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Dr. Brenna Farmer has been named chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, effective October 11, 2022. Dr. Farmer, who is also an associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, most recently served as vice chief of clinical services in the Department of Emergency Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Hospital.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Farmer into this new role,” said Robert Guimento, president of NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. “Dr. Farmer is an outstanding clinician and leader who is committed to her patients and the Brooklyn community.”

In her new role, Dr. Farmer will expand and enhance emergency services at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. She will build on its exemplary care and maintain alignment between the department’s services and those offered throughout NewYork-Presbyterian’s health care system and Weill Cornell Medicine, including through implementing quality and patient safety projects and continuing to develop evidence-based medicine guidelines for care standardization. She plans to continue addressing disparities in care and meeting the needs of a diverse patient population.

“Dr. Farmer is an extraordinary leader and physician dedicated to advancing emergency care, and we are pleased to have her lead the Department of Emergency Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital,” said Dr. Rahul Sharma, emergency physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

“I am thrilled to lead the emergency medicine team at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital,” said Dr. Farmer. “My goal is to provide the highest quality care in the safest and most timely way possible, and I strive to treat patients the way I would want my own family to be treated.”

Dr. Farmer joined NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine in 2009 and has held several senior leadership roles in the Department of Emergency Medicine, including vice chair of quality and patient safety. She has been a key driver of the department’s initiatives on quality improvement, patient safety, and medication safety. She also served as site director at NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital’s emergency department, where she led the department’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and worked to develop evidence-based guidelines for care, including admission guidelines, appropriate home oxygen distribution, and best practice medication administration. In 2021, she was named Physician of the Year at NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, in honor of her extraordinary leadership, teamwork, and collaboration.

Board certified in emergency medicine and medical toxicology, Dr. Farmer earned her medical degree at Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and completed her emergency medicine residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She completed her subspecialty training in medical toxicology at NYU Langone and NYC Health+ Hospitals Bellevue, and the New York City Poison Control Center, and fellowship training in patient safety leadership through the American Hospital Association and National Patient Safety Foundation. She received a combined MBA/MS in healthcare leadership from Cornell University's Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Business and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.

Dr. Farmer is a nationally recognized medical toxicology expert and frequent keynote speaker on quality improvement, patient safety, and medication safety. She is active nationally in several organizations and is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, American Academy of Emergency Medicine, and the American College of Medical Toxicology.