New York Medical College Study Highlights Racial Inequities in Foster Care Placement Following Non-Accidental Trauma

Non-accidental trauma (NAT) is a leading cause of traumatic death and disability in children, with many of these victims later placed in foster care. A new study conducted by New York Medical College faculty and students found that neighborhood disadvantage—marked by a lack of economic and social resources—is an independent predictor of discharge to foster care. The study, recently published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, also revealed that Black children were disproportionally overrepresented in both the NAT population they studied and among those placed in foster care. Learn more.

Weill Cornell Medicine: Machine Learning Helps Define New Subtypes of Parkinson’s Disease

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have used machine learning to define three subtypes of Parkinson’s disease based on the pace at which the disease progresses. In addition to having the potential to become an important diagnostic and prognostic tool, these subtypes are marked by distinct driver genes. If validated, these markers could also suggest ways the subtypes can be targeted with new and existing drugs. Learn more.

New York Medical College: Asthma Found to Have Profound Impact on COVID-19 Patients in New Study

Patients with asthma hospitalized for COVID-19 experienced a much more severe outcome than those without asthma, according to a new study that was conducted by New York Medical College faculty and presented by Antony Arumairaj, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, at the American Thoracic Society International Conference in May. Learn more.

Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University: New Drug to Control Pain Related to Cancer Treatment Originally Developed at Stony Brook Gets FDA Clearance

Six years ago Stony Brook University through the Research Foundation for the State University of New York licensed a promising technology to Artelo Biosciences that identified Fatty Acid Binding Proteins (FABPs) as drug targets of the body’s endocannabinoid system for a potentially promising way to treat pain, inflammation and cancer. Now the first one of these compounds has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for human clinical trials. Learn more.

University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry: Liver Transplant Outperforms Other Therapies for Colorectal Cancer that Has Spread to the Liver

Colorectal cancer often spreads to the liver, and for some patients, surgical removal of their liver tumors is not an option. A new study led by researchers at the Wilmot Cancer Institute and University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) shows that a select group of patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver tend to fare better if they receive a liver transplant as opposed to other common therapies. Learn more.

Cardiology

NYU Grossman School of Medicine: AI Tool Creates ‘More Understandable’ Cardiology Reports for Patients

An artificial intelligence program created explanations of heart test results that were in most cases accurate, relevant, and easy to understand by patients, a new study finds. The study addressed the echocardiogram, which uses sound waves to create pictures of blood flowing through the heart’s chambers and valves. Learn more.

Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University: Innovative Simulation Models Providing More Effective Care for High-Risk Vascular Patients

As a mechanical engineering major, Chander Sadasivan had no idea that his engineering skills would someday be used to help solve real-world medical problems. Now, as director of the Cerebrovascular Center for Research, Sadasivan’s innovative simulation models are helping doctors more safely treat high-risk vascular patients while serving as a valuable training tool. Sadasivan’s path changed as an undergrad while flipping through an encyclopedia, where he came across an entry for a flagellum, a thin, tail-like structure that bacteria and other microorganisms use to swim. Learn more.

Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at University at Buffalo, Kaleida Health Neurosurgeons Perform First-Of-Its-Kind Surgery in Western New York

The pain was excruciating. “It got to the point where I couldn’t walk and I was crawling around. I didn’t think I’d ever get any quality of life back,” says Patricia Lipowicz. But then, earlier this month, neurosurgeons from the University at Buffalo and Kaleida Health performed a groundbreaking procedure, relieving Lipowicz’s intense pain. It is believed to be the first of its kind in Western New York and possibly upstate New York. Learn more.

Weill Cornell Medicine: A New Use for Propofol in Treating Epilepsy?

The general anesthetic propofol may hold the keys to developing new treatment strategies for epilepsy and other neurological disorders, according to a study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Linköping University in Sweden. In their study, published July 31 in Nature, the researchers determined the high-resolution structural details of how propofol inhibits the activity of HCN1, an ion channel protein found on many types of neurons. Learn more.

University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry Study Reveals Brain Fluid Dynamics as Key to Migraine Mysteries, New Therapies

New research describes for the first time how a spreading wave of disruption and the flow of fluid in the brain triggers headaches, detailing the connection between the neurological symptoms associated with aura and the migraine that follows. The study also identifies new proteins that could be responsible for headaches and may serve as foundation for new migraine drugs. Learn more.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Preparing for the Next Pandemic

Many infectious-disease experts contend that it’s not a matter of if but when another pandemic will arise. Sooner or later, some combination of climate change, urbanization, international travel, human migration, drug resistance, and gene mutation will conspire to transform a run-of-the-mill pathogen into a highly contagious agent, capable of quickly spreading beyond its usual hosts and habitats and causing worldwide havoc. Learn more.

Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at University at Buffalo Study: Opioid Use Disorder Patients Were More Likely to Stick with Treatment if Referred Through Telemedicine vs. the Emergency Department

Telemedicine referrals for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) can be a more effective way than an in-person emergency department visit to get patients to start and stay with medication assisted treatment through an outpatient clinic. Those are the findings from a study University at Buffalo researchers published online in the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment. Learn more.

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons: Weight Loss Drugs: Progress But Not Far Enough

By the time they visit her office, patients of Judith Korner, MD, PhD, often feel like they have tried everything to lose weight. The endocrinologist and founding director of the Columbia Metabolic and Weight Control Center sees people who have hundreds of pounds to lose, who cannot walk without assistance, and who have been denied vital surgeries and organ transplants because of their weight. Learn more.

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons: Should People with Kidney Disease Get Genetic Testing?

About 37 million people in the United States have chronic kidney disease and studies show that genetics may explain between 10% to 20% of cases in adults (and as many as 70% of cases in children). But genetic testing in kidney disease is not very common compared to genetic testing in other medical fields, including cancer, pediatrics (for developmental disorders), and obstetrics (prenatal testing). Learn more.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Recipes for Retinas

Wei Liu, Ph.D., studies the retina and is an expert in developing retinal organoids, mini-retinas grown from human pluripotent stem cells. When the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the National Institutes of Health, launched a competition for developing a three-dimensional retinal organoid, only Dr. Liu succeeded in winning all three stages of the challenge. Learn more.

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: AI Spotlight: Leveraging Generative AI to Predict ER Admissions

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help radiologists analyze images or doctors make diagnoses with a high degree of accuracy even with traditional machine learning techniques, but they tend to require large amounts of training data to accomplish this. Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are exploring using the latest technique in generative AI—specifically large language models (LLMs)—to see if it can achieve accurate predictions with less training data. Generative AI is rooted in the concept of generating new content typically by understanding data distribution. Learn more.

NYU Grossman School of Medicine: AI Tool Successfully Responds to Patient Questions in Electronic Health Record

As part of a nationwide trend that occurred during the pandemic, many more of NYU Langone Health’s patients started using electronic health record (EHR) tools to ask their doctors questions, refill prescriptions, and review test results. Many of these digital inquiries arrived via a communications tool called In Basket, which is built into NYU Langone’s EHR system, EPIC. Learn more.

Norton College of Medicine at Upstate Medical University: Juntao Luo, PhD, Awarded More Than $2 Million to Fund Research on Sepsis Treatment

Upstate researcher Juntao Luo, PhD, continues to attract funding—securing a more than $2 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)—in his effort to find an effective treatment for severe sepsis, which has a mortality rate of 30 to 40 percent. This new funding will support Luo’s efforts at turning his nanotechnology into a bioactive therapeutic that could help prevent sepsis deaths, and potentially treat a wide range of inflammatory diseases. Learn more.

Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell Faculty Receive IAMSE Grant

The Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell is proud to announce that Doreen M. Olvet, PhD associate professor of Science Education, her colleagues, Joanne M. Willey, PhD, Leo A. Guthart Professor of Biomedical Science and chair of the Department of Science Education, Zucker School of Medicine E and Jeffrey Bird, director of Educational Data and Analytics, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, and other collaborators at UCSF Medical School, have received the Educational Scholarship Grant Award, a $5,000 grant from the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE), to continue their ongoing research exploring if artificial intelligence (AI) can reliably score open-ended question exams. Learn more.

More News

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Mount Sinai Health System Selected by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to Test Medicare Dementia Care Model

The Mount Sinai Health System announced it had been selected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to participate in a new Medicare alternative payment model designed to support people living with dementia and their caregivers. Under CMS’ Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model, Mount Sinai will be one of almost 400 participants building dementia care programs across the country, working to increase care coordination and improve access to services and support, including respite care, for people living with dementia and their caregivers. Learn more.