Dr. Susan Levenstein

Internist

Registration with the Medical Association of Rome and Province no. 28040
P.IVA: 04741230587

Email: slevenstein@aventinomedicalgroup.com cc info@aventinomedicalgroup.com
Phone: 065780738 / 0657288349
Emergency contact: 06 4880389
Office Hours: Monday and Friday afternoon


 

An American internist and writer living in Rome since 1978, Dr. Levenstein follows an integrated approach to clinical practice, balancing advanced medical science with attention to psychological and social concerns. She is also a researcher and lecturer on the interactions between mind and body in organic disease.

DR. LEVENSTEIN IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS.


Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome. was published in May, 2019 by Paul Dry Books in Philadelphia and is available at Amazon.com, and Book Depository and elsewhere.
“A love letter to Italy...The first chapters recount, with a combination of exasperation and humor, the years-long obstacle course she encountered in her quest to practice medicine in the country. She proceeds to talk about everything from what a well-dressed Italian physician should wear, to, in a particularly wise and witty chapter, love and sex from both an Italian and an American perspective. A timely epilogue discusses the Affordable Care Act from her unique position as an American expat and an Italian physician.”
—Publishers Weekly
"A charming story well told"
Kirkus Reviews
 
"These days, hundreds of policy papers and newspaper editorials regularly debate competing claims of medical efficiency, patient care, cost-containment, and expanding reach. But none do so with Levenstein’s humor and sensitivity to the human condition. And they certainly don’t make it fun — never mind being able to set the story in the Eternal City."—Madeleine Johnson (The American In Italia)

“One woman’s story of her medical journey from Harvard to Rome and her experiences, in medicine and life, as she practiced her profession in Italy. Her intelligent, candid and witty observations, with some moving and courageous insights, lead her and the reader to ask what medicine is and could be.”—Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, author of The Other Side of the Tiber, Reflections on Time in Italy

“A fascinating account of her life as an American doctor in the Eternal City, including an analysis of Italian healthcare that is both informed and terrifying. A must read for anyone contemplating to relocate to Rome...”—Matthew Kneale, author of Rome: a History in Seven Sackings "Dr. Levenstein...has written a book that must be read. It proves that a stethoscope can be a good instrument to explore not just a person, but a society.”—Furio Colombo, journalist and writer, formerly of NYU

“Levenstein’s gripping account of her experience as an American doctor in Rome is more than a memoir, it is a portrait of a changing country and the evolution of healthcare.”—Barbie Latza Nadeau, author of Roadmap to Hell

"Susan Levenstein is arguably the wittiest internist on earth...and has the observational skills of a sardonic cultural anthropologist..." —Dr. Robert Sapolsky, author of Behave and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

"A smart, funny, charming, highly readable memoir of practicing medicine in Italy and is full of astute insights into the way Italy works...”—Alexander Stille, author of Benevolence and Betrayal and Excellent Cadavers

"This sharp-eyed, deeply thoughtful, often exhilarating book will enlighten you not only about what it’s like to be an American doctor in Italy but about the whole dolce vita way of life...”—Frederika Randall, journalist/translator/critic

Column in The American In Italia: Bedside Manners


Messages from Home: The Parent-Child Home Program for Overcoming Educational Disadvantage, Revised and Updated Edition
di Phyllis Levenstein e Susan Levenstein
Temple University Press, 2008
"Must reading for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers"
- Edward Zigler, Ph.D., Sterling Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Yale University
"An important resource for those interested in child development and education."
- Teachers College Record


Presentation del libro al congresso dei Coordinatori del Parent-Child Home Program nel maggio del 2008 (5 minuti, in inglese)

5-minute video presentation of Messages From Home to the 2008 Parent-Child Home Program Coordinators conference

Services provided

General internal medicine, primary and preventive health care for men and women, office gynecology (Pap smears, infections, contraception, sexual counseling, menopause, etc.), ECGs, pulmonary function testing

Training and certifications

• Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, Harvard University
• M.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
• Internship and Residency in Social Internal Medicine, Residency Program in Social Medicine, Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, New York
• Laurea in Medicine, La Sapienza University, Rome
• Tirocinio in Gastroenterology, Nuovo Regina Margherita Hospital, Rome
• Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine

Hospital affiliations: Salvator Mundi International Hospital, Rome American Hospital
Research affiliations: San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital, Rome; Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Glostrup, Denmark

Languages spoken

Italian, English, French

Watsu (WAter shiatSU, a type of body work performed in warm water), Licensed Practitioner

Education Committee, American Psychosomatic Society

Editorial Board, Psychosomatic Medicine

Curriculum Vitae

Selected writings:
Mental vulnerability, Helicobacter pylori, and incidence of hospital-diagnosed peptic ulcer over 28 years in a population-based cohort (Scand J Gastroenterol, 2017)

Psychological Stress Increases Risk for Peptic Ulcer, Regardless of Helicobacter pylori Infection or Use of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol, 2015)
Video abstract:

The evidence for treatments for somatoform disorders: A view from the trenches (Somatic Presentations of Mental Disorders, 2009)

The Role of Stress in the Development and Clinical Course of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Epidemiological Evidence(Current Molecular Medicine, 2008)

Sexual Issues in the Menopause (Our Bodies Ourselves, 2006)

Embracing complexity: what determines quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease? (Eur J Gastro Hepatol, 2004)

Peptic Ulcer and Stress (Encyclopedia of Health and Behavior, 2004)

Psychological factors in Organic Gastrointestinal Disease. I. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Powerpoint presentation, 2004; look under "miscellaneous")

Stress and ulcerative colitis: Convincing the doubting Thomases (Am J Gastro, 2003)

Peptic ulcer and its discontents (Int'l J Epidemiology, 2002)

Psychosocial factors in peptic ulcer and inflammatory bowel disease (J Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2002)

First grade school readiness of former child participants in...the Parent–Child Home Program (J Applied Developmental Psychology, 2002)

Stress e decorso delle malattie organiche gastrointestinali (Argomenti di Gastroenterologia Clinica, 2001)

Psychosocial Predictors of Hypertension (Arch Int Medicine, 2001)

Stress and exacerbation in ulcerative colitis (Amer J Gastroent, 2000)

The very model of a modern etiology: A biopsychosocial view of peptic ulcer (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2000)

Stress and peptic ulcer disease (JAMA, 1999)

Stress and peptic ulcer: Life beyond Helicobacter (BMJ, 1998)

Long-term Impact of a Verbal Interaction Program for At-Risk Toddlers (J Applied Developmental Psychology, 1998)

Is There Health in Wellness? (J Clinical Gastroenterol, 1996)

Psychologic predictors of ulcer healing (J Clinical Gastro, 1996)

Development of the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (J Psychosom Res, 1993)

Low residue or normal diet in Crohn's disease (Gut, 1985)
Email: slevenstein@aventinomedicalgroup.com
please always cc info@aventinomedicalgroup.com