Mark Lachs, M.D.

Both a practicing physician and highly regarded researcher, Dr. Mark Lachs is Director of Geriatrics for the New York Presbyterian Health System (one of the nation’s largest) and the Irene and Roy Psaty Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City. He is also co-chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the Medical School, and has responsibility for teaching geriatrics and internal medicine to medical students, residents, fellows and practicing physicians. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the New York University School of Medicine he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine. Dr. Lachs also received a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Yale University while a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.

Dr. Lachs’s major area of interest is the disenfranchised elderly, and he has published widely on such topics as of elder abuse and neglect, quality of life in aging, the older cancer patient, ethics, and the financing of health care. He has lectured internationally and is a highly sought after speaker to both medical and lay audiences. His scientific publications have appeared in such prestigious publications as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, and he has appeared on The Today Show, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and many other national and local media outlets.

His many honors and awards include an American College of Physicians Teaching and Research Scholarship, a National Institute on Aging Academic Leadership Award, and a Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholarship. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Lachs continues to conduct important research on aging while simultaneously mentoring junior physicians and researchers in this area. He was the principal investigator of the largest longitudinal study of elder abuse ever conducted (funded by the National Institute on Aging), He has advised the Institute of Medicine and the AMA on matters related to Elder Abuse and Aging, participated in the 2006 White House Conference on Aging, and testified before congress and local legislatures. He has also served as an advisor to the World Health Organization. Dr. Lachs serves on the board of directors of the American Federation for Aging Research (a foundation seeking to raise awareness and funding for aging research) as well as other foundations.

Dr. Lachs’s hobbies include baseball, guitar, restoring antique electronics, and ham radio. He and his wife Susan, a nurse practitioner, have three children and live in Connecticut.