SMH-Sarasota Honors Physicians, Installs New Medical Staff Leaders
The medical staff of Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Sarasota campus recently honored two physicians for outstanding service and installed its new slate of physician leaders for 2022-2023.
Herbert Silverstein, MD, was awarded the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award, and Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, MD, was named 2022 Physician of the Year. Selected by a committee of physician leaders from the Sarasota campus, Drs. Silverstein and Wiese-Rometsch were recognized at its annual medical staff meeting several weeks ago.
In addition to the physician awards, the SMH-Sarasota Medical Staff also appointed its 2022-2023 officers: Jonathan Hoffberger, DO, was named Chief of Staff, serving as the top representative of SMH-Sarasota campus’ 1,800-plus medical staff members and advanced practice providers. Dr. Hoffberger succeeds Richard Lichtenstein, MD, whose one-year term as Chief of Staff ends this month. Sarah Temple, MD, was appointed Chief of Staff-elect.
SMH Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Silverstein was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for decades of research, innovation and dedicated service to Sarasota Memorial and countless patients who suffered from ear, nose and throat conditions across the nation. A longtime otolaryngologist in the community, Dr. Silverstein has spent more than 50 years evaluating and treating patients with hearing loss and tinnitus, otosclerosis and inner ear disorders, hyperacusis, Meniere’s disease, dizziness and balance disorders. His pioneering research and innovative treatment techniques have earned him a place among the most recognized specialists in Otology-Neurotology in the world.
Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, MD.
Dr. Silverstein joined the medical staff at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in 1973. He founded the Sarasota-based Ear Research Foundation in 1979 and established a fellowship program in Otology-Neurotology in 1983. His surgical skill, instructional courses and leadership expanded lateral skull base surgery at SMH and helped lead to the creation of the North American Skull Base Society.
SMH Physician of the Year
Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, MD, Chief Academic Officer for Sarasota Memorial’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) program, was named Sarasota Memorial’s 2022 Physician of the Year. A nationally recognized leader who has built more than 100 GME programs in the United States, Dr. Wiese-Rometsch joined Sarasota Memorial in 2015 as the founding director of the health system’s first GME program for physicians. She helped build the Internal Medicine residency program from the ground up, in partnership with FSU’s College of Medicine, earning continuous accreditation with multiple commendations from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. She also helped SMH develop the Internal Medicine residency practice in Newtown.
Dr. Wiese-Rometsch’s passion for academic and medical excellence helped set SMH on the path to become one of the top 40 teaching hospitals in the country, according to a 2022 Fortune/Merative study. In September, she was promoted to Chief Academic Officer and Associate Designated Institutional Official/Florida State University – SMHCS Graduate Medical Education Programs.
“Dr. Silverstein and Dr. Wiese-Rometsch exemplify the qualities every doctor should strive for,” said Sarasota Memorial Health Care System Chief Medical Officer James Fiorica, MD. “Both are excellent clinicians who have demonstrated extraordinary care for their patients and extraordinary commitment to academic research and discoveries that improve care and address unmet health care needs.”
The leadership of the Medical Staff at SMH-Venice, including current Chief of Staff Chris Jefferson, MD, are serving two-year terms and will continue in their roles for another year.