The New York City Dysphagia Study Group (NYCDSG) is a small, unique group of medical speech-language and swallowing pathologists from the NYC metro area. The group meets once a month for a specialized conference to discuss various clinical care topics and research related to dysphagia. The mission of the NYCDSG is to provide dysphagia clinicians with an inter-professional forum to learn, teach, sh
are, and collaborate to ultimately provide exceptional patient care. The group was originally founded in the mid-1990s by VA SLP Latimer Kells. Original members Lonnie Burke Aresse, Andrea Leone, Keri Danzinger, Shoana Scribner, Luis Riquelme, Marta Kazandjian, Cathy Lazarus, Michelle Graham, and Deborah Guida established the foundation for the group today. The group has grown since its inception and physical attendance is typically 30-55 members per meeting. Members are both newly trained clinicians entering into the field of dysphagia and others are highly seasoned clinicians, educators and leaders in the field. NYCDSG members represent 30+ medical centers in NY tri-state area, including NY-Presbyterian, Cornell, Mount-Sinai Health System (Queens, Manhattan), Elmhurst Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, Brooklyn Hospital Center, VA NY Harbor Healthcare (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens), New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, NYU Langone, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Silver Crest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, Montefiore Medical Center, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, and others, as well as numerous local universities including: Columbia University, New York University, Teachers College, City University of New York, New York Medical College, Touro College, and Hofstra University. The group is members-only and requires physical attendance to at least three group meetings per year to sustain membership. There is no fee to attend group sessions, our only requirement is that members commit to attending at least three group meetings per year. After an extended hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, group meetings will resume in September 2023.
