Newswise — NEW YORK (December 18, 2014)  The Mount Sinai Health System is pleased to announce that Ron Shapiro, MD, is the new surgical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program at The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute.

Dr. Shapiro, a leading surgeon with more than 30 years of experience in the field of transplantation, trained under Thomas E. Startzl, a transplant pioneer. He joins Mount Sinai from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he was Professor of Surgery and the Robert J. Corry Chair in Transplantation Surgery at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. After 26 years with the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Shapiro is returning to The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he completed his internship and residency.

“Mount Sinai welcomes back Dr. Ron Shapiro to lead our kidney and pancreas transplantation program in the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute (RMTI),” says Sander S. Florman, MD, Director of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute and the Charles Miller, MD, Professor of Surgery. “Dr. Shapiro is an internationally recognized transplantation expert. We are extremely fortunate to have him join us in continuing our firm commitment to offering our patients the very best care possible.”

In his new position at the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, Dr. Shapiro will oversee the abdominal organ transplantation programs and services specific to adult and pediatric kidney transplantation, as well as adult pancreas transplantation. RMTI is among the most comprehensive transplantation centers in the world, and includes one of the largest living donor programs in the United States.

“It is incredibly exciting to be returning to the center where I trained in general surgery,” says Dr. Shapiro. “I‘m eager to work on developing new regimens that keep the immune system from rejecting transplanted organs without leaving people vulnerable to infections. I am thrilled to be collaborating with the fantastic transplant group already in place.”

Dr. Shapiro is board certified in Surgery with special expertise in Renal Transplant and Pancreas Transplantation. He is also President of the International Pediatric Transplantation Association (until March 2015). He is on the editorial boards of Transplantation, the American Journal of Transplantation, and Pediatric Transplantation, and is Editor in Chief of Clinical Transplantation. Dr. Shapiro graduated with his medical degree from the Stanford School of Medicine.

Dr. Shapiro has co-authored four books: Atlas of Organ Transplantation, Renal Transplantation, Pancreatic Transplantation and Living Donor Organ Transplantation. He has published more than 380 articles, 65 book chapters, and has given more than 520 lectures. Dr. Shapiro has been repeatedly named by Castle Connolly, Ltd. as one of “America’s Top Doctors.”

###

About the Mount Sinai Health SystemThe Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health system committed to providing distinguished care, conducting transformative research, and advancing biomedical education. Structured around seven member hospital campuses and a single medical school, the Health System has an extensive ambulatory network and a range of inpatient and outpatient services—from community-based facilities to tertiary and quaternary care.

The System includes approximately 6,600 primary and specialty care physicians, 12-minority-owned free-standing ambulatory surgery centers, over 45 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, as well as 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health funding and by U.S. News & World Report. For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/.

Find Mount Sinai on:Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mountsinainycTwitter: @mountsinainyc http://www.twitter.com/mountsinainycYouTube: http://www.youtube.com/mountsinainy