Internal medicine practitioners
Elena B. Pereira, MD
Elena Pereira, MD, is a gynecologic oncologist at Lenox Hill Hospital. She is double board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and gynecologic oncology. Dr. Pereira attended medical school at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and completed both her residency and fellowship at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her field handles both surgery and chemotherapy. “Because we do both aspects of cancer care, there’s a lot of continuity for patients,” she says. Her team also works closely with the radiation oncology department. As an expert in laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery, Dr. Pereira strives for faster recoveries and fewer disruptions to her patients’ lives. She takes a holistic approach, looking at every aspect of a patient’s care, including their diet before and after surgery, how to help control nausea, pain management with limited narcotic use and much more. She’s also a member of the Enhanced Recovery Protocol Committee at Lenox Hill, a multidisciplinary committee including nurses, anesthesiologists and surgeons. They work together to rethink traditional patient care guidelines in order to improve the patient experience, such as allowing a clear liquid diet ahead of surgery, rather than advising patients not to eat or drink the night before. As a result, patients enter surgery feeling more comfortable and can even recover more quickly. Additionally, Dr. Pereira is researching innovative ways to screen for cervical cancer which, despite affecting about 12,000 women a year, historically doesn’t receive as much attention as other cancers. “We still use archaic ways of diagnosing, treating and monitoring it,” she says, noting that her research interests include finding new ways to detect cervical cancer with blood tumor markers. With her unmatched dedication to patient care, Dr. Pereira ensures she and her team are accessible to her patients, in every sense of the word. Whether it’s 24/7 availability to answer questions and ease concerns, speaking Spanish (the native language of roughly half her patients), or accepting many types of insurance, Dr. Pereira says: “If you need us, we can take care of you.”