CUNYAC Inks Five-Year Contract Extension with Hospital for Special Surgery
The City University of New York Athletic Conference is pleased to announce that it will continue its partnership with Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), inking a five-year deal that will extend through the 2025-26 athletic season.
Since 2001, HSS has been a vital partner to the success of CUNYAC, serving as a presenting sponsor of the CUNYAC Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships and the league’s Scholar-Athlete initiatives. In addition, Hospital for Special Surgery helped sponsor CUNYAC Trivia, a nine-week competition that engaged our student-athletes during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, while collaborating with our webinar series, ‘Talk About It Tuesdays.’
HSS, ranked No. 1 in orthopedics for an unprecedented 11th straight year and No. 4 in rheumatology by the U.S. News & World Report (2020-2021), has been highly visible at each of the conference’s 24 championship events, as well as the Student-Athlete Leadership Seminar, the Basketball Press Luncheon at Giando’s on The Water and the Michael Steuerman Scholar-Athlete Awards Dinner. “We are excited to extend our partnership with HSS for another five years to the benefit of our student-athletes and wider CUNY community,” said CUNYAC Executive Director Zak Ivkovic. “As the No. 1 Orthopedic hospital in the nation who provides the best care for vast number of New York professional teams, our students will continue to have the same access and level of care, and that cannot be measured or overstated.”
As CUNYAC continues to work with its member athletic directors for a return to sports, campus athletic trainers and team physicians, in collaboration with HSS, formed a CUNYAC Sports Medicine Advisory Team. Led by Dr. Osric King, a sports medicine physician at HSS, the group has been tasked with providing guidance for all sports competitions and championships, including on-site management of student-athletes and essential personnel, nonessential personnel and fans. With HSS guiding the conversation, we are confident that our student-athletes will receive the best possible medical care during these unprecedented times and beyond.
Dr. King has a longstanding relationship with CUNYAC. Throughout the years, Dr. King has served as our Sports Medicine Director, assisting in pre-season screenings of our student-athletes across member campuses, along with providing service at championships and special events, showcasing a personal touch to the organization's long-standing partnership with the conference.
HSS is the world’s leading academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health. At its core is Hospital for Special Surgery, nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics (for the 14th consecutive year), No. 2 in rheumatology by U.S. News & World Report (2023-2024), and the best pediatric orthopedic hospital in NY, NJ and CT by U.S. News & World Report “Best Children’s Hospitals” list (2023-2024). In a survey of medical professionals in more than 20 countries by Newsweek, HSS is ranked world #1 in orthopedics for a fourth consecutive year (2023). Founded in 1863, the Hospital has the lowest readmission rates in the nation for orthopedics, and among the lowest infection and complication rates. HSS was the first in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center five consecutive times. An affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College, HSS has a main campus in New York City and facilities in New Jersey, Connecticut and in the Long Island and Westchester County regions of New York State, as well as in Florida. In addition to patient care, HSS leads the field in research, innovation and education. The HSS Research Institute comprises 20 laboratories and 300 staff members focused on leading the advancement of musculoskeletal health through prevention of degeneration, tissue repair and tissue regeneration. In addition, more than 200 HSS clinical investigators are working to improve patient outcomes through better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat orthopedic, rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. The HSS Innovation Institute works to realize the potential of new drugs, therapeutics and devices. The HSS Education Institute is a trusted leader in advancing musculoskeletal knowledge and research for physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, academic trainees, and consumers in more than 165 countries. The institution is collaborating with medical centers and other organizations to advance the quality and value of musculoskeletal care and to make world-class HSS care more widely accessible nationally and internationally. www.hss.edu.
