Richard V. Smith, M.D., FACS, has been named professor and university chair of the department of otorhinolaryngology–head & neck surgery at Einstein and Montefiore. Dr. Smith assumed his new position in October 2021, after having served as interim department chair since February 2020.
An accomplished thyroid/parathyroid surgeon, Dr. Smith was an early adopter of transoral robotic total laryngectomy—a complicated but minimally invasive procedure for head and neck cancers that improves outcomes and allows for shorter hospital stays. He has also published widely on using genetic biomarkers in head and neck cancers to predict disease progression.
As interim chair, Dr. Smith streamlined appointment scheduling by making sure that patients completed necessary medical testing before their subspecialty visits. This has led to a decrease in patient no-show rates and to better, more productive in-person visits. In this role, he also spearheaded a new hospitalist service at the Moses campus and a new rotation for the residents in the department.
In 2021 the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery honored Dr. Smith with its Board of Governors Practitioner Excellence Award, which recognizes an otolaryngologist whom others wish to emulate.
Dr. Smith has held leadership positions in regional and national organizations, including as president of the New York Laryngological Society and the New York Head & Neck Society. He has also earned the Distinguished Academic Achievement Award from the Robert Larner, M.D., College of Medicine at the University of Vermont.
Dr. Smith received his B.A. cum laude from Middlebury College and his M.D. from the University of Vermont. He completed his general surgery internship and his otolaryngology–head and neck surgery residency at the Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and joined Montefiore and Einstein in 1995.
Richard V. Smith, M.D., FACS 
