Born in Rome, Italy, October 7th 1959, I grew up in Eternal City were I completed all my schooling. I entered Medical School in 1978 at the prestigious Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome and obtained my MD degree in 1984. Between 1984 and 1986 I was involved in bench research in liver transplantation and published many articles on the feasibility of transplanting portions of liver from a living donor to a recipient. At that same time I was accepted in the Vascular Surgery Residency at the Catholic University, a Program which I completed in 1990.
In 1986 I moved to the USA, still maintaining the Italian Vascular Residency, and after spending one year at Hackensack Medical Center and two years at Monmouth Medical Center General Surgery Residency, I transferred to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where I completed my General Surgery Residency in 1992. I was then accepted in the Vascular Fellowship Program at Henry Ford Hospital under the late Dr. Calvin Ernst and graduated from the program in 1994.
In 1994 I joined the Staff at Hackensack Medical Center and witnessed the growth of the Center from Hospital to University Medical Center, to now Hackensack University Medical Center and Hackensack Meridian Health Network. During my years at HUMC I served as President of the Medical Staff in 2009 and Chairman of the Medical Executive Committee in 2010. In 2006 I was appointed Chief of Vascular Surgery and since 2011 I have served as the Director of Vascular Services. From June 2012 to 2014 I was asked to serve as the Acting Clinical Co-Chair of the Department of Surgery. From 2014 to 2019 I was the vice chair of the Dept Of Surgery at HUMC and also the Director of the Vascular services. From May 2019 to May 2021, I became the interim chair of the Department Of Surgery and was instrumental in the work necessary to overcome the Covid pandemic in our institution. During those challenging times I was instrumental in developing a “Line Service” staffed by the Vascular Surgeons at HUMC and dedicated to central line, arterial line and dialysis catheter placement in the hundreds of COVID ICU patients at HUMC. This allowed for better utilization of resources for the Critical Care physicians. At the same time I implemented Network wide weekly video meetings with all the Peri-operative Services to discuss utilization of resources and coordinate standardization of care of the COVID patient in the operating room.
For years I lobbied with the HUMC Leadership to have a stand-alone Department of Vascular Surgery and in November 2020 the newly formed Department was instituted and I was appointed Interim Chair. I have served on many committees of the hospital and of HackensackMeridian Health and have been the Co-Chair of the Medical Council Committee of the Hackensack Meridian Health and then the Chair of the Quality and Patient Safety Committee of the Board Of Trustees of HMH. As Co-Chair of the Medical Council Committee, I helped unify the Medical Staff Bylaws of the newly formed Hackensack Meridian Health Network. My Academic appointments are with Rutgers New Jersey Medical School as Assistant Professor of Surgery and at the new Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine as Associate Professor of Surgery.
My passion is in process and quality improvement and standardization of care. One of my strengths is to be able to communicate and implement change by listening to people’s concerns and then implementing process that is aimed to a common goal.
I am a fellow of the American College of a surgeons and a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery, for which I have served on the Membership Committee from 2021 to 2023.
I am thrilled to have joined University Spine Center and to be able to serve the community, offering all spectrum of Vascular procedures, from spine exposure to complex open operations, from clearing arteries and veins using minimally invasive procedures to treatment of painful varicose veins.
