We are pleased to announce that SUNY Downstate College of Medicine has awarded Dr. Avram Gold, a faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, the Master Teacher Award in recognition of outstanding work in pulmonology. The 139th Gala was celebrated on May 18, 2019 at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. This prestigious award is given by the Alumni Association in recognition of an alumni's outstanding accomplishments.
During his pulmonary fellowship, Dr. Gold chose the new field of sleep apnea as his research focus and became the first post-doctoral fellow to train in sleep medicine at the Johns Hopkin s Sleep Disorder s Center. In those early days of sleep apnea research , Johns Hopkins researchers pioneered our understanding of upper airway inspiratory airflow dynamics during sleep. Dr. Gold participated in their pioneering work. After returning to Maimonides Medical Center in 1986 to practice pulmonary medicine, in 1987, Dr. Gold joined the medical faculty of Stony Brook University as a member of the Pulmonary / Critical Care Division with
privileges at Stony Brook Medicine, and the DVA Medical Center in Northport, New York.
Immediately, he sought opportunities to continue his clinical work and research in sleep apnea, establishing a sleep medicine clinic and laboratory at the DVA Medical Center in 1990, one of the first sleep laboratories in the VA healthcare system.
In 2007 Dr. Gold was named program director of SBU's first ACGME-accredited sleep medicine fellowship and, in 2010, medical director of the SBU Sleep Disorders Center. These leadership positions have enabled him to teach and quickly implement new approaches to sleep medicine practice that come from his research and he has made The SBU Sleep Disorders Center a pioneering institution in the treatment of sleep disordered breathing.
Dr. Gold has authored over 30 papers in his field that have been cited over 2100 times. He co-author ed the chapter "Snoring and Pathologic Upper Airway
Resistance Syndromes" for the sixth edition of Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine (2017) and is now revising the chapter for the seventh edition of the text.
Dr. Gold stated, "It was my first time back into 450 Clarkson Avenue in over 40 years. I lived there during my first two years of medical school."
The Department of Medicine faculty and staff congratulates Dr. Gold on this very distinguished honor.