Meet the Clinical Leadership Team

Dr. Richard Castaldo, Medical Director
Dr. Richard Castaldo is the Medical Director for Niagara Hospice and has more than 25 years of experience as a physician. With specialties in internal medicine and primary care, he also serves as the Medical Director for the Pathways palliative care program and Kalos Health. His career has included an affiliation with Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center Primary Care and Suboxone Clinic.
He has been appointed a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo's Jacob Medical School for his role in guiding fourth-year medical students through their hospice and palliative care elective rotations. In 2002, he was named UB's Medical School Teacher of the Year for his work with the program.
Over the last 25 years, he also served as the primary care doctor for Division I student-athletes, specifically the Niagara University Men's Hockey Team.
He has participated in numerous phase two and phase three research projects throughout his career and has been published in various topics.
Dr. Jay Newman, Assistant Medical Director
Dr. Jay Newman is the assistant medical director for Niagara Hospice. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and brings 30 years of experience to the clinical leadership team at Niagara Hospice. Under medical director, Dr. Richard Castaldo, Dr. Newman provides leadership to the clinical care team while providing comprehensive end-of-life care for Niagara County patients and families facing a terminal illness.
He has extensive clinical experience in a hospital setting, having previously worked as an attending physician in the emergency departments at Kenmore Mercy Hospital, Buffalo VA Medical Center and Mount St. Mary’s Hospital. He received the Doctor of Distinction award from Kenmore Mercy in 2018. He previously served as Chief Medical Resident at the Buffalo Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1991 and later as the Chief of Emergency Department at the Buffalo VA. He also served as Chief of the Emergency Department at Kenmore Mercy Hospital.
He is a graduate of SUNY at Buffalo with a B.A. in psychology and earned his M.D. at Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Dr. Bharat Kohli, Assistant Medical Director
Dr. Bharat Kohli, MBA, is a Clinician and Physician Executive who has held leadership positions in hospital administration as well as the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech industries in the areas of research and development, medical affairs and business development.
His most recent position was as Chief Medical Officer for the Community Health Centers of Buffalo, where he was responsible for the oversight, administration, planning and development of high-quality clinical services provided by the Community Health Center of Buffalo and for defining the best structure for that oversight for treating 21,000 patients. His responsibilities also included hiring and supervising clinical staff, peer review, development and implementation of the clinical quality assurance program and advising the CEO and Board of Directors on clinical issues, including quality improvement and quality assurance.
His clinical background is in family practice and emergency medicine and he has practiced in Canada and the United States. Dr. Kohli is a graduate of the University of Toronto Medical School with specialties in primary care and emergency medicine. He also earned an MBA from the University at Buffalo.
Dr. Robert G. Wahler, PharmD, BCGP, FASCP, CPE, Director of Pharmacy Services
Dr. Robert G. Wahler has been the Director of Pharmacy Services at Niagara Hospice since 2002. He also serves as a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.
His research interests focus on identifying and reducing medication related fall risk in the elderly. Using the Medication Therapy Management (MTM) model, he is developing clinical decision support tools to access medication falls risk, medication cognition impairment and inappropriate medications in the elderly.
Dr. Wahler received a B.S. degree in pharmacy from Albany College of Pharmacy at Union University and his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University at Buffalo.
He is a founding member and presently on the Board of Trustees as the Niagara Hospice representative to the Society of Pain Palliative Care Pharmacists. He has served as the Pharmacist Section Leader for the National Council of Hospice and Palliative Care Professionals of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
Specialized as both a Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist and Certified Pain Educator, Dr. Wahler includes student education in his daily practice of caring for hospice patients. In 2009, he established a student staffed Medication Reconciliation Service for Niagara Hospice’s general inpatient unit in which approximately 150 students have reconciled medication lists for more than 2,500 patients over the 10 years of the program.