Dr. Leonard Stern is an Assistant Professor of Clinical
Medicine at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and
practices nephrology at the New York Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia Presbyterian
Medical Center. He is actively involved in the training of medical students,
housestaff, and fellows. He is the Director of Peritoneal Dialysis at Columbia
Presbyterian Medical Center and Director of the new Columbia University
Dialysis Center, a chronic outpatient center that will offer both hemodialysis
and peritoneal dialysis modalities to patients with end-stage renal disease.
Dr. Stern received his medical degree from New York Medical
College in 1975 where he was valedictorian and elected AOA after his first
year of medical school. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine
at the Jacobi Hospital - Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his fellowship
in Clinical Nephrology at the Montefiore Medical Center, both in New York
City. A fellowship in Research Nephrology was completed at the Yale University
School of Medicine. He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and
Nephrology and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
The Dialysis Home Training Program at Columbia Presbyterian
Medical Center was started in 1989 by Dr. Stern and continues to be directed
by him. This Program has successfully trained over 450 patients in performing
and managing peritoneal dialysis in the home setting. He plans to incorporate
home hemodialysis into the Program in the near future.
His research interests lie in the area of peritoneal
dialysis, peritonitis, metabolic disorders, lipid abnormalities, and cardiovascular
disease in patients with renal failure. He is currently one of the
principal investigators in a multi-center research study designed to study
the effects of lipid lowering therapy on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality
in dialysis patients. He has published numerous articles and is a frequent
speaker and presenter at conferences on peritoneal dialysis and blood pressure
management.