We post reviews for MSK healthcare providers who have at least 30 patient experience surveys completed. If you do not see reviews for a provider, it may be because they do not yet have enough survey responses, or the provider may not be part of the group of healthcare providers included in the survey.
Only outpatient providers are included in the survey. Healthcare providers who only work in the hospital or in urgent care are not included in the survey. Pathologists or researchers who do not provide direct care to patients do not have reviews.
Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Chair
Get To Know Me
I am a physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation, also known as physiatry. I help people with neurological and musculoskeletal problems that affect their quality of life. My goal is to allow them to return to their normal activities. I see patients in Manhattan and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen, in New Jersey.
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Physiatrists understand the impact of cancer and cancer treatment on a person’s daily activities, their mobility, and their well-being. We help get people back to living their lives, during treatment or afterward. Sometimes our treatment plans involve medications. Other times we prescribe skilled therapy or independent exercise, lifestyle changes, special braces or supports for weak or painful joints, or other treatments. We always strive to help people recover their sense of self and wellness despite experiencing a life-changing illness.
I became a physiatrist because I loved the way this specialty requires me to blend the understanding of multiple systems — neurologic, musculoskeletal, and psychological — with an understanding of the overall health of a person facing cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or another chronic condition. My training emphasized the importance of understanding each person as an individual, listening carefully to find the best path forward toward healing and recovery. It also helped me realize that a person’s illness can be treated successfully but they can still be held back by their experience, and that a person can continue to live life fully even in the presence of illness.
Caring for people living with or recovering from cancer is the most rewarding career I can imagine. While I enjoy helping individual patients, it is my goal to create major changes in cancer care throughout MSK to strengthen our attention to our patients’ function and mobility. If we can better maintain a person’s mobility throughout their treatment, we will help them return to usual activities more quickly and restore their quality of life.
My Role at MSK
A rehabilitation medicine specialist is a doctor with special training in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Rehabilitation medicine specialists are sometimes called physiatrists (fih-ZIH-ah-trists).
Areas of Expertise
My Specialties
Rehabilitation, Pain Management, Palliative Care
Education & Honors
Education
MD, Northeast Ohio Medical University
Residencies
Baylor College of Medicine
Board Certifications
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Pain Management
Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Insurance Information
Understanding your insurance options is an important part of managing your cancer care. We have relationships with many common healthcare providers and plans.
Aetna
In Network Coverage Type HMO, EPO PPO, POS, Transplant
Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering work as teams, with specialists from all different areas. This allows us to consider all your needs together, and to give you the best possible care.
Memorial Sloan Kettering's doctors and scientists are constantly developing new treatments for cancer. MSK is typically running hundreds of clinical trials at a given time.
You may be able to participate in a clinical trial even if you are new to MSK. Search our online directory to find trial information and see more about who can participate.
Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Gillis’s journal articles. Pubmed is an online index of research papers and other articles from the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
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Disclosures
Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.
MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.
Theresa Gillis discloses the following relationships and financial interests:
No disclosures meeting criteria for time period
If you’re a patient at MSK and would like more information about your doctor’s external relationships, please talk with your doctor.
The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.
This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.
Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].
