Career Pulse

Maisel Tapped to Lead Baystate Northern Region

GREENFIELD — Dr. Gerda Maissel recently joined the Baystate Health Northern Region as chief medical officer. In this role, she serves as the liaison between Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s administrative team and the medical staff; oversees medical staff recruitment, credentialing, and hospital-quality initiatives; and has direct responsibility for the Baystate Medical Practices in Franklin County.

Maissel comes to this position from Baystate Medical Center, where she had served as chief of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and medical director of Rehabilitation Services since 1994, and in various other roles, including medical director of Post Acute Baystate Health since 2004, and president of the Baystate Medical Center medical staff from 2003 to 2004.

Given the extensive connections she has with her colleagues in Springfield, Maissel looks forward to bringing the appropriate resources of Baystate Health to bear in ways that will be helpful to the Northern Region. “We all benefit from listening to and appreciating each others’ perspectives,” she noted. “Community hospitals are often more flexible and can implement change quickly, while teaching hospitals offer expertise that can be valuable in managing exceptionally complex clinical cases.”

Maissel earned her bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology at UConn, and her medical degree from the State University of New York Health Sciences Center at Syracuse. She then completed her residency in internal medicine at Crozer Chester Medical Center in Chester, Pa., followed by a residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. After working as an attending physician at Jefferson for three years, she wanted to get out of the big city, so she made the move to the Pioneer Valley, where she became the youngest division chief at Baystate Medical Center, and the only female.

Attracted to medicine because she wanted to work closely with people, Maissel has spent her professional career balancing direct patient care with administrative responsibilities. “In both instances, I am serving as both a resource and a translator,” she observed. “I enjoy the give and take between colleagues as we all work together to figure out the best approach to take with each other, our patients, and the community as a whole.”

Magnus to Lead BHS Occupational Health

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Health Systems announced the appointment of Dr. Barry Magnus, a family-practice physician with extensive experience in occupational medicine, to lead the Berkshire Occupational Health program.

Magnus serves as medical director of Baystate Mary Lane Hospital’s Occupational Health program and assistant medical director of Baystate Medical Center’s Employee Health Service in addition to his new role at Berkshire Health Systems.

Magnus provides a broad range of comprehensive occupational-health services at BHS, with specialization in workers’ compensation and injury-management services. He joins Dr. Richard Dodge, and nurse practitioners Marthanne Donaldson and Carol Dickinson at Berkshire Occupational Health, with offices at 610 North St., Pittsfield.

Magnus previously served as medical director for Hasbro Games, regional medical director of Occupational Health and Rehabilitation of Springfield, and assistant residency director for the Department of Family Medicine at UMass Medical Center.

He received his medical degree from the University of South Carolina and completed his residency training in Family Practice at Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia, S.C. He has a master’s degree in Anthropology from UConn and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at the university.

Wing Medical Staff Welcomes Stein

PALMER — Dr. Robert Stein has joined the medical staff of Wing Memorial Hospital & Medical Centers. He is a board-certified radiation oncologist and a member of the UMass Memorial Medical Group, who provides consultative services at Wing Memorial Hospital in Palmer.

Stein will conduct radiation oncology evaluations for adult patients who have been diagnosed with cancer. If a patient is cleared for radiation oncology therapy, Stein will make arrangements for the patient to be treated at an appropriate facility. Radiation oncology uses high-energy X-rays to attack cancer cells and treat a specific area of the body. Radiation therapy can be used to treat cancers of the bone, breast, lymph nodes, lung, and prostate, to name just a few. Stein will create a customized treatment plan that is tailored for each patient.

He joins Wing Memorial’s multi-disciplinary team, including oncology-certified and trained nurses, that provides chemotherapy, pain management, infusions, and transfusions to cancer patients throughout the Quaboag Hills and the Pioneer Valley. As a member of UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Wing Memorial Hospital provides treatment for a wide range of cancers, including breast, gastrointestinal, gynecologic, head and neck, leukemia and lymphoma, lung, prostate, and skin.

Stein earned his medical degree from the University of Alabama and completed his radiation oncology residency at the University of Rochester.

Marshall Brings Advances in Prostate Surgery to BHS

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Health Systems announced the appointment of Dr. Jonah Marshall, a urologist specializing in robotic surgery, to the medical staff of Berkshire Medical Center and the physician staff of Urology Services of the Berkshires.

Marshall has performed hundreds of surgical procedures utilizing the da Vinci Surgical System, a state-of-the-art robotic surgery system BMC introduced to the Berkshires earlier this summer. Marshall, in collaboration with Dr. Stephen St. Clair, division chief of Urology at BMC, will lead the hospital’s urologic robotic surgery program, which will include advanced prostate and kidney care. Through his recruitment, BMC is helping to meet a community need for increased access to urology care at a time of national physician shortages in that specialty.

Marshall received his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in Rochester, N.Y. He completed advanced residency training in the use of the da Vinci Surgical System at the University of Rochester Department of Urology. He is also certified as an instructor by Intuitive Surgical, which allows him to supervise the training of other surgeons on the robotic surgical system.

Robotic surgery using the da Vinci System is now considered the national standard of care for prostate and kidney surgeries. Urology Services of the Berkshires is dedicated to minimally invasive surgery, which provides the best clinical option for most patients.