted to assuring the long-term development of the medical specialty of rehabilitation medicine in order to improve the quality and quantity of the lives of future generations of patients."

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine currently has 12 full-time faculty members, primarily based at Metropolitan in New York City. A national search was held to fill the endowed chair position leading to the selection of Eduardo Lopez, M.D., as the inaugural Hinterbuchner Professor and Chair. A native of Puerto Rico, Dr. Lopez is a graduate of the Universidad Central del Caribe School of Medicine and completed his internship at Hurley Medical Center/Michigan State University, residency at SUNY Upstate Medical Center and a fellowship in neurorehabilitation at the Medical College of Virginia. He is double board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and brain injury medicine.

Michal L. Schwartzman, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology, who served as chair of the search committee, said “I am confident that Dr. Lopez fills the criteria laid out by the late Dr. Hinterbuchner requiring the individual named for the newly endowed chair to be a clinician, teacher, researcher and administrator who will allow the department to thrive into the future as a leader in rehabilitation medicine.”

Dr.  Lopez, joined the faculty of NYMC and Metropolitan as chairman and chief of service of the Department Rehabilitation Medicine in 2012. Prior to NYMC, Dr. Lopez served as medical director of the JFK-Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, New Jersey, and held a clinical faculty position at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

“Dr. Lopez has admirably overseen a rehabilitation medicine department that serves our patients with disabilities on an inpatient and outpatient basis,” said Alina Moran, M.P.A., Chief Executive Officer at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan. “Under his leadership, the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine also serves as the primary site of academic clinical training for the NYMC rehabilitation residency program and the NYMC School of Medicine students. We applaud Dr. Lopez’s appointment to the Hinterbuchner Chair.”

Dr. Catherine Hinterbuchner led the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at NYMC—as the College’s first female chair—and was chief of rehabilitation medicine at both Metropolitan and Lincoln Hospitals in New York City. At Metropolitan, Dr. Hinterbuchner was the hospital’s first chief of rehabilitation medicine, and the College’s first residency program director in the specialty. She was also the first woman elected to the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the first appointed to the Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Dr. Hinterbuchner received her M.D. from the University of Athens.

Since its founding in 1875, Metropolitan has been affiliated with NYMC, representing the oldest partnership between a hospital and a private medical school in the United States.

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About New York Medical College

Founded in 1860, NYMC is one of the oldest and largest health sciences colleges in the country with more than 1,400 students, 1,300 residents and clinical fellows, nearly 3,000 faculty members, and 16,000 living alumni. The College, which joined the Touro College and University System in 2011, offers advanced degrees from the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Dentistry, and the School of Health Sciences and Practice. NYMC provides a wide variety of clinical training opportunities throughout the tri-state region for medical students, residents, and other health providers.

About NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan

NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan is the community hospital of choice for residents of East Harlem, northern Manhattan and neighboring communities. Metropolitan provides culturally-sensitive primary and specialized medical care to patients of all ages regardless of national origin, immigration status, or ability to pay. Since its founding in 1875, Metropolitan has been affiliated with New York Medical College, representing the oldest partnership between a hospital and a private medical school in the United States. Metropolitan is a member of NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public health care system in the nation. For more information, please visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/metropolitan.