Dr. Kimon Bekelis, MD

Dr. Bekelis is a board-certified, fellowship trained neurosurgeon with subspecialty training in minimally invasive endovascular neurosurgery. He additionally specializes in Gamma Knife Radiosurgery, and complex spine, and brain operations.

As one of the most prominent, widely published stroke researchers in the country, with several national and international awards, Dr. Bekelis will also serve as the new Chairman of Neurointerventional Services for Catholic Health Services of Long Island (CHSLI) and the Director of the highly anticipated Stroke and Brain Aneurysm Center of Excellence in Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center (GSHMC). Currently under construction, this multi-million dollar Stroke Center will fill a significant healthcare void in Long Island’s south shore and beyond.

Drawing from extensive experience at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, one of the largest stroke centers in the country, Dr. Bekelis is committed to making the new Stroke and Brain Center at GSHMC a national and international referral center, which will transform stroke care in our region. He is directly involved in the structural planning of this state-of-the-art facility, as well as the recruitment and staffing of highly skilled surgeons, nursing, and technical support staff.

Dr. Bekelis is also the Director of the Population Health Research Institute of New York at CHS and an Assistant Professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. After finishing his medical school education, he spent a year as a postdoctoral research fellow in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed his neurosurgery residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where he served as the chief resident, and his fellowship in cerebrovascular and endovascular neurosurgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, one of the largest stroke centers in the country.

He has been involved in several projects focusing on outcome predictive modeling, resource utilization, regional disparities, diffusion of innovation, intensity of care, workforce allocation, medicolegal issues, and cost. Dr. Bekelis is the author of over 110 peer reviewed journal publications, and 10 book chapters. He has developed two software applications on risk prediction, and has received funding support from the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), the Hitchcock Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. His work has been honored with the Dandy Award, the Scoville award, the Robert Florin award, the Sam Hassenbusch Award, the Stroke Care in Emergency Medicine Award, the CNS Foundation Innovation Fellowship Award, and the first place of the socioeconomic category at a recent American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) meeting. He recently led the research team that produced the Dartmouth Atlas national report on the treatment of cerebral aneurysms and developed a website highlighting the diffusion of stroke care in the United States. He is a reviewer for multiple scientific journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, currently the top journal in all medical specialties.

Dr. Bekelis is well respected by his peers. He holds multiple leadership positions in several national committees in stroke, and neurosurgery. These include the AANS Development Committee, the Joint Guidelines Committee (which develops guidelines on stroke care among others), the N2QOD (the first national neurosurgery outcomes registry for spinal disorders), the National Quality Forum, and others. While still a resident, he was voted in the AANS Young Neurosurgeons Committee after national elections, and he was selected as a Council of State Neurosurgical Societies (CSNS) fellow (the health policy organization of neurosurgery), and subsequently as the fellow to the prestigious AANS/CNS Washington Committee, which focuses on health policy, management, advocacy, and legislative reform. Dr. Bekelis was elected as the 2016 Health Policy Scholar by the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Kimon Bekelis is a Neurosurgeon with Long Island Brain & Spine.