This month’s Healthcare Leader profile actually looks at six leaders of the AdventHealth system who have been named among the top two percent of scientist worldwide.
Five AdventHealth physicians and the scientific director of the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute are featured in a study by Stanford University.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS Biology, the comprehensive list analyzed research data from the mid-1990s through to 2019, covering millions of scientists in all fields of study, and identified the top scientists by calculating how often their work is cited over the course of their careers.
The following AdventHealth clinical leaders are featured among the nearly 160,000 listed experts:
Bret Goodpaster, PhD - #291 in Endocrinology & Metabolism
Goodpaster investigates the pathophysiology of human aging, obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes, as well as the biological mechanisms underlying the health benefits of exercise.
Dr. Goodpaster has received a number of awards and honors for his work, including the Nathan Shock Award from the National Institute of Aging in 2008. He is particularly well known for “the athlete’s paradox” which has shifted the paradigm in type 2 diabetes research to investigate, how and why does fat accumulation in muscle cause insulin resistance in some subjects but not others? Which are the good fats and which are the bad fats?
He has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers, review articles and book chapters, has served on several editorial boards, and is currently an Associate Editor for Diabetologia. Goodpaster is currently the scientific director of the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute.
Dr. Goodpaster obtained a B.S. in Biology from Purdue, and after completing a Pre-doctoral Fellowship at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, received his Ph.D. in Human Bioenergetics from Ball State University. Prior to coming to the AdventHealth TRI-MD, he was Professor of Medicine and UPMC Chair for Diabetes and Metabolism Research at the University of Pittsburgh.
John R.T. Monson, MD - #359 in Surgery
Dr. Monson is a board-certified colon and rectal surgeon with advanced fellowship training in surgical oncology, vascular surgery and colon and rectal surgery. His areas of expertise include the use of minimally invasive technologies in colorectal cancer treatment, including transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEMS), laparoscopy and robotic surgery.
Dr. Monson is credited with leading the development of laparoscopic colorectal surgery in the United Kingdom, and he is a former Chair of the U.K.'s National Training Program. His research encompasses a broad range of cancer-related areas including the development of national standards and qualitative assessments of decision-making in cancer care.
He was the secretary to the Irish Higher Surgical Training Group, representing trainees on the National Council. His final year project won the Dr. Pamela Gilligan Prize in Sept 2016. Since coming to Florida, he has involved himself with myriad projects including being on the steering committee for AdventHealth to achieve National Accreditation for Rectal Cancer.
As an author of over 400 original published papers, four books and more than 250 book chapters, his research encompasses a broad range of cancer-related areas including the development of national standards and co-founding the Commission on Cancer’s National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer. He serves on numerous editorial boards including being Co-Editor of Diseases of Colon and Rectum. In addition to his role as a leading physician with the AdventHealth Medical Group's elite colorectal surgery team, Monson also serves as executive director for the Digestive Health and Surgery Institute at AdventHealth Orlando.
Richard Pratley, MD - #395 in Endocrinology & Metabolism
Pratley is a board-certified internal medicine physician and internationally recognized diabetes expert with advanced training in gerontology, geriatrics and metabolism.
He sees patients at AdventHealth Medical Group’s diabetes and endocrine specialty practice in Orlando and The Villages while also serving as the Medical Director of the AdventHealth Diabetes Institute and as a senior scientist in diabetes research for AdventHealth.
He is a leading authority on new and emerging treatments for diabetes and its comorbidities. Pratley serves as the Samuel Crockett Chair in Diabetes Research, heads the Diabetes Program for the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute, and serves as the medical director of the AdventHealth Diabetes Institute.
Dr. Pratley earned his medical degree at Wayne State University in Detroit and undertook his residency at the University of Michigan. He next completed three consecutive fellowships in clinical physiology and metabolism, gerontology and geriatrics, and geriatrics at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Michigan, respectively.
Vipul Patel, MD - #735 in Urology & Nephrology
Vipul Patel, MD, FACS, is the director of the Global Robotics Institute at AdventHealth Celebration. One of the most experienced urologic robotic surgeons in the world, Patel has personally performed nearly 15,000 robotic prostatectomies and travels around the globe to educate physicians and help start robotic programs internationally.
In addition, Dr. Patel is the medical director of the AdventHealth Celebration Cancer Institute Urologic Oncology Program. He is a professor of urology at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in Orlando, and a clinical associate professor of urology at Nova Southeastern University, also in Orlando. He is the founder of the International Prostate Cancer Foundation (IPCF) and a founding member of the Society of Robotic Surgery.
He serves as an honorary professor at the University of Milan, Korea University and Ricardo Palma University in Lima, Peru, and was recently made an honorary professor of the Russian Academy of Science.
He has authored over 150 scientific articles and has served as an editor on six robotic textbooks – including The Journal of Robotic Surgery and the first-ever robotic urology textbook – and is a contributor on over 20 textbooks.
Mark Socinski, MD - #1,523 and #3,725 in Oncology & Carcinogenesis
Socinski is a board-certified, fellowship-trained medical oncologist and is an internationally recognized expert in the development of novel chemotherapy agents and treatment strategies for advanced non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. Since 2005, his research has focused on incorporating personalized medicine and molecular biomarkers in the treatment of lung cancer, and he has led AdventHealth’s involvement in clinical trials for METex14.
Dr. Socinski formerly served as Co-Chair of the Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee for the National Cancer Institute. He also serves on the Respiratory Core Committee of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (Alliance) and has been instrumental in the development of many cooperative clinical trials.
Socinski serves as the executive medical director of the AdventHealth Cancer Institute.
Herbert Newton, MD – #2,503 in Oncology & Carcinogenesis
Dr. Newton is a board-certified neuro-oncologist and neurologist with over 30 years of highly specialized experience treating cancer patients. His primary focus is on the diagnosis and skilled medical care of adult patients with tumors of the brain and spinal cord, as well as on the complications of brain tumors - particularly epilepsy.
An acclaimed authority in his field, Dr. Newton specializes in the use of chemotherapy and molecular therapeutics, and he has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of America's Top Doctors.
A graduate of the SUNY Buffalo Medical School, Dr. Newton completed his residency training at the University of Michigan and undertook his advanced fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He joined the AdventHealth network from the Wallace-Kettering Neuroscience Institute in Ohio, where he served as Director of Neuro-Oncology.
Dr. Newton is one of the most senior and experienced neuro-oncologists in the country, with a 25-year history in academic neurology and neuro-oncology. Very well published with over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as well as being the editor or co-editor of 9 published medical textbooks. He is very interested in 'personalized' approaches to medicine and cancer treatment and likes to 'partner' very closely with his patients and family members.
Developed by a group of scientists led by John P.A. Ioannidis, a statistician at Stanford University, the study sought to provide a comprehensive database of the most-cited scientists. These citation metrics are incredibly important for scientists and are often used as indicators to determine the relevance and importance of a given research topic. To learn more about how these rankings were calculated, click here.
