Neil Minikes

Neil Minikes, MD, is part of Summit Medical Group’s Allergy team. Dr. Minikes treats both children and adults for a wide range of allergic conditions such as food allergy, hay fever, drug allergy, vaccine allergy, chronic hives, and asthma, and has a special interest in the diagnosis and management of food allergies. Dr. Minikes provides excellent care with precision and compassion to improve the lives of children and adults with allergic diseases and asthma.

Dr. Minikes’s desire to become a doctor stems from his own medical experiences in infancy and early childhood. Born with severe club foot, he was told he would never walk. However, his mother sought out the expertise of a young orthopedist at the time, Alexander Hirsch, who was offering a then-novel therapy, and after years of non-surgical treatment, including frequent casting and special shoes, he was able to walk normally. “Decades later, I took up long distance running and was able to run a half marathon on my 45th birthday,” he says. He is forever grateful to that doctor, who, he later discovered, cared for the legendary tennis player, Arthur Ashe.

At age four, Dr. Minikes experienced a ruptured appendix but was misdiagnosed with viral gastroenteritis and then a stomach virus. Fortunately, a family friend, Dr. Murray Davidson, agreed to see him.  His parents made the urgent trek from Long Island to New York City, where he went straight into successful surgery. Dr. Davidson subsequently became one of the nation’s premier pediatric gastroenterologists and now has a lectureship in his name at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

“Those early childhood experiences made an indelible mark on my aspirations for the future,” he says adding, “I will do everything I can to help my patients the way those doctors helped me. Nothing is more gratifying than seeing patients in follow-up and learning that I’ve had a positive impact on their lives.”

Dr. Minikes practices evidence-based medicine and is passionate about cutting-edge treatments for food allergies. He stays up-to-date on prospective treatments that are pending FDA approval and attends national meetings on a regular basis, presenting new findings to his colleagues at a Grand Rounds presentation each year.

Dr. Minikes currently serves as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. In February of 2021, he had the honor of presenting lectures to medical students on topics related to asthma and allergic diseases.

When not caring for patients, Dr. Minikes loves traveling with his wife, exploring places they’ve never been. He enjoys playing tennis and skiing in the Berkshires. In his spare time, you can catch him at a Giants or Yankee game with his sons and brothers. He also enjoys the theater, movies, concerts performed by his favorite aging rockers, and seeing James Taylor at Tanglewood every year. His newest passion is ballroom dancing with his wife of 31 years. He supports groups such as Hands Up for Haiti, the Center for Food Action, and other organizations that help the needy.