Leonid Poretsky (born August 7, 1954) is a Russian-born American endocrinologist. His research interests include mechanisms of insulin action in the ovary, endocrinological aspects of AIDS, and clinical outcomes in diabetes. He has authored over 100 publications and has served on the National Institutes of Health's review committees and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and other endocrine journals.
As of 2014 he is a professor of medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine in Hempstead, New York, and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, New York.
Early life, career
Leonid Poretsky was born on August 7, 1954, in Leningrad, Russian SSR. His mother, Nina, was a well known pediatrician from Bobruisk, Belarus who lived and worked in Leningrad. His father was a prominent engineer. Poretsky graduated from First (Pavlov) Medical Institute in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg State Medical University), cum laude in 1977.
He immigrated with his family to the United States in 1979. Upon completing his internal medicine residency program, he began a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital (now Beth Israel/Deaconess Medical Center). He also completed a research fellowship in medicine at Harvard Medical School (1983–1985), where he was mentored by Dr. Jeffrey Flier.
Beth Israel Medical Center
While at Beth Israel Medical Center (2000 - 2014), Dr. Poretsky served as Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Vice-Chairman for Research, and Interim Chairman in the Department of Medicine. He held the Gerald J. Friedman endowed chair in endocrinology and metabolism at Beth Israel Medical Center and was a founding director of the Gerald J. Friedman Diabetes Institute.
Gerald J. Friedman Diabetes Institute is an education, clinical management and research program focused on diabetes which requires no insurance or physician referral. At the institute Poretsky chairs the annual Friedman Fellows Symposia, which present the work of fellows from around the US supported by The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman New York Foundation for Medical Research.
Lenox Hill Hospital
In September 2014, Dr. Poretsky joined the staff of Lenox Hill Hospital as its Chief of the Division of Endocrinology. He is leading the effort to develop academic and clinical programs. An endocrinology fellowship program was initiated in July 2016 and a new site for the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman Diabetes Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital opened on August 1, 2016. Another specialized program in the division—Friedman Transgender Health and Wellness Program—opened in 2017. The division has numerous grants from philanthropic organizations, industry and government agencies (New York State Department of Health and the National Institutes of Health). Lenox Hill Hospital is a part of Northwell Health, formerly North Shore – LIJ Health System, a network of hospitals, nursing homes, a medical school, a nursing school, a medical research institute, ambulatory care centers, urgent care centers, a health insurance company, and laboratories.
Dr. Poretsky has regularly appeared in the New York Times Magazine Best Doctors List and the U.S. News & World Report Best Doctors List.
Publishing
Medical texts
Poretsky has authored over 100 publications, and has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Journal of Diabetes, and other publications.
He contributed to and edited the comprehensive textbook Principles of Diabetes Mellitus, which has been widely cited, and has gone through three editions so far (2002, 2010 and 2017). The book covers a wide range of topics on diabetes.
In 2012 he edited Diabetes Mellitus: A Concise Clinical Guide, which covers "the basics of diagnosis, complications, therapies and prevention of diabetes." The book consists of sections originally published in the second edition of Principles of Diabetes Mellitus.
He is also a series editor for “Contemporary Endocrinology”. (Springer, Inc.)
A comprehensive textbook "Transgender Medicine - Multidisciplinary Approach" co-edited by Leonid Poretsky, MD and Wylie Hembree, MD was published in 2019 (Springer Publishers, Inc.)