Danbury Hospital

Andrew Keller, MD, has been named chief of cardiology to lead the development of the advanced cardiovascular program at Danbury Hospital. He has served as the interim chief of cardiology since December 2003 and as medical director of echocardiography since 1989. As interim chief, he provided leadership for the division during the hospital’s quest to obtain Certificate of Need (CON) approval from the State Office of Health Care Access to establish an angioplasty and open-heart surgery program at the hospital. Dr Keller joined the hospital medical staff in 1989 and is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology.

Michael J. Daglio has been appointed as the cardiovascular service line executive at Danbury Hospital to provide administrative leadership and support for the growth and development of programs to address heart disease. He will focus on the implementation of the CON recently grated to the hospital. Previously, Mr Daglio was administrative director of ambulatory care at Continuum Health Partners in New York, N.Y., where he managed the operation of 13 multispecialty physician practices for Beth Israel Medical Center, and was assistant director in the physician initiatives group, where he worked to develop the musculoskeletal, cancer, and cardiac service lines. He earned his master of health administration from George Washington University and completed undergraduate studies at the University of Hartford.

Sarah R. Baroody, MD, joined Danbury Hospital’s Department of Surgery in the section of ophthalmology. She is in private practice at Eye Care of Danbury at 2 Glen Hill Road. She will be certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology next year. She came to Danbury from the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Penn., where she completed an internship in internal medicine and was a clinical instructor in comprehensive ophthalmology for Pennsylvania State University. She completed medical school at SUNY in Syracuse, N.Y., and received her ophthalmology training at St Louis University. She performs comprehensive eye exams for the prevention and treatment of a variety of eye conditions and performs cataract surgery using modern technology without using a shot, a stitch, or a patch. On November 8 at 1 pm she will give a talk on cataract surgery at the Newtown Senior Center on Riverside Road

.Pierre F. Saldinger, MD, has been appointed chairman of the Department of Surgery at Danbury Hospital. He succeeds John DeFrance, MD, who served since 1992. Dr Saldinger will lead further development in a wide variety of surgical programs and direct the hospital’s surgical residency program for postgraduate medical education. A board-certified surgeon, he specializes in surgery for benign and cancerous diseases of the liver, bile ducts, and pancreas, and minimally invasive surgery for a growing number of procedures. He is an associate professor of clinical surgery at New York Medical College, and in 2002 was named the first occupant of the Carmen Lucia and Peter Buck Endowment Chair in surgical oncology, which was established with a $3 million donation to support activities that enhance surgical care at the Praxair Cancer Center at Danbury Hospital.

John J. Chronakos, MD, has joined Danbury Hospital’s pulmonary department and the Danbury Office of Physicians Services, PC. He previously was at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York where he worked as an associate since 2001 and completed a fellowship in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. He also served as a teaching assistant in the department of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, and has served as a physician with Prison Health Services, at Tisch Hospital, and as an extern at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is board certified in internal medicine and pulmonary medicine.

St Vincent’s College

John K. Fisher, EdD, of Ridgefield, has been named president of St Vincent’s College, a subsidiary of St Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport. He succeeds Dr Anne T. Avallone, who retired after serving for 27 years at the school, which offers degrees in cardiovascular technology, medical assisting, nursing, and radiography. Dr Fisher comes to St Vincent’s from Norwalk Community College, where he served as dean of academic affairs since 1992.

New Milford Hospital

Orion Howard, MD, has been named director of medical oncology for the New Milford Hospital-Columbia-Presbyterian Regional Cancer Center. This is a newly created position, in which Dr Howard will be responsible for leadership in the comprehensive medical oncology program and will oversee institutional changes that allow continued growth for the center, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary. Dr Howard was an attending physician on the bone marrow transplant team and ran lymphoma clinical trials while at the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute. He also taught pharmacology and internal medicine at Harvard Medical School.