ABOUT US

Dr. Joann Gualberti is a board certified Internal Medicine physician and Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

She has played an important role in teaching, research, hospital performance and quality improvement. She was instrumental at her former hospital in the advancement of a newly recognized subspecialty in Internal Medicine known as Palliative Care.

Her academic ranks include time spent as Clinical Instructor, Assistant Director of Ambulatory Medicine, Associate Director of Palliative Medicine, and Medical Director of Hospice.

Dr. Joann began her career at SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn School of Medicine where she trained at Kings County Hospital and other Brooklyn hospitals. She went on to complete her residency training at Staten Island University Hospital and was asked to stay on as chief medical resident for an additional year. In 2001 she joined their faculty practice team. Much of her time was spent caring for patients on the hospital floors and intensive care units as well as in the medical clinics and med/gyn women’s health clinic.

She quickly became involved in teaching medical students and residents. She lectured daily about the primary care of patients focusing on a broad range of topics including cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, rheumatological, and neurological diseases. She taught board review courses in Preventive Medicine and pain management. She coauthored research studies in medical journals and presented her work at national meetings. In recognition of her dedication to continuing education in medical practice, teaching and research, she became the Assistant Director of Ambulatory Medicine and worked on core curriculum development to prepare residents for future practice.

Her institutional, departmental, and committee memberships included doing performance improvement audits for the hospital to improve the care provided to hospitalized patients. She was involved in monthly Morbidity and Mortality reviews. She served as a monitor/intervener for the Committee for Physicians Health. Other committee memberships included the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, Ambulatory Care Committee, and Pain Management Steering Committee where she was able to implement significant improvements in the care of terminally ill patient’s suffering from intractable pain.

In 2002 Dr. Joann established Staten Island University Hospital’s first Palliative Care Consultation service. Palliative Care is the total care of patients who are experiencing a debilitating chronic or life threatening illness, condition or injury. Relief of suffering is of paramount importance. She served as Associate Director and medical consultant for the service. She worked aggressively at improving the quality of life in chronically ill patients. Adequate pain control was an area where the hospital needed to make improvements and Dr. Joann worked closely with the pain management team to successfully improve symptom control in patients suffering from intractable pain. She lectured to attendings and residents regularly to help advance the humanitarian care of chronically ill patients. As Medical Director of Hospice she made monthly home visits to patients who could no longer leave the confines of their homes.

In 2004, Dr. Joann saw an opportunity to practice medicine with her sister. Together they opened Orchard Medical Group in the Colts Neck area where they continue to practice quality care for the patients they serve.