A new face will be leading Northwell’s urology department.
Dr. Samir S. Taneja has been appointed senior vice president and system chair of urology at Northwell and chair of the Smith Institute for Urology.
Taneja is a surgeon whose long career has been spent driving innovation in urologic cancer diagnosis and treatment, particularly prostate cancer. Taneja will see patients at Northwell’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park and Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, as well as teach at the Zucker School of Medicine of Hofstra-Northwell.
“In joining Northwell, I hope to use my experience and skills to elevate the urological care of our patients across the system and to bring with me a spirit of exceptionalism – trying to achieve perfection in our care delivery and outcomes,” Taneja said in a statement. “Over the years, I have focused upon advancing the care of my urologic cancer patients through use of multidisciplinary approaches and integration of emerging technologies to shift the conventional paradigms of management. I am passionate about building effective teams to solve problems and elevate the care of our patients. In the past decade, I have focused on improving the cancer and quality of life outcomes of prostate cancer patients through more minimally invasive ablative treatment approaches and constant efforts to refine and improve robotic surgical techniques.”
He joins Northwell from NYU Langone Health, where he spent 29 years and most recently served as vice chair of the Department of Urology, director of the Division of Urologic Oncology, a professor of urology and radiology at the medical school and professor of bioengineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
At Northwell, Taneja will lead the strategic growth, clinical care, research, and education efforts for urology, with a focus on prostate and kidney cancers, while leading more than 70 urologic physicians.
“We are very excited to welcome Dr. Samir Taneja as our chair and senior vice president of urology for Northwell and the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell,” said Dr. Dave Battinelli, executive vice president, physician-in-chief at Northwell. “A renowned academician and innovator, he brings nearly 30 years of experience blending urology, imaging and engineering to advance the care of urologic patients across our entire health system. He will launch multiple centers of excellence, highlighting prostate and bladder diseases as well as overall men’s health and wellness.”
Taneja succeeds Dr. Louis Kavoussi, who retired from his leadership role to prioritize his clinical practice and academic pursuits.
Northwell said Taneja is highly skilled and experienced in performing complex urologic cancer surgeries using laparoscopic, robotic and conventional open techniques. At Northwell, the primary focus of Dr. Taneja’s practice will be to treat prostate cancer.
While he is a robotic surgery specialist who has performed thousands of radical prostatectomies in the past, Taneja’s goal is to avoid surgery or radiation whenever possible. He pioneered the use of MRI to diagnose and pinpoint prostate cancer, along with MRI-guided focal ablative therapies that aim to destroy only the cancerous portion of the prostate.
Precision targeting cancers means that patients no longer need to have the entire gland removed.
“Dr. Taneja’s expertise will help catapult the existing program in prostate cancer at Northwell Health and Lenox Hill Hospital by joining the multi-disciplinary team of prostate cancer experts, including urologic oncologists, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists,” said Dr. Richard Barakat, physician in chief and executive director of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute. “Dr. Taneja will unify urology services across the health system to create centers of excellence for all urologic cancers.”
Taneja is American Board of Urology certified, earned his medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School and completed his residencies in general surgery and urology at UCLA Medical Center.
He has authored more than 250 articles, 30 book chapters and six textbooks and monographs on urologic cancer and surgery. He is also the editor of Taneja’s Complications of Urologic Surgery: Prevention and Diagnosis, one of the most widely read textbooks in American urology.
Information provided by Northwell Health.
