Long Island Plastic Surgical Group (LIPSG) was founded in April 1948 and is the oldest and largest private academic plastic surgery practice in the United States. The group has nine offices in New York, including Garden City, East Hills, Babylon, Huntington, Manhattan, Flushing, Lynbrook, Brooklyn, and Brooklyn-Park Slope. The practice operates with twenty plastic and reconstructive surgeons who were trained at institutions including Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital. LIPSG is composed of nine centers: Skincare and Age Management; Non-invasive and Surgical Facial Rejuvenation; Pediatric Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery; Facial Reanimation and Peripheral Nerve Repair; Microsurgery and Hand Reconstruction; Breast and Body Cosmetic Surgery; Burns and Complex Wound Management; Breast Reconstruction Cancer Surgery; and Post-Weight Loss Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Contents
Long Island Plastic Surgical Group surgeons are credited with improving the technique to restore function to facial muscles paralyzed by stroke and disease and discovering new uses and procedures for anti-aging treatments. The practice has also partnered with hospitals in projects such as the development of a nationally recognized burn center at Nassau University Medical Center (NuHealth), and the creation of the Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Center at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York. Within the practice, LIPSG oversees its own academic residency program and clinical trial division to advance plastic surgery education and research with the goal of improving procedures and making them safer.
Currently, the practice has four online educational resources for patients on key areas of plastic surgery in the areas of Breast Cancer Reconstruction, Facial Reanimation, Cosmetic Breast Surgery and Non-Surgical Cosmetic Enhancement.
History
Long Island Plastic Surgical Group was established by Leonard R. Rubin, MD (1912–2001) and Richard H. Walden, MD, DDS (1913–2001) in April 1948 in Hempstead, New York. The practice grew through the 1950s, with Rubin and Walden offering a residency training program from 1954. During the 1960s, LIPSG founded the Nassau Cleft Palate Rehabilitation Center where all children born on Long Island with cleft lip and palate conditions were treated per an agreement with the State of New York. During this decade, Long Island Plastic Surgical Group surgeons also became the first to conduct studies on using pig skin in the treatment of burn victims at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. In 1967 LIPSG’s Dr. Rubin co-founded the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) which grew to become one of the world’s leading professional organizations for cosmetic surgery education and research.
In the 1970s, LIPSG opened a specialty center devoted to facial reanimation treatment, where Rubin and fellow surgeons could continue the work and research outlined in his published article The Anatomy of a Smile in 1974. By 1978, Long Island Plastic Surgical Group relocated to Mineola, New York and became the first independent center to receive New York State accreditation and certification for its operating rooms. A decade later, LIPSG relocated its main office to a larger facility in Garden City, New York. During the 1990s, Long Island Plastic Surgical Group opened a medical spa, now known as Deep Blue Med Spa, which focuses on skincare and non-surgical cosmetic enhancement. Today, Deep Blue Med Spa treatments range from facials and chemical peels to fractionated laser resurfacing, skin tightening and tattoo removal. Deep Blue Med Spa has locations in LIPSG’s Garden City, East Hills, Babylon and Manhattan offices.
In the 2000s, the office expanded throughout New York and into Connecticut, and opened two new state-accredited operating rooms. In February 2008, LIPSG partnered with Nassau University Medical Center to oversee the $6.7 million renovation of a burn center with unique features such as a hyperbaric chamber for wound treatment. In 2009, LIPSG’s academic residency program became fully accredited and continues to serve as one of the nation’s only privately run, non-university based plastic surgery residency programs. In early 2010, LIPSG also launched 1-877-Dr. STITCH, a 24-hour emergency service where LIPSG surgeons meet patients directly at the hospital emergency room or at a LIPSG office location to treat lacerations, complex wounds, broken noses, burns and facial trauma.
Recognizing that Long Island, NY has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the United States, LIPSG has become highly involved in breast cancer initiatives in local areas. The practice holds a position on the Board of the Adelphi NY Statewide Breast Cancer Hotline and Support Program and also sponsors the Annual Long Island Breast Cancer Summit featuring panels of medical experts and hospital executives discussing the latest innovations, treatments and services for women who have breast cancer.
Doctors
Long Island Plastic Surgical Group surgeons work with over 25 hospitals in the New York region, with three LIPSG surgeons holding the position of Chief of Plastic Surgery:
Long Island Plastic Surgical Group surgeons are members of national organizations including the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Every year, LIPSG surgeons teach their own techniques and present original research at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons as well as at other medical conferences throughout the U.S. and abroad.
Awards
LIPSG surgeons have received numerous honors and awards on a national and local level. As a practice, Long Island Plastic Surgical Group has won #1 Best Plastic Surgery Group for nine straight years (2008–2016), Best BOTOX® Practice and Best Laser Treatment Center for Aesthetic Center/Deep Blue Med Spa in the Best of Long Island Awards hosted by the Long Island Press. Notable awards for individual surgeons include:
Dr. STITCH Service
In 2010, Long Island Plastic Surgical Group launched 1-877-Dr. STITCH, a 24-hour emergency service where LIPSG surgeons meet patients directly at the hospital emergency room or at a LIPSG office location. The service provides immediate treatment for lacerations, complex wounds, broken noses, burns, facial trauma, and hand injuries. You can call Dr. STITCH 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Media coverage
Long Island Plastic Surgical Group was the focus of a four-part series on the Discovery Health Channel in 2003 entitled Plastic Surgery: New York Style. Additional media coverage included:
Deep Blue Med Spa
Deep Blue Med Spa, formally known as Aesthetic Center, is a skin rejuvenation medical spa staffed by licensed medical aestheticians and physician assistants overseen by the surgeons at Long Island Plastic Surgical Group. The medical spa offers non-surgical elective cosmetic enhancement treatments to correct conditions on the face and body, remove unwanted body hair or tattoos, eliminate spider veins, shape the body and reduce the signs of aging with the goal of creating a more youthful appearance. Treatments include comprehensive skincare treatments, chemical peels, spider vein removal therapy, laser skin resurfacing, and body hair reduction. Deep Blue Med Spa also offers Long Island Plastic Surgical Group’s private label skincare line, ProBlueMD, which is formulated by LIPSG surgeons and sold at the medical spa locations or online.
From 2011-2016, Aesthetic Center and Deep Blue Med Spa was awarded "Best Laser Treatment Center" in the "Best of Long Island Awards" hosted by the Long Island Press.