David B. Samadi

David B. Samadi
Born	Iran
Residence	Old Westbury, New York
Nationality	United States
Ethnicity	Iranian Jewish
Education	B.S. Stony Brook University M.D. Montefiore Medical Center Henri Mondor - Creteil, France Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Occupation	Chairman of Urology Dept. at Lenox Hill Hospital Chief of Robotic Surgery Professor of Urology at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine Program Director of Urology Residency Fox News Contributor and member of Medical A Team Chief Medical Correspondent AM 970 NYC
Spouse(s)	Sahar Danielpour

David B. Samadi is the Chairman of Urology, Chief of Robotic Surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital. He is a board-certified urologist specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of urologic diseases, prostate cancer, kidney cancer and bladder cancer, and specializes in advanced minimally invasive treatments for prostate cancer, including laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and laparoscopic robotic radical prostatectomy.

Biography

Born and raised in the Persian Jewish community of Iran, at age 15 Samadi and his younger brother left in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution. They continued their education in Belgium and London before coming to the United States where Samadi completed high school in Roslyn, New York. After high school, Samadi attended Stony Brook University and earned his degree in biochemistry on a full scholarship. He earned his M.D from S.U.N.Y., Stony Brook School of Medicine, Stony Brook, New York in 1994. Samadi completed his postgraduate training in urology at Montefiore Medical Center and in proctology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1996 and Montefiore Medical Center in 2000. He completed an oncology fellowship in proctology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2001 and a robotic radical prostatectomy fellowship at Henri Mondor Hospital Creteil in France under the mentorship of Professor Claude Abbou in 2002.

He first practiced at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, then joined the faculty of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in 2007 where he became the Vice Chair of the Department of Urology, and the Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery. In 2012, he was the highest paid doctor in New York City, earning $7.6 million. He moved his team to Lenox Hill Hospital in 2013, where he became the Chair of Urology and Chief of Robotic Surgery and was appointed Professor of Urology at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.

Samadi is a member of the American Urological Association and the American Medical Association. Samadi is included in Castle Connolly Medical's America's Top Doctors and New York Magazine's Best Doctors List.

Media

Samadi is a host of Sunday Housecall on Fox News Channel with Marc Siegel.

In March 2015 Samadi launched a radio program on New York City's am970, World Health News as well as a website to blog about health news.

Controversial comments on health insurance

On August 27, 2013, Samadi appeared as a guest on a segment of the Fox & Friends morning television show to discuss whether women should pay more than men for health insurance. At the time of the interview, the gender rating for insurance premiums was common practice among health insurers, with estimates that women paid about $1 billion a year more than men on health insurance. However, under the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010 (″Obamacare″), the practice was banned effective January 1, 2014, and this is considered to be one of the most uncontroversial provisions in the law. Samadi argued that women pay more for health insurance, because they, for a number of reasons, tend to use the health care system more than men. He stated that women go through more preventive screening; they give birth; they have mammograms and PAP smears; men do not like to go to the doctor. According to Samadi, men should make use of the system just as much as women and get preventive screenings done for cancer, especially prostate cancer. Prostate specific antigen levels (PSA) should be checked for men beginning at the age of 50, unless otherwise at a higher risk.

To fix this whole insurance companies and, like, health care system, you have to get the third payer party out of this. If you paid for it, that would be the way to go. We should all have some catastrophic insurance for hospitals, but when it comes to your CAT scans, X-rays, doctors, you have to come in with your credit card or cash and say, "I'd like to see the doctor." That would take care of all of this stuff.

In support of this position, Samadi said,

I just think that the whole system is not working well. I mean this is one of the examples, where men and women are totally different, there is a sex difference when it comes to the health care use, but I really think that if you pay for it, you are going to negotiate, finding out where is the best doctor, where you're going to get a better deal on all these X-rays etc., that's how you're gonna save money.

Samadi's comments have attracted widespread online criticism, in various blogs, such as those in Slate, Freak Out Nation, Wonkette, National Women's Law Center, Daily Kos, and Marie Claire.

Personal life

Samadi is married to Sahar Danielpour also of Iranian Jewish descent. He practices Judaism. The couple lives in Old Westbury, New York.