25 NYC Health + Hospitals Doctors Recognized for Outstanding Patient Care at Annual Doctors’ Day Celebration
Doctors across the health system are nominated by their Chief Medical Officer for the recognition
May 06, 2025
New York, NY — NYC Health + Hospitals today celebrated its Doctors’ Day and the 25 doctors recognized for their outstanding patient care. The physicians were nominated for their unwavering commitment to compassionate, patient-centered care, and their exceptional leadership in advancing equitable health care in NYC’s largest public hospital system. They have transformed the lives of countless patients. This year’s honorees include pediatricians, primary care doctors, emergency department physicians, an oncologist, a podiatrist, a psychiatrist, an HIV specialist, a gastroenterologist, and others. They come from a diverse array of nations such as Liberia, Nigeria, Poland, Guyana, Argentina, Bangladesh, Iran, Egypt, India, and Sudan. Biographies of the 25 doctors recognized in this year’s event are available here.
“I am blown away by the talent of our doctors featured today,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care and Population Health Ted Long, MD, MHS. “It was an incredible honor to celebrate this group of dedicated and mission-driven doctors who embody the ideals of medicine and treat healthcare as a human right. We are lucky to have them at NYC Health + Hospitals.”
Honorees include the following:
- Dr. Sergei Lapinel grew up witnessing the profound impact of compassionate mental health care through his father’s role at NYU, and he took to heart the university’s motto: Perstare et praestare – “to persevere and to excel.” He has long embodied that ideal, especially when faced with his own diagnosis of multiple myeloma in late 2023. After enduring months of intense treatment, Dr. Lapinel made his return to NYC Health + Hospitals/Gouverneur with a walker with renewed purpose. Known for forging strong, empathetic bonds with his patients, he now brings the unique perspective of someone who has walked the path of illness himself. Gouverneur’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sherry Humphrey praised him as a rare beacon of patient-centered care and that Dr. Lapinel’s resilience has only deepened his commitment.
“I consider it a privilege to be invited into people’s lives,” Dr. Lapinel says. “I try to make them feel good about themselves, to encourage them to look for the best, not the worst. Sometimes you have to say, ‘Don’t mourn for things you’ve lost, be happy in the positive things you have.’ That’s what keeps you going.” - Dr. Anitha Srinivasan is a career surgeon at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan, founding director of its nationally accredited Breast Cancer Center, and the hospital’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer since 2019. She’s a teacher, researcher, public health expert, and innovator. Under her leadership, the East Harlem hospital has performed more than 500 robotic surgeries.
Her commitment to care goes beyond the operating room—something exemplified by her tireless advocacy for an immigrant patient from Mali who gave birth while battling advanced breast cancer. Not only did she perform life-saving surgery, but she also worked to overturn a denied visa, allowing the patient’s mother to come from Mali to support her.
“Her baby is now a thriving high schooler,” Dr. Srinivasan reflects with pride. Inspired by her own mother’s dedication as a public hospital physician in India, Dr. Srinivasan continues to fight for equitable care. “Treating a patient, regardless of their ability to pay or who they are, remains one of the few ethical victories in healthcare,” she says. “Medicine is a great field if you don’t have to worry about the money behind it.” - Dr. Meredith Lynn is a primary care physician who leads the highly regarded HIV clinic at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Gouverneur. Since joining Gouverneur in 2016, Dr. Lynn has also worked to expand the center’s addiction medicine clinic, which she co-directs, and integrate sexual and reproductive health into her practice. In all these areas, says Gouverneur’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Morris Gagliardi, “Dr. Lynn is an advocate and mentor, a phenomenal teacher and preceptor who is admired by her patients, house staff and colleagues for the unflappable grace with which she meets every challenge.”
She was drawn to medicine through the personal experience of watching her two sisters manage Type 1 diabetes from a young age, which showed her the transformative power of knowledge, resilience, and self-care. Dr. Lynn is known for her holistic, empathetic approach to care: “I try to understand each patient’s life outside of the clinic to help guide their health,” Dr. Lynn says. “Making medicine more human and less mechanical improves not only the patient experience but their outcome.” That philosophy has contributed to Gouverneur consistently achieving top regional outcomes in HIV viral-load suppression.
Here is the full list of NYC Health + Hospitals Doctors’ Day 2025 Award recipients:
BRONX
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Belvis
Onuora Ibeabuchi, MD
Primary Care Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Morrisania
Raquel Choua, MD
Attending Psychiatrist
NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi
Maryann Popiel, MD
Chair, Department of Behavioral Healthcare Services
NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln
Dimitris Giannaris, MD
Chief of Anesthesiology
NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx
Anil Narula, MD
Vice Chair, Department of Surgery
NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi | North Central Bronx
Maninder Singh, MD
Director of Emergency Healthcare Simulation
BROOKLYN
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Broadway
Danielle Dubois, MD
Attending Podiatrist
NYC Health + Hospitals/ Gotham Health, Cumberland
Tadeusz Witkowski, MD
Attending Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, East New York
Indrani Persaud Umadat, MD
Attending Family Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County
Davood Johari, MD
Attending Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health
Thandavababu Chelliah, MD
Director of Hematology and Oncology
NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull
Dalia Mahmoud, MD
Gastroenterologist and Advanced Endoscopist
MANHATTAN
NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
Manish Tandon, MD
Assistant Director of Surgery
NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter
Asma Ahmed, MD
Assistant Director and Attending Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler
Mohammad Rahman, MD
Associate Medical Director
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gouverneur
Sergei Lapinel, MD
Attending Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Gouverneur
Meredith Lynn, MD
Attending Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Sydenham
Eddy Cadet, MD
Attending Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem
Justin Morea, DO, MBA
Chief Medical Information Officer
NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan
Anitha Srinivasan, MD, MPH
Deputy Chief Medical Officer
QUEENS
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Roosevelt
Toni Aspinall-Daley, MD
Assistant Director, Department of Pediatrics
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
Marlon E. Brewer, MD
Associate Director, Department of Ambulatory Care
NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens
Alice McKnight Garner, MD
Chief of Newborn Services
STATEN ISLAND
NYC Health + Hospitals/Sea View
Salwa Gerges, MD
Chief Medical Officer
CITYWIDE
NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services
David Rosenberg, MD
Director of Psychiatry
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About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
