The Department of Medicine is pleased to announce that Dr. Sahar Ahmad will assume the position of Interim Chief of the Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine division, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University. After 25 years of serving as Chief, Dr. Gerald Smaldone will step down from the chief position to return to the faculty.
Dr. Ahmad is currently Associate Professor of Medicine (with Tenure) and Director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit of the University Hospital, in addition to serving in many other administrative and educational roles, including Director of the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship program. Until recently, she was also Associate Program Director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship program.
As an educator at Stony Brook, Dr. Ahmad initiated a highly successful program using bedside ultrasound as a point-of-care tool for the training of medical students, residents, fellows, and attending physicians. Following her appointment as MICU Director in December of 2020, she has been instrumental in assisting Stony Brook University Hospital leadership in managing the cares of critically ill patients including those affected by COVID-19. Through this challenging period, Dr. Ahmad has maintained a stellar record in scholarship, having authored or co-authored no fewer than 16 peer-reviewed articles in the last two years, including several clinical studies on hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Dr. Ahmad received her M.D. degree from Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She performed residency training in Internal Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center and then fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, where she was also Chief Fellow. She joined the Pulmonary division at Stony Brook in 2013 and has received numerous recognitions and awards for teaching, highlighted by her induction as a faculty member into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and her receiving the 2017 Aesculapius Award for Excellence in Medical Education in the Renaissance School of Medicine. Dr. Ahmad has definitively proven herself as a “triple-threat” academic physician and is imminently qualified for the position herein.
We'd like to thank Dr. Smaldone for his exceptional service as the division chief for the last 25 years. The division has flourished under his leadership and will continue to do so. We wish him the best in his future endeavor as a researcher and educator. Please join us in giving Dr. Ahmad a warm welcome and wish her the best in her newest assignment.
