News and Events

When I took introductory economics in college, I learned that human wants are unlimited but resources are not, and therefore we have to make choices about what we spend money on. That, I was told, was what economics was all about. My textbook drove home the point by invoking the "guns versus butter" economic model. In simplistic terms, a nation has to choose between investing in the military or civilian goods. It is, of course, more complicated than that, but as a 17-year-old I got the point. A government has to balance priorities. President Donald Trump's budget request to Congress calls for about a 20% reduction in funding for the National Institutes of Health and similar deep cuts to the research budgets of other agencies. It would cut $54 billion in domestic spending to add the same amount in military spending.

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

Sapience Therapeutics Inc., a Scarsdale-based biotechnology company that develops therapeutics to address difficult-to-treat cancers, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the company’s leading candidate, protein-based therapeutic ST-36, orphan drug designation for the treatment of glioma.

NYMC Mention: Sapience Therapeutics Inc., is a client of BioInc@NYMC

Dr. Avila was named Orange County’s ninth Commissioner of Health in May of 2013. As the County’s Chief Public Health Officer, Avila manages a $67 million budget, while monitoring the health and welfare of approximately 380,000 residents. He oversees the Orange County Medical Reserves and serves as the Medical Director for Orange County Emergency Medical Services. Avila holds an academic position as Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Institute of Public Health of the New York Medical College in Westchester County and has been appointed by the New York State Bar President to the Mass Disaster Response Committee of the New York State Bar Association.

NYMC Faculty: Eli N. Avila, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., FCLM, distinguished visiting professor in the School of Health Sciences and Practice

When 33-year-old Lauren Peterson attended her first spin class, she expected it to be physically challenging; she didn't expect to leave the class with a potentially fatal health condition. After 15 minutes of super-intense cycling, the Bronx, New York-based schoolteacher says she felt nauseous and almost passed out. And while that might sound like most people's introductions to spinning, it definitely wasn't: Two days later, she was still suffering from a handful of scary symptoms, including dark urine and swelling and searing pain in her thigh muscles.  It turned out that Peterson's doctor, Maureen Brogan, MD, had seen two more cases of rhabdomyolysis at Westchester Medical Center before Peterson's ER visit. She wrote about it in a November 2016 report and noted several key similarities: In all three cases, rhabdomyolysis was brought on by a high-intensity spin class, all three patients were novice spinners, and the vigorous workout took a toll on some of the largest muscles in their bodies: those in their thighs and butts. When these muscles didn't get enough oxygen, they broke and burst — which ultimately led to the release of myoglobin into the blood and some not-so-fun symptoms.

NYMC Faculty: Maureen E. Brogan, M.D., associate professor of medicine

Two women thought to be infertile have become pregnant using a technique that seems to rejuvenate ovaries, New Scientist can reveal. It is the first time such a treatment has enabled menopausal women to get pregnant using their own eggs. The approach is based on the apparent healing properties of blood. Kostantinos Sfakianoudis and his colleagues at the Genesis Athens Clinic in Greece draw blood from their patients and spin it in a centrifuge to isolate platelet-rich plasma. This has a high concentration of the cell fragments usually involved in blood clotting, and is already used to speed the healing of sports injuries, although its effectiveness for this purpose is unclear. The clinic is attempting to use this plasma to repair women’s reproductive systems, injecting it directly into the ovaries and uterus. 

Sfakianoudis is planning a clinical trial of the treatment, which will compare the effects of platelet-rich plasma with a placebo injection. Until then, it is impossible to say how well, if at all, the treatment is working, says Kutluk Oktay at New York Medical College. Even once menopause starts, there are still some egg follicles left, so there is a small chance that women can still get pregnant at this stage without any treatment, he says.

NYMC Faculty: Kutluk Oktay, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology, medicine, and cell biology and anatomy

A low-cost proposal to expand the use of breast milk to save premature babies’ lives and avoid lifelong disabilities has been dropped from closed-door budget negotiations, two senior legislators said Monday. Senate Health Committee Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) and Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) made a last-ditch case for the bill in the final week of negotiations over the $162 billion state budget. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vetoed the bill a year ago after it was overwhelmingly passed by the Senate and Assembly. The governor argued the measure should be part of the state budget talks because it involves a cost.

New York State Senate Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon today led a bipartisan push for a key budget measure that would help save the lives of premature infants. Senator Hannon, Assembly member Michaelle C. Solages and other legislators were joined by doctors and advocates to call for the enacted state budget to include Medicaid coverage for donor breast milk so that this screened and safe “medicine” can be provided to infants born at very low birth weights.

Boriana Parvez, M.D., said, “Donor milk is a precious gift of life to the tiniest and most fragile newborn babies. It is the safest and the most natural way to nourish them when their mother’s milk is in insufficient quantity. We often say that having a preemie in the NICU is like being on a roller coaster ride but without the thrill. Having to worry about the additional cost of donor milk only further hinders the mothers of preemies’ efforts to care for their tiny babies and produce milk. As a physician caring for sick premature infants, I feel that donor milk should be covered by insurance and I stand behind our politicians who are trying to make it a reality.” Shetal Shah, M.D., FAAP, said, “Offering donor breast milk to New York State’s tiniest babies through Medicaid reduces a significant health disparity.”

NYMC Faculty: 
Boriana Parvez, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics
Shetal I. Shah, M.D., professor of pediatrics

As they have with several measures that have bubbled up in recent weeks, lawmakers are reviving a bill that was vetoed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year with instructions that it should be a part of the budget package. Both GOP Sen. Kemp Hannon and Democratic Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who head their respective health committees, on Monday urged passage of a measure that would allow Medicaid to cover the cost of donated breast milk, which they said can be a life-saving nutrient to premature infants who develop necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious intestinal ailment that can hit such babies.

Boriana Parvez, M.D., said, “Donor milk is a precious gift of life to the tiniest and most fragile newborn babies. It is the safest and the most natural way to nourish them when their mother’s milk is in insufficient quantity. We often say that having a preemie in the NICU is like being on a roller coaster ride but without the thrill. Having to worry about the additional cost of donor milk only further hinders the mothers of preemies’ efforts to care for their tiny babies and produce milk. As a physician caring for sick premature infants, I feel that donor milk should be covered by insurance and I stand behind our politicians who are trying to make it a reality.” Shetal Shah, M.D., FAAP, said, “Offering donor breast milk to New York State’s tiniest babies through Medicaid reduces a significant health disparity.”

NYMC Faculty: 
Boriana Parvez, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics
Shetal I. Shah, M.D., professor of pediatrics

Two formerly conjoined baby girls who bravely endured a grueling 21-hour separation procedure at a Westchester County hospital earlier this year have made the next milestone in their recovery. Samir Pandya, one of the pediatric surgeons leading the medical team, said after the procedure that the surgery was full of challenges, but the girls would have chances at better lives because of it. “Ballenie and Bellanie are as strong as they are beautiful and this dynamic duo is doing very well after a very long and complex surgery," Pandya said in January.

NYMC Faculty: Samir Pandya M.D., assistant professor of surgery

Formerly conjoined twins from the Dominican Republic have left a New York hospital two months after surgery to separate them. Ballenie and Bellanie Camacho were released Friday from Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla, north of New York City. The girls were joined at the base of the spine when they were born Feb. 4, 2016. They shared a key artery that supplies blood to the pelvic region as well as neurologic and gastrointestinal connections. Hospital officials say the twins' 21-hour surgery Jan. 17 and Jan. 18 was successful and both children should enjoy full lives. Dr. Whitney McBride says the girls' progress is "nothing short of remarkable."

NYMC Faculty: Whitney McBride, M.D., associate professor of clinical surgery

Formerly conjoined twins from the Dominican Republic have left a New York hospital two months after surgery to separate them. Ballenie and Bellanie Camacho were released Friday from Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla, north of New York City. The girls were joined at the base of the spine when they were born Feb. 4, 2016. They shared a key artery that supplies blood to the pelvic region as well as neurologic and gastrointestinal connections. Hospital officials say the twins' 21-hour surgery Jan. 17 and Jan. 18 was successful and both children should enjoy full lives. Dr. Whitney McBride says the girls' progress is "nothing short of remarkable."

NYMC Faculty: Whitney McBride, M.D., associate professor of clinical surgery

A proposed cut of nearly $6 billion to the National Institutes of Health in President Donald Trump’s budget outline could have serious consequences for scientific research in the country, according to researchers in Westchester. Trump’s budget outline, released March 16, slashes $5.8 billion from NIH, about 18 percent of its budget. Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney described the proposal as a “hard power budget,” which includes plans for a $54 billion increase in defense spending while making majors cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, State Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development among other agencies.

NYMC Mentions: 

Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer
Michal Laniado Schwartzman, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology
Salomon Amar, Ph.D., D.D.S., Touro College and University System provost for biomedical research, Touro College of Dental Medicine professor of dental medicine, and NYMC professor of pharmacology and microbiology and immunology
Mitchell S. Cairo, M.D., professor of pediatrics, medicine, pathology, microbiology and immunology, and cell biology and anatomy