Dr. Steven M. Safyer, the president of Montefiore Medical Center, never said a word to the burly man standing next to him in a hospital gift shop demanding to know who was responsible for removing all the candy bars. Though it was Dr. Safyer who had banned candy, soda and deep-fried foods from hospital premises, as part of an anti-obesity campaign, he simply waited for the tirade to end and then stepped up to pay for his bag of cashews.
“I confess I didn’t intervene because I am sensible,” he said.
The man behind the largest hospital system in the Bronx — one that delivers nearly a third of the babies born in the borough — remains largely unknown, by choice. But behind the scenes, where he holds court with political and business leaders while speaking in the language of a community activist, Dr. Safyer has become one of the most powerful figures in a borough of 1.4 million residents facing a growing health crisis from obesity, diabetes, asthma and chronic diseases.
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