Dr. Joseph McGowan receives state HIV clinical excellence award

The Island Now
Photo provided by Northwell Health

Dr. Joseph McGowan,  medical director of the Center for AIDS Research and Treatment at North Shore University Hospital, today received the Dr. Linda Laubenstein Annual HIV Clinical Excellence Award from the state Department of Health AIDS Institute.

McGowan, who has provided HIV primary care to persons with HIV/AIDS for more than 30 years, accepted the award during a virtual ceremony held on World AIDS Day.

The Dr. Linda Laubenstein Annual HIV Clinical Excellence Award honors those physicians who, beyond providing the highest quality of clinical care for people with HIV/AIDS, are also distinguished by their compassionate manner and their wholehearted involvement in the ongoing effort to achieve comprehensive care for persons with HIV/AIDS, according to the state’s AIDS Institute.

The award was established in 1992 in memory of Laubenstein, a Manhattan physician, to honor her pioneering work and outstanding contribution to the quality of AIDS care in the early years of the epidemic.

“There are few diseases that have benefited more from improved medical care than HIV,” said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of infectious diseases and chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health. “At one time, HIV was considered a fatal disease, but has now become a well-controlled chronic disease.”

Throughout Dr. McGowan’s nearly two decades at NSUH, Dr. Farber said that Dr. McGowan and his team built up a first-class program to address all of the needs of the thousands of HIV patients that are under the care of Northwell. “The program addresses not only the medical needs but many of the other unique problems associated with HIV.

This includes: dental, gynecologic, psychiatric, pharmacy needs, social work, compliance and transportation among others,” Farber said, adding, “Under Dr. McGowan’s leadership, the overwhelming majority of our patients have achieved undetectable viral loads and live totally normal lives.”

In addition to being medical director at NSUH’s CART, the largest provider of HIV care in the Long Island region, Dr. McGowan is also director of the HIV Service Line Program for the Department of Medicine for Northwell Health. McGowan is professor of medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, professor in the Center for Health Innovations and Outcomes Research at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and serves on the faculty at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. 

He is the chair of the New York/New Jersey Chapter Board of the American Academy of HIV Medicine and is a past director at HIV Ambulatory Care at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center.

McGowan has published over 80 original articles and abstracts dealing with HIV and AIDS and has been involved in numerous clinical trials for over 25 years. He is currently the principal investigator on over a dozen grant-funded programs to provide HIV primary care and prevention from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration, and the sate Department of Health.

He serves as the Medical/Clinical Director of the AIDS Education and Training Regional Center at Stony Brook University and is chair of the medical care criteria committee of the New York State AIDS Institute, which establishes treatment guidelines for HIV management.

He is board-certified in infectious diseases and credentialed as an HIV specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine.

McGowan received a BA degree from Columbia University and his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He completed a fellowship in infectious diseases and a National Institutes of Health fellowship in immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

McGowan has received numerous honors and distinctions for his clinical and outreach work, including a 2020 Citation from the Nassau County Human Rights Commission, a World AIDS Day Award for Outstanding Provider by United Way of Long Island and attending physician of the year award at NSUH.

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