Dr. Nora Bergasa, Chief of Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan, Receives 2017 Heritage Innovation in Healthcare Delivery Award
May 24, 2017
PAGNY’s Dr. Nora V. Bergasa, Chief of the Department of Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan, has been named the winner of the 2017 Heritage Innovation in Healthcare Delivery Award.
The award recognizes an innovator in the development of new modes of diagnosis, treatment and care who actively improves the delivery of services and improves the quality of health care in the New York metropolitan area. The award is presented by the Heritage Provider Network, the nation’s leading physician-led managed care organization, and Crain’s New York Business. Finalists were selected from the New York metropolitan area. A diverse panel of independent expert health care judges guided the selection process.
“Dr. Bergasa, a distinguished member of PAGNY, embodies the very set of values and bedside manners that every patient wishes and needs,” Dr. Luis R. Marcos, PAGNY said. “Her distinctive warm smile projects the humanity that is so powerful and so precious in the health care world. Indeed, Dr. Bergasa’s knowledge and dedication and her amazing ability to create healing partnerships not only have made her loved and sought after by patients, but have led to remarkable levels of patient satisfaction, compliance, and treatment outcomes.”
“This award for Dr. Bergasa is well earned,” said Stanley Brezenoff, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals. “Providing high-quality care is at the core of everything we do, and the exceptional care she provides to her patients with hepatitis sets a high bar for the providers throughout our health system.”
Dr. Bijan Safai, President of the PAGNY Board of Directors, said “Our entire PAGNY family is extremely proud to have nominated our own Dr. Nora V. Bergasa, Chief, Department of Medicine, NYC Health + Hospitals /Metropolitan for the Heritage Innovation in Healthcare Delivery Award. We are so pleased that she has been selected as the 2017 winner. Her tireless energy, caring concern for her patients and commitment to excellence make her the obvious choice for this award. Her research and treatment of individuals with the co-morbidities of mental illness and chronic liver disease has truly been innovative in both approach and outcomes. Congratulations on this well-deserved and outstanding recognition. You make us all proud Dr. Bergasa.”
Dr. Bergasa said, “I’m very moved and honored by this award from the Heritage Provider Network and Crain’s New York Business. I pray every day for the continuous opportunity to serve as a physician in the provision of health care, and to teach, and to ask questions in an effort to inspire medical students and physicians in training to improve knowledge in the medical field. I thank the leadership of PAGNY and NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan for its support and for giving me the privilege to execute their mission to provide excellent quality of care in our daily work.”
Dr. Machelle Allen, Chief Medical Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals, said, “We congratulate Dr. Bergasa on her award and are all very proud to have her as one of our leading physicians at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan. Dr. Bergasa is passionate about her patients and is dedicated to providing high quality care in everything that she does. We are pleased that she has been recognized by the Heritage Provider Network for her Innovation in Healthcare Delivery.”
Alina Moran, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan, said, “All of us at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan are extremely proud of Dr. Bergasa for receiving this award recognizing her accomplishments and her commitment and dedication to improving the lives of our patients. She is an outstanding clinician, researcher, and teacher, whose groundbreaking work on diseases of the liver and treatment of patients with chronic viral hepatitis has greatly benefited our patients and our community. We couldn’t be prouder of her.”
Dr. Bergasa, who is recognized internationally for her research on pruritus in liver disease, has been a leading member of PAGNY, and named Chief of Medicine at Metropolitan. She is also a Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College. Last year, Dr. Bergasa was awarded a prestigious Mastership from the American College of Physicians, a national organization of internists.
Dr. Bergasa has extensive experience in hepatology, including the care of patients with liver disease and psychiatric and substance abuse co-morbidities. One of her goals has been to take the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis to patients who are attended in behavioral health. She has also led the establishment of a gastroenterology fellowship program at Metropolitan.
Dr. Bergasa was born in Cuba and graduated from the medical school of the Universidad Central del Este in the Dominican Republic, completing her Internal Medicine Residency and Gastroenterology Fellowship at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. She trained as a Fellow in liver disease at the National Institutes of Health. She has held faculty positions at Rockefeller University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Columbia University and SUNY Downstate prior to being named Chief of Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan and Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College.