Northwell names new medical director at LIJ Medical Center

Northwell Health has appointed a new medical director at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park.

Dr. Mathew Foley took over this month as the top doctor at the 583-bed hospital, succeeding Dr. Richard Schwarz, who is now vice president of medical affairs and quality at the New Hyde Park-based health system, Northwell said.

Foley served as vice chair of emergency medicine at North Shore University Medical Center in Manhasset. Previously, he was vice chair of emergency medicine and an associate professor at NYU Langone Health, where he helped oversee the emergency departments at NYU Tisch, NYU Brooklyn, NYU Orthopedic Hospital, Bellevue Hospital and NYU Cobble Hill. Foley also led the creation of NYU Langone’s telemedicine program. In addition, Foley has worked at University Hospital of Brooklyn at SUNY Downstate.

Dr. Michael Gitman, executive director of LIJ Medical Center, said in a statement that Foley “is an accomplished and respected emergency medicine physician with a wealth of experience” and “a collaborative, innovative leader.”

Foley’s predecessor, Schwarz, will co-chair Northwell’s performance improvement coordinating group.

Foley, 48, lives with his wife and their two children, a 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, in Brooklyn.

He grew up in Minnesota, where his mother marketed industrial equipment to factories and his father sold paint strippers to car manufacturers in Detroit after a stint as a Navy pilot and then as a member of the entourage touring with the Rolling Stones as a bodyguard and later a record company liaison, Foley said.

Foley earned a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Stanford University, a master’s degree in nutrition from Columbia University and a medical degree from George Washington University.

Before medical school, Foley taught high school science in Manhattan and the Bronx and worked as a proposal analyst at a health care company in California.

At LIJ, “we have pretty much everything under our roof,” including a cancer center, a bariatric weight-loss surgery program and spinal treatments, Foley said. The hospital aims to expand those services, he said, and extend its reach “from really the eastern part of New York City out to the tip of Long Island.”

By Maura McDermott

maura.mcdermott@newsday.commauramcdermott

Maura McDermott covers health care and other business news on Long Island.