News and Events

When spending time outdoors this summer, it seems almost unavoidable that ticks will attach themselves to pants, socks and clothes. However, sometimes these pests find skin, and when they do, an array of medical problems can soon follow. Most common of tick-borne illnesses is Lyme disease. Carried by deer ticks, Lyme can cause flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, muscle aching and nausea in those bitten by a contaminated tick. In more extreme cases, facial drooping and neurological disorders may also develop. If left untreated or misdiagnosed, Lyme disease can cause symptoms to become chronic, and make daily life difficult. In order to prevent contracting the disease, following the CDC’s guidelines on preventing tick bites is an important first step, said Dr. Gary P. Wormser, chief of Infectious Diseases at Westchester Medical Center, the flagship of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network. Using DEET repellant and conducting full-body tick checks after being outdoors are simple yet effective ways to prevent and identify tick bites.

NYMC Faculty: Gary P. Wormser, M.D., professor of medicine, chief of Division of Infectious Diseases and vice chairman of Department of Medicine

Facing one of the worst summers for tick-borne diseases in the Hudson Valley, Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to double-down on efforts to fully implement new laws that will significantly increase research, vaccine development and treatment strategies to help eradicate tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease. Schumer said delays in federal action will enable newly emerging diseases like Powassan, which is even deadlier than Lyme disease, to impact the entire Hudson Valley region. The Senate minority leader was speaking at Ward Acres Community Garden Wednesday, along with New Rochelle Parks and Recreation Commissioner Bill Zimmermann, Dr. Robert W. Amler of New York Medical College and Ward Acres Community Garden founders Joe Rogot, Stephanie Tomei and Maggie McGovern.

NYMC Leadership: Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., dean of School of Health Sciences and Practice and vice president for government affairs

A work of art created jointly by Joanne Caring, a psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at New York Medical College in Valhalla, and American artist Louise Lawleris on display at the Museum of Modern Art(MOMA) in New York City through July 30. It’s in the exhibit about Lawler titled “WHY PICTURES NOW.” The exhibit is the first New York museum survey of the work of Lawler, now honored as a distinguished American artist.

NYMC Faculty: Joanne Caring, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences

The Business Council of Westchester recently honored 40 of the county’s most outstanding young business professionals, presenting them with its coveted “Rising Stars” Awards. The awards were presented to the Rising Stars’ Class of 2017 during a celebration and cocktail reception held June 15 at the Atrium at 800 Westchester Avenue. News 12’s Tara Rosenblum, a member of the Rising Stars’ Class of 2007, served as emcee. The 2017 Rising Stars represent a diverse array of industries, including education, healthcare, law, finance, real estate development, public relations and marketing, among others. Rising Stars honorees are chosen based on professional and/or entrepreneurial accomplishments, professional and/or business affiliations, and demonstrated leadership skills. One of the 2017 Rising Stars is Katharine Yamulla, Director, Clinical Skills & Simulation Center, New York Medical College.

NYMC Employee: Katharine Yamulla, director of the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center

Three Hudson Valley hospitals will receive money from New York State to train physician researchers under the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program. The two-year awards, which will support research projects in areas such as cancer, diabetes, epilepsy and pain management, were announced Thursday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley Hospital in Kingston and Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla will receive Center awards, given to teaching hospitals to form research teams focused on an specific topic, disease or condition. They will get nearly $700,000 over two years for the training of a team comprised of at least three fellows.

NYMC Affiliate: Westchester Medical Center

Within the last few years, four Lower Hudson Valley residents were diagnosed with the powassan virus, a dangerous tick-borne disease that causes brain swelling. Sen. Charles Schumer was at the Ward Acres Park in New Rochelle Wednesday demanding something be done about tick borne diseases. Last year, Congress passed legislation to combat tick-borne diseases. 

NYMC Leadership: Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., dean of School of Health Sciences and Practice and vice president for government affairs

The Westchester Institute for Human Development, a Valhalla-based organization that addresses issues affecting people with disabilities, received $547,000 in federal funding for medical research. The grant will be used to fund research and educational efforts related to studying disability and human development. “Due to this funding, we will be able to continue our work to improve the lives of people with disabilities and their families through education, service and research,” said Susan Fox, president and CEO of the institute. “We look forward to being able to better support those in our community through continuing to provide information and assistance to the people we serve, training current and future professionals, conducting cutting edge research, and cultivating our relationship with federal agencies so that we may effect meaningful change in our region and beyond.”

NYMC Faculty: Susan W. Fox, Ph.D., associate professor of health policy and management and director of the Center on Disability and Health

For anyone living in the northeast, summer is the time to look out for ticks and the diseases they frequently carry. Ticks are most active late spring through early fall, but when the weather turns hot, jeans and long sleeves give way to t-shirts and shorts, leaving bare skin vulnerable to these bloodsucking pests. Nationally recognized Lyme disease expert and director of infectious disease at New York Medical College, Dr. Gary Wormser, doesn’t want people to overreact. “Powassan is very rare,” he said. There have only been two documented cases in the past three years in Westchester, with a third case yet to be officially reported.  “There has not been a striking increase in the disease,” he said, rebuffing news reports.

NYMC Faculty: Gary P. Wormser, M.D., professor of medicine, chief of Division of Infectious Diseases and vice chairman of Department of Medicine

Standing in a grassy meadow Wednesday at Ward Acres Park, Sen. Charles Schumer called on federal officials to provide funding that could squash disease-carrying ticks. “As Americans spend more and more time enjoying the outdoors each year, we need more research to prevent and treat Lyme and other tick-borne diseases,” said Dr. Robert Amler, Dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice at New York Medical College in Valhalla.

NYMC Leadership: Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., dean of School of Health Sciences and Practice and vice president for government affairs

Ahead of what is projected to be one of the worst summers for tick-borne diseases in years in Westchester and Rockland Counties, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer today urged, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to double-down on efforts to fully implement new laws, passed by Congress last year, that will significantly increase research, vaccine development and treatment strategies to help stamp out tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease. Schumer said any delay in federal action will allow newly emerging disease like Powassan, which is even deadlier than Lyme disease, to impact already highly vulnerable areas like Westchester, Rockland and the entire Hudson Valley region.

 “As Americans spend more and more time enjoying the outdoors, each year, we need more research to prevent and treat Lyme and other tick-borne diseases,” said Dr. Robert W. Amler, Dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice and Institute of Public Health, Professor of Public Health, Pediatrics, and Environmental Health Science at New York Medical College in Valhalla. “And much of that important work is done right here, at New York Medical College.”

“There are 5 deer tick transmitted infections in our geographic area, but many people are only aware of Lyme disease. All require more research but the rapid emergence of babesiosis in particular in this region, along with the potential severity of this illness, should certainly attract more awareness and research funding,” said Dr. Gary P. Wormser, Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Vice Chairman, Department of Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and Pharmacology at New York Medical College in Valhalla.

NYMC Leadership: Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., dean of School of Health Sciences and Practice and vice president for government affairs
NYMC Faculty: Gary P. Wormser, M.D., professor of medicine, chief of Division of Infectious Diseases and vice chairman of Department of Medicine

 A gift of $3 million to New York Medical College (NYMC) has endowed the professorship and chair in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan to support teaching and training of medical students and residents and to foster research.  The benefactor is the estate of Catherine Hinterbuchner, M.D., a physician who served as chair of NYMC’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine from 1971 to 2004 and earned emeritus status in 2005. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 88. The endowed chair will be named “The Catherine and Ladislav P. Hinterbuchner Endowed Chair in Rehabilitation Medicine,” named after her and her late husband.

NYMC Leadership: Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer
NYMC Faculty: Eduardo Lopez, M.D., chairman and associate professor of clinical rehabilitation medicine

As a kid in rural Connecticut in the early 2000s, Kathleen McWilliams was well acquainted with the danger of ticks. After days spent playing outside in the wooded areas around her house, “our home routine was you brushed your teeth, you went to the bathroom, and you did a tick check,” she said. So when, at age 15, McWilliams suddenly spiked a 104-degree fever, her mom immediately thought Lyme disease, the tick-borne illness caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. She requested a Lyme test. While they waited for results, McWilliams’s symptoms morphed into near-constant dizziness and achy joints, two more markers of the disease.

They are working on developing better biosignatures and algorithms for identifying Lyme based on new blood samples they recently collected from clinics affiliated with Colorado State University and New York Medical College. Eventually they will begin real-time testing on patients’ serum samples collected in clinics and mailed to the CDC.

Also Making Rounds — Dr. Catherine Hinterbuchner’s estate gave $3 million to New York Medical College. The money will endow a professorship and chair in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Metropolitan Hospital.

New York Medical College (NYMC) was endowed with $3 million to establish a professorship and chair in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan. According to the college, the endowment will foster research and support the training of medical students and residents. The estate of Catherine Hinterbuchner is the benefactor of the gift. Hinterbuchner was a physiatrist who passed awayin 2015. She served as chair of NYMC’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine from 1971 to 2004.

NYMC Leadership: Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer

The Latest in Westchester County Business News, June 22, 2017

New Training Center for Bioterrorism and Disaster Response at New York Medical College

New York Medical College in Valhalla recently opened their new Center for Excellence on June 8 with a training program for medical responders. With a $500,000 initial grant from Empire State development, the medical center will develop an “austere medicine” facility for first responders to simulate situations of accidents, active shooters, and more. The Center for Disaster Medicine at the college has previously partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense, and they hope that the Center for Excellence will help to increase funding for those programs.

Hot weather, hot medical topics.  Briefly, Dr. Robert Amler, the Dean of the School of Health Practice at New York Medical College will be joining us to talk about legionella. I will be having GI update, answering your questions on the latest and greatest in digestive diseases. Dr. David Shlim of Jackson Hole Travel and Tropical Medicine will be joining us to talk travel medicine.  And, of course, we will end with Ask Doctor Ira, where you can ask me any medical question on any topic at all: anything that you forgot to ask your doctor ask me!

NYMC Leadership: Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., dean of School of Health Sciences and Practice and vice president for government affairs

Former NFL player Ryan O'Callaghan surprised fans when he revealed his darkest secret; he is a gay man. The offensive lineman revealed to Outsports he planned to kill himself after he retired because of his sexuality. O’Callaghan is not alone. Deric Metzger calls his former boyfriend, Brian Shaughnessy a “survivor.” Dr. Jack Drescher, a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College who was on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) V workgroup on sexual and gender identity disorders, told Fox News that while many mental illnesses are genetic, there are psychosocial aspects to mental health. “If you stress a person with a vulnerability for depression enough, they can get very severely depressed and become suicidal,” Drescher said. “If you belong to a stigmatized minority group, whether it’s a racial minority group or… a gender or sexual minority group, there is an increased risk because there are all of these…moments in your life where you may be subject to stressers that the majority does not usually experience on a regular basis.”

NYMC Faculty: Jack Drescher, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences

In White Plains, Westchester Visiting Nurse Services Group Inc. (WVNS Group), the parent company of VNS Westchester, the VNSW Foundation Inc. and Westchester Care at Home, announced appointments to its governing board. Amy Ansehl, executive director, Partnership for a Healthy Population, New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice, was re-elected as board chairperson.

NYMC Faculty: Amy Ansehl, M.S.N., D.N.P., FNP-BC, assistant dean, associate professor of public health practice, executive director of the Partnership for a Healthy Population and assistant professor of family and community medicine

As the landscape of health-care reform shifts rapidly, it’s clear the federal Medicaid Program — the nation’s largest insurer of children — is in jeopardy. Over the next two weeks, the U.S. Senate will debate a version of the American Health Care Act, also known as the “Obamacare repeal,” which drastically endangers the care of children. The House of Representatives' version of this bill defunded Medicaid by $834 billion over 10 years and President Trump’s recently released budget was even more drastic — calling for $1.3 trillion in cuts over the next decade.

NYMC Faculty: 
Shetal I. Shah, M.D., professor of pediatrics
Heather L. Brumberg, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of pediatrics