Lung Cancer Surgeon at South Nassau Communities Hospital Named Director of Clinical Research

Oceanside, NY, October 24, 2012 --(PR.com)-- South Nassau Communities Hospital has named Shahriyour Andaz, MD, director of clinical research. Dr. Andaz, who also serves as South Nassau’s director of thoracic oncology, is a four-time winner of the Brooklyn and Long Island Chapter of the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Murray Friedman Resident Competition (clinical research) Award.

“It has been South Nassau’s goal to grow its research program, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to enhance the hospital’s scope of research initiatives and collaboration with researchers at other institutions,” said Dr. Andaz. “Clinical trials serve as a testing ground for the latest medications, procedures or devices, and physicians are increasingly incorporating findings from clinical trials into their plan of patient care.”

A past recipient of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer Outstanding Performance Award, Dr. Andaz is board-certified in both thoracic and general surgery and specializes in complex chest cancer procedures and robotic-assisted and minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery.

He was the first surgeon on Long Island to perform robotic-assisted bilobectomy lung surgery and robotic-assisted surgical removal of the thymus gland. His expertise includes chest wall sarcoma resection and reconstruction, mesothelioma, tracheal resections and reconstructions, endobronchial surgery, esophageal resection and lung volume reduction surgery. Eliminating the need for large incisions and painful rib resections, the robotic-assisted and minimally invasive approaches offer faster healing and shortened recovery time.

Before joining South Nassau Communities Hospital in 2004, Dr. Andaz served at UCLA Medical Center’s Thoracic Surgery Department in 2003 and was an attending cardiothoracic surgeon from 2001-03 at Brookdale, Coney Island and Lutheran Hospitals and Maimonides Medical Center, where he was a Cardiothoracic Fellow from 1998-2001.

South Nassau’s Department of Clinical Research, based at its Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center, is staffed by a clinical research nurse and a clinical research coordinator. A Protocol Review Committee, composed of a dozen members representing clinical specialties and support services, reviews all protocols and clinical studies to ensure alignment with the hospital’s mission. They are then forwarded to an Institutional Review Board that provides regulatory review, approval and monitoring of clinical trials conducted at the hospital to ensure the protection of human subjects.

This year some 70 patients are newly enrolled in clinical studies conducted by both hospital and community based physicians. Current research in nearly 20 studies at South Nassau is focusing on gastroenterology and lung, breast and colon cancer, neuro-oncology, bariatric and orthopedic studies, as well as protocols written by the nursing research/evidence-based practice council, chaired by Marybeth Ryan, Ph.D., R.N.

South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® Perfexion radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.