Dalia Mahmoud

Transforming Endoscopy in Brooklyn

Growing up in Sudan, Dr. Dalia Mahmoud wanted to be a doctor “for as long as I have been conscious.” Now she has several distinctions as a member of the endoscopy department at NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull. She’s the only woman with advanced endoscopy credentials in Brooklyn and the only NYC Health + Hospitals physician in the borough providing endoscopic ultrasound services.

Dr. Mahmoud arrived at Woodhull for her residency in 2012 and served a fellowship in gastroenterology at NYC Health and Hospitals/Metropolitan. After practicing in New Hampshire for several years, she followed her heart back to Woodhull in 2023. “Working in a public hospital allows us to be advocates for patients, a support beyond just providing treatment,” Dr. Mahmoud says.

Since her return to Woodhull, Dr. Mahmoud has been credited with transforming the hospital’s endoscopy department, dramatically expanding both its patient capacity and the complexity of the procedures it offers. In a little more than a year, the department has gone from performing a handful of endoscopic ultrasound procedures to nearly 200. And she introduced endoscopic ultrasound-guided liver biopsies, a major support for the hospital’s busy hepatology clinic.

Dr. Mahmoud draws motivation from every patient she treats: “Knowing one patient is back home with her children, pain-free, because we treated her gallstone disease. Knowing that a patient does not have to undergo surgery because we were able to remove their large polyps on a colonoscopy. Knowing that even though we might give bad news at times, the answers we provide may lead to a path to recovery or even just acceptance toward a more comfort-focused life.

“Those moments with patients, with colleagues, emotions high and low, is what life is all about and I am thankful to be able to do this every day.”

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