Dr. James Paci and Dr. Robert Trasolini pose with orthopedic implants. Photo from Northwell Health
The sports medicine team at Huntington Hospital’s orthopedics department has introduced two biologically advanced implant procedures designed to improve outcomes for patients with knee injuries and early joint degeneration.
Orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist Robert Trasolini, DO, recently performed the hospital’s first BEAR® (Bridge-Enhanced ACL Restoration) Implant procedure on an 18-year-old male athlete, offering a promising new alternative to traditional ACL reconstruction. The BEAR implant is a collagen-based device that, when combined with the patient’s blood, forms a collagen matrix that protects and supports the healing ligament. It contains biological signals that stimulate the ACL to heal, preserving the body’s own tissue rather than replacing it with a graft.
“This is a tremendous advancement for younger, active patients,” said Dr. Trasolini. “The BEAR implant not only restores stability to the knee but does so in a way that supports the body’s natural healing process, potentially reducing recovery time and improving long-term joint health.”
In a separate milestone, James Paci, MD, director of orthopedic surgery and sports medicine for Suffolk County at The Orlin & Cohen Orthopedic Group at Northwell, performed the hospital’s first CartiHeal Agili-C™ implant procedure on a 52-year-old female patient. The coral-based implant acts as a biological scaffold for patients with cartilage lesions who have not yet reached the stage requiring a total knee replacement.
The implant is designed to buy patients 10 to 15 years of pain relief and function before more invasive surgery might be necessary. Made from natural coral, the implant encourages bone marrow elements to migrate into the lesion, promoting the regrowth of cartilage over 6 to 9 months.
“This technology fills a significant gap in our treatment options,” said Dr. Paci. “For the right patient, typically someone too young or active for a knee replacement but dealing with painful cartilage defects, the Agili-C implant offers a bridge that restores function and improves quality of life.”
“These breakthrough procedures reflect Huntington Hospital’s ongoing commitment to delivering advanced, evidence-based orthopedic care to our community,” said Adam Bitterman, DO, chairman of orthopedic surgery at Huntington Hospital. “Innovative treatments like these not only enhance recovery outcomes but also support the long-term joint health and quality of life for our patients.”
For many local health care workers, the pandemic transitioned from triggering uneasiness about reports of a respiratory illness coming out of China to a significant threat to area residents.
Dr. Susan Donelan, Photo from Stony Brook Medicine/Jeanne Neville
Health care workers were in an all-out scramble to save lives even as information about the disease, its course and treatment, changed.
Five years after the start of a world-altering pandemic, infectious disease experts and emergency medicine specialists shared a range of thoughts about their initial reactions and concerns about this illness as well as insights about lessons learned and readiness to manage through future significant health threats.
Dr. Susan Donelan, Medical Director of Healthcare Epidemiology at Stony Brook Medicine, remembers raising questions about this virus towards late December of 2019. People urged her to go home and have a nice Christmas.
When Hospital CEO Carol Gomes called her on a Sunday and told Donelan she had an hour to get back to her, she recognized the approaching storm.
“I remember saying, ‘It’s a Sunday and she needs me in an hour,’” Donelan recalled. “We’re in it.”
Indeed, over the following months and, as it turned out, years, doctors dealt with numerous unknowns amid a fluid situation that threatened the population and, in particular those who were immunocompromised, had diabetes or respiratory or cardiac issues.
“People forget how bad things were,” said Dr. Gregson Pigott, Commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. “So many people were dying” that hospitals needed to figure out where to put the deceased.
Residents also lined up to get the scarce tests for the presence of the virus and often waited days or longer for a result.
Fluid situation
Health care professionals were reacting to a fluid situation in which best practices in terms of treatment and prevention changed even as the virus was mutating.
“It seems like a blur, going back and thinking about those moments,” said Dr. Jennifer Goebel, emergency room doctor at Huntington Hospital. “It was very surreal, taking care of a disease process you knew nothing about and attempting to be the expert when we were still learning.”
Federal, state and county health officials were unsure of the best guidance for a range of safety measures, including the use of masks.
Additionally, health care experts struggled with the level of contagion based on different environments.
“I don’t think anyone really knew about the continuum that could occur depending on the ambient circumstances,” said Donelan. “I think we probably could have done a better job of letting the public know that our communications would evolve as our knowledge evolved.”
Sharing safety messages
During the worst of the pandemic, health care professionals struggled to share messages that would help people make informed decisions about protecting themselves, their families and their communities.
Dr. Sharon Nachman. Photo frm SBU
“Trust in public health was completely undermined,” said Dr. Sharon Nachman, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital “That hurt all of us.”
Nachman also listened to health care professionals on national TV who were discussing the health crisis. These pundits were sharing information that included far too many inaccessible words and concepts.
“Smart professionals were talking” but people weren’t understanding them, she said.
Additionally, the echo chamber of social media distorted messages, often questioning the developing science and best practices, suggesting conspiracy theories as well as treatments that were either unproven or ineffective.
Having local professionals from area hospitals made a difference on Long Island, Nachman said.
Whenever Nachman went to ShopRite, people who knew she was a part of their community saw her and asked questions.
“When it’s someone local from Northwell, Stony Brook, NYU Winthrop or others, [local communication] really works better,” she said.
Goebel added that she continues to share her medical knowledge not only with patients, but also with family members who have come to the hospital to provide support.
Hospitals, for their part, learned their lesson about stocking personal protective equipment.
“People have learned their lessons” at hospitals, said Pigott. “We need a more adequate stock of PPE.”
Health care provider PTSD
During the worst of the pandemic, one in five doctors who responded to an American Medical Association poll in 2022 said it was likely they would leave their practice within two years.
Dr. Jennifer Goebel. File photo from Northwell Health
“It was so staggering to hear some of these numbers,” said Goebel. Doctors go through over a decade of training. Seeing so many people leave was difficult.
Health care workers struggled, and continue to struggle, with memories and experiences in the midst of a crisis that killed millions around the world.
“I remember going to room nine, intubating a patient and being called to bed 12 and intubating another patient, within a matter of minutes,” said Goebel.
As the director of wellness in the Emergency Medicine Service Line, Goebel has created new initiatives to help reduce burnout and provide support.
She developed a peer to peer pilot program that started in September in which new physicians, physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners were matched with a more experienced professional from day one.
The effort is designed to help new staff navigate the health system and address any questions or concerns.
“We’re looking to put these processes in place” throughout Northwell, Goebel said.
Remote medicine
While remote medical choices, such as telehealth, predated the pandemic, these options have become increasingly common, particularly for residents who might struggle to get to a medical visit.
“Because people were forced to use it, with practice, they got better at it,” said Pigott.
Many organizations invested more in telehealth, which also reduces the burden on Emergency Departments.
Teleheatlh has its “risks and benefits,” said Goebel, as it can keep patients who might be vulnerable out of an environment where they might otherwise be exposed to other pathogens.
Goebel appreciates the importance of a visit with a doctor, who can differentiate between an ear ache and a potential indication of shingles.
Fortunately, for many people, Covid has become a much more manageable infection.
Pigott contracted Covid in September. He took Paxlovid, which helped knock out the symptoms within three days.
Pigott is also grateful for vaccines, which provided a dramatic reduction in mortality during the worst of the pandemic, particularly for people who are over 65.
The vaccine was “saving lives,” said Pigott. “There was real evidence that these are doing their jobs and are working out.”
Huntington Hospital. Photo courtesy Northwell Health
The facilities are among the top 5% of hospitals nationwide for preventing harm in patients
Northwell Health hospitals have been recognized once again by Healthgrades as 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Awards™ recipients. Huntington Hospital received the award for the seventh consecutive year (2019-2025) and named among the top 5% of short-term acute-care hospitals nationwide for patient safety for the sixth straight year (2020-2025). Long Island Jewish Medical Center, which includes Long Island Jewish Valley Stream and Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, earned the award for the second consecutive year (2024-2025) and was also named among the top 5% of hospitals for patient safety for both years.
The Healthgrades recognition underscores a culture of excellence that permeates these Northwell Health hospitals, evident in their numerous other achievements.
Huntington Hospital is the only hospital on Long Island, and one of only 33 in the country, to achieve Magnet designation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center for nursing excellence four consecutive times. Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park was recognized by Healthgrades in 2025 as fourth in New York State for stroke care and joint replacement. Long Island Jewish Valley Stream is a designated stroke center certified by the American Heart Association. It is also recognized as a Network of Excellence in hernia surgery by Surgical Review Corporation. Long Island Jewish Forest Hills is designated a Level II Perinatal Center and is an American College of Radiology-designated Lung Cancer ScreeningCenter.
Plainview Hospital, an acute care community hospital, was also a recipient of the Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Awards™. As a New York State Department of Health Primary Stroke Center, Plainview Hospital is a recipient of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With the Guidelines®-Stroke Quality Achievement Award.
“I continue to be proud of these hospitals who do so much to serve our communities,” said Peter Silver, MD, MBA, senior vice president and chief quality officer at Northwell. “These awards reflect our unwavering dedication to providing the highest quality and safest care possible to our patients. Our commitment to continuous improvement and a culture of safety is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire health care team.”
Healthgrades’ analysis* evaluated 4,500 hospitals nationwide from 2021-2023. The results indicated that 173,280 preventable safety events occurred among Medicare patients.
Patients treated in hospitals that received the 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Award have a significantly lower chance of experiencing one of the four leading safety indicators:
54% less likely to experience in-hospital falls resulting in fracture than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals;
55% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals;
69% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals;
72% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
“These impressive statistics underscore the real-world impact of our commitment to patient safety,” said Dr. Silver. “By minimizing preventable harm, we are not only improving patient outcomes but also enhancing their overall experience of care.”
*Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology, which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 2024.0.1) to MedPAR data from approximately 4,500 hospitals for years 2021 through 2023 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.
Flu season is hitting New York and the country as a whole especially hard this year. Stock photo
By Daniel Dunaief
The flu season has hit with a vengeance in February, as a seasonal virus that can be deadly hasbecome the dominant cause of illness in the area.
Suffolk County hospitals reported 337 residents with influenza in the week ending Feb. 1, according to New York State Department of Health data.
Dr. Sharon Nachman
Just last year, for the 2023-2024 flu season, Suffolk County hospitalizations peaked on Dec. 30 at 52. Even in the year before, when people were starting to wear masks much less frequently than during the peak covid years, flu hospitalizations in the county peaked at 50 on Dec. 17.
“We are definitely seeing more people sick” with flu, said Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. The emergency room is “wildly full, and even urgent care walk in is full.”
The number of positive cases of flu A at Stony Brook University Hospital in January was 800. That compares with 400 cases for the same strain last year, according to Nachman.
While the flu is cyclical and can cause different levels of infections from year to year, local doctors suggested that the overall flu vaccination rate was lower this year, which may have increased vulnerability to the virus and extended the time people exhibited symptoms.
The number of people vaccinated is “incredibly lower compared to past years,” said Nachman. On top of that, people may not have been exposed to the flu for several years amid measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
Residents’ immune systems may have “no good memory response” if the last exposure to the virus occurred some time before 2020, Dr. Nachman added.
The dominant strain of the flu this year is the A strain, which accounts for about 80 percent of the cases.
Nachman suggested that people who were vaccinated in early September may not have as much resistance to the flu this month, as their peak resistance, which typically lasts about three months, has wained.
Health care professionals added that people who haven’t been vaccinated could still receive the shot, as the flu season could continue to last for a month or more.
Dr. Adrian Popp
“It is not too late to get the flu shot,” Dr. Gregson Pigott, Commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, explained in an email.
Dr. Adrian Popp, chair of Infection Control at Huntington Hospital, said the staff has been offering flu shots for residents who have were not already immunized.
“I don’t know how much longer this will last,” said Popp. “It’s still cold and it’ll be cold in March.”
Typically, it takes two weeks for the body to receive full protection from the shot. The shot does provide some incremental benefit immediately.
“You start building immunity from the moment you get” the shot, said Popp.
So far this year, there have been two deaths at Huntington Hospital, which is not unusual for the flu.
Mortality from the flu is “turning into what it used to be,” said Popp, with deaths at about pre pandemic levels.
High risk patients
High risk patients are typically older or have preexisting conditions.
People who have an inability to fight infections can get “much sicker from the flu,” said Dr. Alan Bulbin, St. Francis Hospital and Heart Center Director of Infectious Disease.
Dr. Gregson Pigott
Health care workers urged those who are in higher risk groups either to see their doctors if they start developing symptoms or to use some of the at home tests, including a recent one that can test for flu A and B, as well as Covid.
“If you are immunocompromised, you should have a low threshold,” said Bulbin. “You should speak with a doctor, go to urgent care, and do a swab. That may differentiate influenza” from other infections such as respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and Covid.
The antiviral treatment Tamiflu can be effective if people start taking it within 48 hours of developing symptoms. Paxlovid, meanwhile, can also help within a few days of developing covid.
“We urge residents, especially those at risk for severe illness, to contact their medical providers at the onset of symptoms,” Pigott explained in an email.
Lower Covid and RSV levels
While the flu has infected a larger number of people than in previous years, the incidence of RSV and Covid has declined.
In Suffolk County, 90 residents are hospitalized with Covid, while the number of deaths from the virus is 29 since the start of the year, according to the New York State Department of Health.
That compares with 190 residents hospitalized last year and 96 deaths from Covid from Jan. 1 through Feb. 14.
“The virus that causes Covid-19 is still circulating and causing disease, although not as aggressively as in previous years,” Pigott explained.
RSV, meanwhile, rose in the fall, peaked in late December and has been falling since then.
RSV accounted for 0.2 percent of emergency department visits on Feb. 1, Pigott added.
Future ID doctors
Specialists in infectious disease were unsure how the pandemic affected the interest among doctors in training and residents in their field.
For some, the appeal of reacting to fluid circumstances and to gathering insights about a developing disease that could and did affect billions of lives could be appealing. For others, however, the demands, the hours, and increasing politicization of medicine as well as the divided response to vaccines could have pushed them in other directions.
“Am I concerned that not enough people are going into the specialty?” Nachman asked. “Yes.”
Close to six decades after another surgeon general urged a warning label about the link between cancer and smoking, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the current surgeon general, would like to add cancer warnings to labels for alcohol.
The third leading cause of preventable cancers after tobacco and obesity, alcohol increases the risk for at least seven types of cancer, the surgeon general recently wrote.
At the same time, less than half of the American population recognize alcohol as a risk factor for cancer.
As with the prevailing wisdom about smoking decades ago, several doctors and various studies have, until recently, indicated that moderate drinking such as a single glass of red wine for women each day and two glasses for men, have suggested a medical benefit to consuming alcohol.
Dr. Mark Solomon
“We have been misguided all these years by thinking there’s an acceptable amount of alcohol that’s safe enough to recommend,” said Dr. David Rivadeneira, Director of Northwell Health Cancer Institute at Huntington Hospital.
Any change in required labels for alcohol would have to come from Congress, which would likely face lobbying pressure from the alcohol industry.
Local doctors, however, suggested that the potential increased risk of cancer from alcohol outweighs any potential reduction in the risk related to any cardiovascular incident or stroke.
Dr. Mark Solomon, medical director of St. Charles’ chemical dependency program, called the benefits of alcohol a “myth.”
“Anything you put in your body affects every cell in your body,” said Solomon. “It’s finally coming to the forefront that we should put labels [on alcohol]. Drinking alcohol is not some benign social activity. There are certain risks associated with that, with cancer being one of them.”
Paolo Boffetta, Associate Director for Population Sciences at the Stony Brook Cancer Center, explained that earlier studies, including one that he participated in, that showed a cardiovascular benefit to drinking had various scientific problems.
Those studies didn’t differentiate between people who quit drinking and those who never consumed alcohol.
“The category of a non drinker had an increased risk” that was above what researchers had understood because that group included a mix of people, Boffetta said.
This sampling problem suggested to Boffetta that the results of some of these studies that suggested a cardiovascular health benefit to drinking “were probably not correct.”
Boffetta, who welcomed Dr. Murthy’s recommendation to add cancer risk to a label that already warns consumers who are pregnant or who are operating a car or heavy machinery, urged researchers to continue to study the link between alcohol and cancer.
Protecting health
Dr. David Rivandeneira. Photo courtesy of Northwell Health
Dr. David Rivadeneira, director of Northwell Health Cancer Institute at Huntington who specializes in colorectal cancer, is concerned about the increased incidence of cancer among the younger population.
The current cancer rates are at levels “we’ve never seen before in patients that are less than 50 years old,” said Rivadeneira. “That is very worrisome. The issue of alcohol may have something to do with it.”
Indeed, during the worst of the lockdowns amid the Covid pandemic, some people increased their consumption of alcohol.
“Our current understanding is that alcohol is a chemical that probably has no health benefits whatsoever,” said Rivadeneira. “If anything, it’s detrimental even in small quantities.”
Rivadeneira anticipates the effect of such a discussion of the health consequences of consuming alcohol and of any future labeling on bottles may alter consumer behavior more rapidly than changes in established patterns for smoking decades ago.
“People are more likely to take ownership with regard to their own health,” he said. “They want to be healthier.”
Rivadeneira wants to give patients information that is appropriate and medically sound, giving them the option to decide if they want to incorporate this knowledge into their lifestyle.
Working with their doctors, people can decide on their overall risk profile, based on their family history, other health factors such as their weight and their history through cancer screenings such as mammographies, whether they want to reduce the kind of risk that might tip the scales through alcohol consumption, Rivadeneira said.
“I tell people, ‘You can be proactive or reactive. Here you are, you’ve got to make a decision about what you want to do. Do you want to reduce the chance of cancer and other ailments?’” Rivadeneira said.
A warning and behavior
Dr. Jana Deitch
Doctors believed a warning label on alcoholic products might alter consumer behavior.
“People are more afraid when it’s written down,” said Dr. Jana Deitch, breast surgical oncologist at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown. “If it’s on the bottle, the population will take it more seriously.”
Deitch added that everyone has to decide to what degree they are putting themselves at risk.
“It’s information that’s readily available to the general population” Deitch said.
Solomon suggested that doctors should educate their patients about the dangers of consuming alcohol.
“The medical community and physicians have to be more educated so they can start to relay this to the patient,” said Solomon. “There’ll be some kind of shock to this” because people will indicate that they have been drinking their whole lives. “It’s going to take a long time and it has to start with education from doctors.”
Good cruise ships? Sure, absolutely. Norovirus? Nope, that’s a hard pass!
Unfortunately, residents on Long Island and in many places around the country are battling higher than normal outbreaks of the stomach curdling norovirus, which sometimes afflicts people who are on cruise ships.
Norovirus has been coming “from the community, from nursing homes” and from places where large groups of people congregate, said Dr. Adrian Popp, chair of Infection Control at Huntington Hospital/ Northwell Health and associate professor of medicine at Hofstra School of Medicine.
Norovirus, with symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramping, nausea, headache and chills, is spread through contaminated food, contaminated drinking water, unclean hands and surfaces such as counters or door handles where the virus awaits its next victim.
“It doesn’t take a lot of virus to get somebody ill,” said Popp. The usual incubation period, when someone can be contagious without knowing it, can be a day or two.
People often have these symptoms for anywhere from a day to three days.
At this point, researchers have not produced a vaccine for the virus and treatment for those with the most severe symptoms often involves fluids, either orally or intravenously if a person can’t keep anything in his or her stomach.
People who are most at risk from complications related to norovirus include senior citizens who are in poor health, people with chronic conditions, those who are immunocompromised, or people who become dehydrated quickly, doctors suggested.
When people have numerous and frequent liquid bowel movements, they should realize something is wrong, even if they are younger or in good overall health.
The emergency rooms at hospitals recognize the symptoms of the virus and can often place a person in isolation quickly, reducing the likelihood of other patients developing the illness, Popp added.
Unlike other viruses, norovirus does not respond to hand sanitizer. The virus dies in response to products containing hydrogen peroxide or to a thorough washing with soap and water.
“During COVID we had people who were a lot more careful about these sorts of protection measures,” said Popp. “Now, we’re back to baseline carelessness. People don’t wash their hands as much as they should.”
Higher reporting
Dr. Sharon Nachmann, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, believes norovirus cases have increased in part because of more testing.
“If you ask families in the past, they would say, ‘we’ve all had that stomach bug. Our relatives had it.’ No one would have said, ‘Let me go to the hospital to get tested.’”
Rapid testing means that doctors can get results quickly, leading to more immediate diagnosis and isolation.
Nachmann added that this virus is particularly infectious, with a potential patient needing only 10 particles to become sick, compared with a couple of thousand for infections from other pathogens.
Stay home!
Doctors urged those who are experiencing norovirus symptoms to work remotely, if at all possible.
“We don’t want you at work if you have six watery stools a day,” said Nachmann. “You need to stay close to a bathroom and close to home. Whatever you have, nobody wants it.”
Indeed, even at home, doctors urged people to try to isolate from family members as much as possible.
“You don’t want everyone using the same toilet and door handles,” Nachmann said.
People don’t need to use plastic utensils when they are sick. Putting forks, knives, spoons and plates in a dishwasher should protect others from contracting the virus.
Northwell Health’s first baby of the New Year was born at 12:10 a.m. on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, at Huntington Hospital. The little bundle of joy was born to parents Meryum Ali and Ashfaq Khan after almost ten hours of labor.
The baby girl weighed in at 8 pounds 6 ounces and measured 21 inches long. The parents from North Babylon were over the moon to learn their new addition rang in 2025 as the system’s first baby.
“We are so excited our baby is healthy, but this makes it just a little more special,” said Khan.
This is the couple’s second child. Newborn Gulbano Khan has a big brother waiting for her at home.
Huntington Hospital recently renovated its two cardiac catheterization labs and unveiled new state-of-the-art diagnostic technology. The renovated labs are a combined 1,200 square feet and cost approximately $5 million.
In addition to the labs which each have a control room, there is a third-floor suite that includes nine beds and a holding area where patients are treated pre-and post-operatively.
“With the renovation of our labs, we continue to be able to provide our community with the highest level of cardiovascular care right here at home,” said Gaurav Rao, MD, director of interventional cardiology at Huntington Hospital. “This means faster diagnoses, efficient treatments, and ultimately, better outcomes for our patients. Having access to such advanced care close to home is not just a convenience, it’s a critical factor in saving lives and improving the overall health of our community.”
The new labs leverage this technology with integrated Coroflow Cardiovascular System to diagnose coronary microvascular dysfunction and coronary spasm, which was made possible through an anonymous donation. Computer-generated coronary physiology maps are utilized to diagnose coronary artery disease and guide interventions. Complex coronary interventions are routinely performed using coherence tomography (OCT), an advanced coronary imaging tool that allows precise plaque characterization to inform optimal calcium modification and tailored stent implant strategies.
“By incorporating cutting-edge technology, we are elevating the standard of cardiac care available in our community,” said Nick Fitterman, MD, president, Huntington Hospital. “This is a testament to our commitment to advancing health care and meeting the needs of our community with the highest level of excellence.”
Thoracic surgeon Dr. Andrea Carollo in front of the ION robot. Photo courtesy Lee Weissman
By Daniel Dunaief
Early and prompt detection of any cancer can and often does lead to better patient outcomes. With that in mind, Huntington Hospital recently added a new ION Robotic-Assisted Bronchoscopy to identify and perform biopsies on lung nodules. The robotic system, which the hospital has used on 25 patients, can trim the time for a diagnosis to as little as two to four weeks from as much as 70 days.
“We felt it would be an appropriate investment for the patient population so they wouldn’t have to travel to get a diagnosis in a timely manner,” said thoracic surgeon Dr. Andrea Carollo.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer in Suffolk County, according to Dr. Nick Fitterman, Executive Director of Huntington Hospital. On top of that, two out of three lung cancers are in the outer third of the lungs, which the ION Robot specializes in sampling. Prior to the introduction of this system, patients either traveled to South Shore Hospital or would receive more extensive surgery to sample nodules.
For 90 percent of the patients, these nodules are benign. Not every nodule warrants a biopsy. Doctors use standard guidelines to monitor nodules and perform a procedure when these nodules require further investigation. With the ION Robotic-Assisted Bronchoscopy, these patients, who are under general anesthesia during the analysis, can go home the same day.
Get screened
Huntington Hospital. File photo
Doctors typically recommend further evaluation when nodules come up on a CAT scan. While many residents receive screenings for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer and prostate cancer, few take the time to receive a lung screen, even among those who would benefit from initial and ongoing surveillance. About 79 percent of people eligible for a mammography get one. Of the people eligible for lung cancer screening, however, only about 6 percent receive them, Fitterman added.
“We are woefully, woefully deficient in lung cancer screening,” Fitterman said. “There’s an effective screening tool out there that is widely under utilized.”
The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends that high risk patients between 50 and 80 receive lung cancer screening. High risk patients include those who have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years and are either current smokers or have quit smoking within the last 15 years.
“If you are a smoker, you should definitely get involved in lung cancer screening,” said Carollo.
By screening more patients, the hospital can offer immediate services, including surgery and various treatment regimes such as chemotherapy.
Options
Once a CAT scan reveals a nodule that warrants further imaging, doctors have three potential surgical options.
They can use trans-thoracic biopsy if the nodule is of a good size, is in a favorable location and the interventional radiologist performing the procedure thinks it is technically possible.
The overall risk of a collapsed lung is about 10 percent with this approach, but much higher in patients with central lesions andconsiderable emphysema. The risk is lower in patients with peripheral nodules and no emphysema. If a pneumothorax occurs, sometimes the patient requires a chest tube and hospital stay for as long as one to seven days.
With ION, the procedure is done through a breathing tube in the mouth and into the airways. The risk of a collapsed lung is less than one percent.
If there is a high suspicion of cancer, doctors can also go straight to surgery, which could be the case for a 50 year-old smoker with a 0.7 centimeter nodule that grew to one centimeter and shows activity on a PET scan.
In that case, the nodule and a portion of the lung are removed and sent to pathology, which evaluates it on site and, in about 20 minutes, can indicate whether it’s cancer. From there, doctors can take more lung tissue and lymph nodes for completion of a cancer operation. They review the tissue samples, which takes about 7 to 10 days to get a full answer of the type of cancer and stage if any mutations occurred.
The ION procedure, which has been available for over five years, decreases the risk of a collapsed lung and bleeding and provides an analysis of the nodule more rapidly. The complication rate is lower than with trans thoracic surgery.
At this point, Carollo is doing the majority of these ION-assisted biopsies, while pulmonologist, Dr. Nazir Lone, is doing some, as well.
In the ION procedure, doctors use a roller ball and a wheel that requires eye-hand coordination.
The company provides training to get certified and it takes about 10 to 15 of these procedures for a surgeon to feel comfortable doing them on his or her own, Carollo said.
Huntington Hospital ensures that doctors have sufficient training before allowing them to treat or diagnose patients. “Whenever we adopt any new technology or procedure, we have significant quality guardrails,” said Fitterman.
“We make sure that anyone operating on a machine first is proctored by someone else who is facile with it. They sign off and say, ‘Yes, you now met competencies. You can do it.’”
The speed of the analysis has important implications for patients. “If we can get this done in 30 days from the time we find something to treatment, that’s huge,” Carollo said. “Patients tend to have better outcomes. They live longer,” he continued. Delays over 50 days lead to decreased one and five year survival.
Other new developments
Huntington Hospital has several other new developments in the works.
The hospital is building a new cancer center in Greenlawn as well as expanding its labor and delivery capacity to provide services to more pregnant women.
Ever since St. Catherine of Siena closed its obstetrical unit on Feb. 1, Huntington Hospital has seen an increase in the number of pregnant patients.
The labor and delivery suites will add four beds and will refresh the space the hospital currently uses. The mother-baby units are “beautiful,” but the suites have to “catch up to that,” said Fitterman.
In the third quarter of next year, during the renovation, the labor and delivery areas will move to a place where the old emergency space had been. The improvements are expected to take about three months.
A top source for consumers searching for doctors and hospitals, Healthgrades continued to recognize several departments and clinical efforts within Huntington Hospital, while adding others.
Healthgrades named Huntington Hospital one of the 100 best hospitals for Coronary Intervention for the fourth year in a row.
An affiliate of Northwell Health, Huntington Hospital also was ranked fourth in critical care in the state and, among other recognition, received five star distinction for Cranial Neurosurgery, earned the 2025 Pulmonary Care Excellence Award, and was named among the top 10 percent in the nation for overall pulmonary services.
“Healthgrades is one of the more recognizable accolades that hospitals can achieve,” said Dr. Nick Fitterman, Executive Director of Huntington Hospital.
The hospital has hung two banners and plans to celebrate the distinctions with staff on Nov. 6th.
“People want to play for a winner,” said Fitterman. “It really does make the team members, the doctors, nurses and support staff all feel better, knowing that they’re in health care, they’re compassionate people. To see the recognition makes them feel proud.”
Through ongoing and growing recognition of the expertise and services available to patients, word has spread about the quality of care people receive at Huntington Hospital.
“Our doctors that run the Emergency Room are seeing more people from zip codes outside of our usual primary and secondary catchment area as the reputation of the hospital is spreading,” said Fitterman. “I like to think that it’s because of excellent care” as well as people telling friends and family about their experiences.
Patients outside the normal coverage area mostly live to the east and south on Long Island.
Healthgrades also gave ongoing high rankings to the coronary interventional procedures for four years in a row, provided a five-star rating for treatment of stroke for two years in a row, and named the hospital a five-star provider for treatment of pneumonia for seven years in a year.
Huntington earned five stars for its treatment of sepsis for the third consecutive year.
‘We don’t set out to achieve any recognition,” said Fitterman. “The core ideology that I espouse to all team members is that excellence in clinical care is the best business strategy. Provide the best care possible and all this other stuff will fall into place.”
While Huntington received a top five percent recognition for cardiac interventions, which includes stents for people who have heart attacks and pacemakers for those whose conduction system is not working well, the hospital recently completed a $5 million renovation of its cardiac catheterization lab.
The lab, which will have a ceremonial opening in the next few weeks, will implement “some of the most advanced technology,” said Fitterman.
Amid predictions about extended hospital stays as the population ages, Fitterman suggested that Huntington Hospital was focused on improving the way it treats diseases to get patients out of the hospital and return them to their normal lives in a timely fashion.
In addition to enhancements in cardiac care, Huntington Hospital has added new neurosurgeons to the staff and has invested in a Zeiss microscope that has a three dimensional display.
“You’d think you’re seeing a Star Wars movie,” said Fitterman.
Huntington Hospital taps into the Northwell Health network, helping patients benefit from specialists spread throughout the system.
Hospital staff can consult with tumor boards that include hematologists, oncologists, and radiation oncologists spread throughout the Northwell network.
To help patients manage the stresses and strains that come from giving up control when they spend time in a hospital, Huntington converted several years ago to a dining service that allows people to order their meals according to their own schedule.
Patients can call any time of day to place an order. Food is then delivered to their room within 40 minutes, with no set breakfast, lunch and dinner times.
“Food is health,” said Fitterman. “If they were getting the same tasteless food that hospitals are renowned for serving, they would not be contributing to a healthy, therapeutic environment.”
For meetings, the hospital rarely orders from outside caterers, choosing food from the hospital kitchen.
The hospital has restructured the workflow to prevent any additional costs for the round-the-clock service.
Fitterman calls the chicken quesadillas “outstanding,” while he said some patients have come back to the cafeteria after they are discharged because of the popularity of the salmon.
Fitterman added that he is always looking out for ways to improve the experience for patient and their families.
“When I walk the halls, I’m still looking at things we can do better,” he said.
