Northwell Health has appointed Richard Barakat to lead its cancer services and research.
A surgeon and clinical investigator who specializes in robotic and laparoscopic treatment of uterine cancer and radical debulking procedures for ovarian cancer, Barakat will serve as physician-in-chief and director of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute, senior vice president of the health system’s Cancer Service Line, and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.
He will also work closely with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as part of a strategic affiliation with Northwell on future cancer research and treatment collaborations.
He will join Northwell on April 30 after 27 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he served as director and vice chair of MSK’s regional care network and affiliations, and the Ronald O. Perelman Chair in Gynecologic Surgery.
Throughout his career at MSK, Barakat oversaw the care of thousands of patients who were newly diagnosed with gynecologic cancer. He also served as chief of the gynecology service from 2001 to 2013 and was the lead investigator on several influential research projects, including a study to compare the benefits of laparoscopic versus standard surgery for patients with endometrial cancer and an NIH-funded study evaluating risk factors for the development of symptomatic lower-extremity lymphedema in women undergoing radical surgery and lymphadenectomy for gynecologic cancer.
Barakat was a division member and examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and vice chair of the Cancer Prevention Committee of the Gynecologic Oncology Group for five years.
He was also president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology from 2013 to 2014 and president of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society from 2014 to 2016.
