The inaugural lecture, "Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, An Introduction to the Jehovah's Witness Patient," was held recently.

1. For Immediate Release February 5, 2019
Contact: Damian Becker, Manager of Media Relations
(516) 377-5370
South Nassau Receives Grant to Establish New Medical Lecture Series
--South Nassau’s Chief Surgeon Dr. Rajiv Datta Underwrites Lecture Series To Support Medical Education
Oceanside, NY – The Mudra Foundation: Art for a Cause has agreed to underwrite an annual medical
education lecture series that will focus on innovations and research in medicine to further medical education at
South Nassau Communities Hospital.
The lectures will cover a wide range of topics and will be open to medical professionals and to the
public. The inaugural lecture, “Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, An Introduction to the Jehovah’s Witness
Patient,” was held February 4.
The Mudra Foundation, based in Muttontown, NY, was founded by Dr. (Mrs) Arti Datta & Dr. Rajiv
Datta, Chair of the Department of Surgery and Director of the Gertrude and Louis Feil Cancer Center at South
Nassau. The foundation uses the artistic medium of dance and music to raise funds and awareness to aid the
mission and vision of other non-profit educational and charitable organizations.
“Each lecture will serve as a platform to herald and learn about the plans, projects and goals that
distinguished physicians and medical professionals are pursuing or implementing to meet the world’s need for
high-quality, accessible medicine,” said Dr. Arti Datta, Artistic Director of Mudra Dance Studio, Muttontown,
NY, and founding president of the foundation.
South Nassau has a growing role as a teaching hospital. Currently, the hospital staff has resident training
programs in surgery, OB/GYN, family medicine, podiatry and is starting an internal medicine residency
program this year. Dr. Rajiv Datta said he and his family decided to underwrite the lecture series as a way of
fostering medical education at South Nassau, where he has spent the bulk of his career as a physician leader,
overseeing the Department of Surgery.
The inaugural lecture, “Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, An Introduction to the Jehovah’s Witness
Patient,” was held February 4 and presented by Cedric K. Olivera, MD, MS, FACOG, FACS, assistant clinical
professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive
Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

2. “I felt it was important for us to find a way to give back to the hospital that has been so good to us and to
the community,” Dr. Rajiv Datta said.
The Long Island flagship hospital of the Mount Sinai Health System, South Nassau® Communities
Hospital is Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for
outstanding nursing care. South Nassau is one of the region’s largest hospitals with 455 beds, more than 900
physicians and 3,500 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit
teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain
management, mental health and emergency medicine.
In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective
angioplasty, and offers Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau operates the
only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County verified by the American College of Surgeons as
well as Long Island’s only free-standing, 9-1-1 receiving Emergency Department in Long Beach. It is also is a
designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer
Center by the American College of Surgeons, and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
Association and Quality Improvement Program.
In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval for disease-
specific care for stroke, hip and knee replacement, heart failure, bariatric surgery, wound care and end-stage
renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.
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