Buffalo, NY, May 1, 2002 - Cynthia Ambres, MD, MS, has been named executive vice president and chief medical officer at Kaleida Health, effective May 20.

Dr. Ambres has an impressive career history as a physician executive and health care consultant. Most recently, she has been president of Ambres Health Care Consulting and senior vice president, medical affairs, and chief medical officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York, Blue Shield of Northeast New York and Health Now.

At Blue Cross Blue Shield/Health Now, Dr. Ambres was responsible for quality, case management, medical management, corporate communications and advertising, and a business management office. Prior to joining Blue Cross Blue Shield/Health Now, she was senior manager of the Health Care Consulting Group at Ernst & Young, LLP, New York. Her scope of practice encompassed a wide range of areas including new business development, emergency department and ambulatory care redesign, clinical resource management and strategic partnering.

"Dr. Ambres is a well-known and respected specialist with a proven record of achievements in clinical performance, leadership assessment and design, customer service, and strategic partnership development," noted Kaleida President and CEO William McGuire. "Her accomplishments have included medical policy development and implementation, the establishment of a cardiac surgery evaluation program, strategy development and long term corporate redesign, and the administration of quality and utilization services and disease management programs. We are delighted that she will be joining the Kaleida leadership team."

Dr. Ambres has held academic appointments at the medical schools at Mount Sinai, Albert Einstein College, New York, and the New York University Wagner School of Public Service. She is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and a member of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine.

She earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is a graduate of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She has a master's degree in health policy and management from New York University. She completed a surgery internship and a surgery fellowship in emergency medicine at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center, New York, and her emergency medicine training at the Georgetown/George Washington/Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical Services program.

She served as an attending physician, assistant director, and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York. There, her responsibilities included business plan development, managed care and marketing, and she chaired a physician design group for clinical information systems.

Dr. Ambres serves on numerous community, editorial and advisory boards, including the Board of Directors of the Buffalo Arts Studio and the Board of Trustees of Shea's Performing Arts Center.