March 2013 News from the Medical Schools

The Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) brings you the following compilation of the most recent updates and news from its sixteen member institutions. AMSNY is engaged in highlighting efforts of the schools in areas including, but not limited to, medical education, training, and research.

For the e-newsletter, click here.

Dr. Steven B. Abramson Appointed Chair of the Department of Medicine at NYU

March 7, 2013 – Steven B. Abramson, MD, senior vice president and vice dean for education, faculty and academic affairs, professor of medicine and pathology, and director of the Division of Rheumatology, was appointed permanent chair of the Department of Medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center. Dr. Abramson is only the fifth chair to serve since 1938.

For the full story, click here.
© 2013 Stony Brook University. All rights reserved.

Buffalo-Based Team Develops, Tests First Stimulation-Based Robotic Surgery Training Curriculum

March 12, 2013 – “Researchers from Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) and four collaborating institutions have evaluated the effectiveness of a novel curriculum to safely train surgeons on the da Vinci Surgical System, which is used to perform robot-assisted surgeries. Results, published in Urology, showed that participants trained in the curriculum executed key skills with greater precision than those who did not receive training.”

For the full story, click here.
© 2013 University at Buffalo. All rights reserved.

Top Physicians, Faculty Recuited to UB as Expansion Plans Progress

March 7, 2013 – “More than 3,000 permanent jobs are expected to be created in the region as a result of new medical school projects on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, including the opening last fall of UB’s new Clinical and Translational Research Center, and construction of the new home for the medical school.”

For the full story on the UB Reporter, click here.
© 2013 University at Buffalo. All rights reserved.

For the full story on The Buffalo News, click here.
© 2013 The Buffalo News. All rights reserved.

Mount Sinai is Revolutionizing Medical Education by Eliminating Traditional Pre-Med Requirements and the MCAT for Half of Admitted Students

February 26, 2013 – “The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is the first medical school in the United States to drive a fundamental shift in pre-medical education by offering college sophomores with any undergraduate major early acceptance, no MCAT, and progressive pre-med requirements for half of each entering class. Sophomores will be admitted in 2013 into the new program called “FlexMed”, with foundations in computational science and engineering; humanities and social sciences; or biomedical sciences, which will allow them to pursue any undergraduate major unencumbered by traditional pre-med requirements” (PRWeb, 2013).

For the full story on PRWeb, click here.
© 2013 Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved.

For the full story on The Chronicle of Higher Education, click here.
© 2013 The Chronicle of Higher Education. All rights reserved.

For the full story on Inside Higher Ed, click here.
© 2013 Inside Higher Ed. All rights reserved.

For the full story on NPR, click here.
© 2013 NPR. All rights reserved.

For more information on FlexMed, click here.
© 2013 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. All rights reserved.

Einstein, Maimonides and Montefiore Strengthen Relationships To Advance Education, Research and Patient Care

February 26, 2013 – “Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Maimonides Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center today announced their unique collaborative relationships. Maimonides and Einstein signed an affiliation agreement with the goal of advancing medical education and research. Under terms of this agreement, Maimonides will become a University Hospital and the Brooklyn Campus of Einstein.”

For the full story, click here.
© 2013 Albert Einstein College of Medicine. All rights reserved.

Upstate and Buffalo Enroll Highest Percentages of NY Residents in the State

February 22, 2013 – The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) presents percentages of state residents enrolled in first-year classes at the New York medical schools. SUNY Upstate Medical University and the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, are the top two schools with the highest enrollment.

For the full story about Upstate, click here.
© 2013 Syracuse Online LLC. All rights reserved.

For the full story about Buffalo, click here.
© 2013 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved.

Former Governor Paterson to Teach at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine

February 21, 2013 – David A. Paterson, who was governor of NYS from 2008-2010, is joining the faculty at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. He will serve as a distinguished professor of health care and public policy and lecture on health care legislation and the relationship between government and the health care system.

“Paterson, whose tenure as governor entailed beginning to prepare the state for the ongoing national health care overhaul, will teach medical students who will start practice in a rapidly changing profession, noted the Harlem-based school’s dean, Dr. Robert Goldberg.”

For the full story on The New York Times, click here.
© 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.

For the full story on The Wall Street Journal, click here.
© 2013 The Wall Street Journal. All rights reserved.

Medical School Fair Draws More Than 400 Students, 47 Professional Schools

February 13, 2013 – “More than 400 students from Columbia University, the City College of New York, Hunter College, New York University and Yeshiva University attended the 2013 Columbia University Medical School Fair held in Alfred Lerner Hall on Feb. 8 from 1-4:30 p.m.”

For the full story, click here.
© 2013 Columbia University. All rights reserved.

Interview on AMSNY’s Post-Baccalaureate Program at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, SUNY

March 1, 2013 – Jo Wiederhorn, President and CEO of AMSNY, and Denise Dennis, a fourth-year medical student at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo (UB), discussed the importance of diversity in medicine in an interview with Susan Arbetter, highlighting how the Post-Baccalaureate Program at UB, in particular, provides the necessary academic enrichment and support for students to be able to enter medical school.

For more information on the interview, click here.

2013 New York Times Scholarship Awarded to Senior at Albert Einstein

February 22, 2013 – Albert Einstein College of Medicine is proud to announce that a senior, Eddy Cruz, from the Einstein Enrichment Program (EEP), which is part of the New York state-funded Science & Technology Entry Program (STEP) of AMSNY, was recently selected out of hundreds of applicatants for a 2013 New York Times Scholarship. This year, the New York Times is only awarding 8 scholarships.

For the full story, click here.
© 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.

For more information about EEP, click here.

New York’s Medical Schools Visit Albany for Its Annual Advocacy Day

March 8, 2013 – On Wednesday, March 6th, the deans of NYS’ medical schools met with legislators and state agencies to express support for medical education and biomedical research, including spinal cord and stem cell research. AMSNY continues to advocate on the impact of the sixteen medical schools to the state, as they relate to workforce, research, patient care, and economic development.

New York Takes the Lead on Palliative Care

March 4, 2013 – “Palliative care is treatment that is designed to reduce the pain, discomfort and stress associated with a serious disease. But it also entails eliciting from patients and families in dire circumstances their priorities and wishes to make sure the treatment conforms to those desires. New York State felt so strongly about the importance of palliative care that last year it enacted pioneering legislation to make certain all those with advanced illnesses had access to this sort of treatment. Now other states are considering following New York’s lead.”

For the full story, click here.
© 2013 The Pew Charitable Trusts. All rights reserved.

NY Dem Warns Sequester Will Crush Hope of Medical Breakthroughs

February 25, 2013 – “Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that the sequester could cut millions of dollars in healthcare research in New York, which she said would lead to both job cuts in her state and less research into life-saving medical technologies.”

Budget Cuts Delay SUNY Upstate Expansion

February 14, 2013 – “SUNY Upstate Medical University’s upgrade has faced financial obstacles due to large budget cuts. In 2007, the medical school drew up blueprints for its largest expansion since becoming associated with the State University of New York system in 1950. The expansion includes a cancer research center, institutional buildings for medical research and renovations to student housing, according to a SUNY Upstate news release from Sept. 19, 2007.”

Saving Medicaid: Advancing Health Care Reform

February 13, 2013 – This article by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) highlights the successes of New York’s Medicaid Redesign Team. Using tools in the Affordable Care Act, and with RWJF support, Nirav Shah, MD, New York health commissioner and three-time RWFJ grantee, leads a plan that has saved billions in state Medicaid expenditures while adding 154,000 people to the Medicaid rolls.

Brain Imaging to Identify Physical Reasons Why IBS Symptoms Improve With Drug-Free Treatments

March 7, 2013 – Researchers at the University at Buffalo have pioneered behavioral treatments for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) through collaborative work with colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University; it has been found that behavioral changes, more so than drugs, help to relieve patients of the painful IBS symptoms. They are using functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to reveal the biological basis for the relief, which could help doctors choose the best treatment for individual patients and thus improve the quality of life for millions of people with IBS.

Scientists Identify ‘Clean-Up’ Snafu that Kills Brain Cells in Parkinson’s Disease

March 3, 2013 – “Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how the most common genetic mutations in familial Parkinson’s disease damage brain cells. The study, which published online today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, could also open up treatment possibilities for both familial Parkinson’s and the more common form of Parkinson’s that is not inherited.”

New Clot Removal Device Shows Promise for Treating Stroke Patients

February 25, 2013 – “Specialists at Stony Brook Medicine’s Cerebrovascular and Stroke Center (CVC) are treating patients with a new generation of blood clot removal devices that show promise in successfully revascularizing stroke patients, including those with large vessel blockages.”

Scientists Find Way to Image Brain Waste Removal Process Which May Lead to Alzheimer’s Diagnostic

February 22, 2013 – “A novel way to image the entire brain’s glymphatic pathway, a dynamic process that clears waste and solutes from the brain that otherwise might build-up and contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease, may provide the basis for a new strategy to evaluate disease susceptibility, according to a research paper published online in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Through contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other tools, a Stony Brook University-led research team successfully mapped this brain-wide pathway and identified key anatomical clearance routes of brain waste. “

40 Percent of UB Provisional Patent Filings Originate in Med School

February 14, 2013 – “Innovations developed at least in part by faculty at UB’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences accounted for nearly 40 percent of the provisional patent applications filed by the university in 2012.”

UB Ontologists Named to Major NIH Immunology Research Team

February 14, 2013 – “A team of University at Buffalo researchers has been selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the collection, analysis and exchange of scientific data for scientists investigating immunology and immune-mediated diseases.”

Highlights

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