Elana Sydney, MD
Elana Sydney, MD
Chief of Ambulatory Care
NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi
Making Strides in Hypertension Control
When she was just 2 years old, Elana Sydney’s mother had a stroke that left her paralyzed and aphasic (unable to talk or understand speech). From the care she saw her mother receive, Dr. Sydney said, “I knew from a young age that I wanted to be to others what I saw my mother receive.”
She is now in her 25th year of practice and serves as both Medical Director for the Primary Care Clinic and Chief of Ambulatory Care at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi, where she has significantly improved hypertension control rates to greater than 70 percent and directly impacted improvement in depression screening, diabetes control and vaccination administration.
“Dr. Sydney’s work during her career at Jacobi has been nothing less than transformational,” said Michael Zinaman, Jacobi’s Chief Medical Officer. “Dr. Sydney has also led teams to significantly increase access to care, improve patient experience, improve the overall quality of care and improve patient safety in primary care.”
Last year, she debuted a weight management clinic in response to the Bronx’s perpetual ranking as the unhealthiest county in the state – leading in diabetes, hypertension and obesity. The clinic was designed for prediabetic and obese patients and offered a dramatically tailored experience with the help of a staff nutritionist, a staff endocrinologist and an exercise trainer.
“It’s not just a funnel for bariatric surgery,” said Dr. Sydney. “We’re finding that obesity is a family affair. It usually starts with one patient but expands into their spouse and their children.”
The clinic has already helped 100 unique patients and has a wait list of several hundred more.