Emergency Medicine Editor-in-Chief Neal Flomenbaum, MD, Is Honored at Two Medical School Graduations on the Same Day
On Wednesday, May 25, 2016, Emergency Medicine Editor-in-Chief Neal Flomenbaum, MD, emergency physician-in-chief (1996-2016) and emergency medical services (EMS) medical director (1996- ) at New York Presbyterian Hospital, professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, was honored at two New York City medical school graduations.
First, at the midday Weill Cornell Medical College commencement exercises in Carnegie Hall, Dr Flomenbaum helped present the second annual “Neal Flomenbaum, MD, Prize for Excellence in Emergency Medicine,” a $50,000 award endowed by a generous gift named for Dr Flomenbaum by Jeanne and Herbert Seigel. A few hours later, at the Lincoln Center commencement exercises of his alma mater, Dr Flomenbaum received the “Albert Einstein College of Medicine 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award,” for, according to Einstein Dean Allen M. Spiegel, MD, his “extraordinary career in emergency medicine and...many contributions to the health and welfare of underserved communities and all populations in New York City.”
Dr Flomenbaum has dedicated his life to ensuring the highest quality emergency care for patients; to educating and training students, residents, and attending physicians; and to helping establish and support the specialty of emergency medicine. Dr Flomenbaum’s accomplishments include coauthoring and coediting eight editions of the leading medical toxicology textbook, two editions of a text on diagnostic testing, and more than 150 research and review papers, book chapters, and editorials. He has served as a senior examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine, senior consultant to the NYC Poison Control Center, a fellow and the founding chair of the New York Academy of Medicine Section on Emergency Medicine, and chair of the Medical Advisory Committee to NYC EMS. Prior to joining the Weill Cornell faculty in 1996, Dr Flomenbaum held academic appointments at Einstein, New York University, and SUNY/Downstate Schools of Medicine.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia College in 1969, and his MD from Albert Einstein as an alpha omega alpha member of the class of 1973. Dr Flomenbaum completed an internal medicine residency at Einstein/Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. In 1996, Dr Flomenbaum arrived at what was then New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center after serving as associate director of emergency medicine at Jacobi/Einstein and NYU/Bellevue Hospitals, and then as chairman of emergency medicine at SUNY/Long Island College Hospital.
According to the Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, its Division of Emergency Medicine “has grown significantly in the last 20 years under the leadership of Dr Neal Flomenbaum and is operating at a scale and scope [of] an academic department.” At Weill Cornell, Dr Flomenbaum created the nation’s first fellowship and division of geriatric emergency medicine (GEM) in 2005, a decade before GEM fellowships were offered at other academic centers around the country; he also created divisions of medical toxicology, EM/critical care, and other traditional EM subspecialties. Dr Flomenbaum most recently embarked on creating a new fellowship and division of Women’s Health Emergencies.
Since 2006, Dr Flomenbaum has also been editor-in-chief of Emergency Medicine, the oldest and one of the most widely read journals for the specialty. His incisive monthly editorials on current concerns in emergency medicine and emergency departments are available at www.emed-journal.com and at www.NYMeDED.org.