Dr. Barakat serves as physician-in-chief and executive director of cancer services and research at Northwell Health’s Cancer Institute and senior vice president of cancer services, bringing to the role an internationally recognized career as a surgeon and clinical investigator with a particular focus on gynecologic oncology. Prior to joining Northwell Health, he served as chief of the gynecology service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and held the Ronald O. Perelman Chair in Gynecologic Surgery. There, he was lead investigator on several influential research projects, including landmark studies comparing laparoscopic versus standard surgery for endometrial cancer and evaluating lower-extremity lymphedema in women treated for uterine corpus cancer. A professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Dr. Barakat is the author or co-author of more than 340 peer-reviewed articles, numerous textbook chapters, an editor of a surgical atlas on gynecologic cancer, and an editor of the latest edition of Principles and Practice of Gynecologic Oncology, one of the leading texts in the field. His research has made foundational contributions to understanding the incidence, risk factors and quality-of-life impact of lymphedema in women surgically treated for gynecologic cancers, with key findings establishing that lymph node dissection puts patients at increased and persistent risk for lower extremity lymphedema. He has served as president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, the International Gynecologic Cancer Society, the Metropolitan Gynecologic Cancer Society, and the New York Obstetrical Society, and previously served as vice chair of the cancer prevention committee of the Gynecologic Oncology Group and as an examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
