News and Events

Just a few months ago, the future appeared promising and certain for Dr. Sunil Sreekumar Nair. A citizen of the United Kingdom, he was completing his residency in internal medicine at a Brooklyn hospital, and he had accepted a job in a hospital near Fort Smith, Arkansas, a rural area with a severe shortage of doctors. Hospitals in distressed urban neighborhoods also rely on foreign-born medical school graduates to fill medical residencies that might otherwise go vacant. “Who else is going to do the work if we lost them?” asked Conrad Fischer, the medical residency program director at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, where Nair is chief medical resident. “We would have to close down.” This year, for the first time in five years, the number of applicants for H-1B visas dipped below 200,000. However, immigration experts say it’s too soon to attribute that drop to Trump’s policies or anti-immigrant and refugee rhetoric in the U.S.

NYMC Faculty: Conrad Fischer, M.D., adjunct associate professor of medicine

As reports of the carnage at Monday's Ariana Grande show in Manchester, England, continue to pour in, many teens with tickets to concerts during the coming summer music season may be reluctant to attend an event. But child and adolescent psychiatrists say it's important that parents let their teens follow through on their plans, even if the adults themselves are anxious about their letting kids go out. "It's never good for teenagers to learn the lesson that they need to avoid things that scare them," said Dr. Matthew Lorber, a child and adolescent psychiatrist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "You have to face your fears.

NYMC Faculty: Matthew Lorber, M.D., M.P.A., clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences

Heritage Provider Network (HPN) one of the nations most experienced and effective physician led value based care organizations and Crain's Custom Studio, a division of Crain's New York Business, today announced the winners in the 2nd annual Heritage Healthcare Innovation Awards. The awards honored those innovators who have most improved the access to and quality of affordable healthcare in the communities they serve in the greater New York area.

Heritage Innovation in Healthcare Delivery Award: Nora V. Bergasa, MD, MACP, FAASLD, AGAF, Professor of Medicine, New York Medical College; Chief of Medicine, NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan: Recognizing an innovator in the development of new modes of diagnosis, treatment and care who actively improves access to services and improves the quality of healthcare overall. 

NYMC Faculty: Nora Bergasa, M.D., professor of medicine

The list of things that can be created with 3-D printers keeps getting longer: jewelry, art, guns, food, medical devices and, now, mouse ovaries. Scientists have used a 3-D printer to create a mouse ovary capable of producing healthy offspring. And researchers hope to create replacement human ovaries the same way someday.

To use the technology in humans in the future, doctors could remove follicles from a woman before she starts chemotherapy. They would put that tissue into a larger, 3-D-printed ovary scaffold, then transplant the device into the patient when she finishes treatment. "I find this paper very exciting," says Kutluk Oktay, who specializes in fertility restoration at New York Medical College and was not involved in the work. Oktay cautions that much more research is needed to see whether this approach would work in humans. However, he is optimistic. "I think it does open a new avenue in the area of reproductive biology and fertility preservation," Oktay says.

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

New York Medical College (NYMC) and Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMC) officials on May 17 signed a 12-year academic affiliation agreement that both organizations believe will strengthen their academic medicine programs, clinical care and research practices.

“This (agreement) renews our commitment to a continued partnership with WMCHealth and its affiliated hospitals as our primary academic sites,” said New York Medical College Chancellor and CEO Dr. Edward C. Halperin.

NYMC Leadership: 

Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer
Dr. Mark Hasten, chairman of the Board of Trustees
Alan Kadish, M.D., president

Framing cancer as a kind of war within our bodies can also seriously harm a persons emotional psyche. Who wants to go to war with themselves? radiation oncologist Edward Halperin, of New York Medical College, writesin the journal Practical Radiation Oncology. How is it ever helpful to think of oneself as a victim who was randomly attacked and now you're trying to kill your assailant in order to survive? For some, the war imagery, the determination to hit hard and hit fast, can be empowering, he and others acknowledge. Some cancer patients may perceive themselves as a soldier going to war, Halperin said. But surely not all do.

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

New York Medical College and the Westchester Medical Center Health Network announced Wednesday a 12-year agreement that they hope will strengthen medical research and clinical care.

Under the agreement, hospitals on Westchester Medical Center's  Valhalla campus will be the primary teaching sites for the clinical education of students of New York Medical College and Touro College affiliated programs.

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

Framing cancer as a kind of war within our bodies can also seriously harm a person’s emotional psyche. “Who wants to go to war with themselves?” radiation oncologist Edward Halperin, of New York Medical College, writes in the journal Practical Radiation Oncology. “How is it ever helpful to think of oneself as a victim who was randomly attacked and now you’re trying to kill your assailant in order to survive?

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

Twenty six trainees graduated from Westchester Institute for Human Development’s LEND program this past week, adding to the growing number of individuals educated with the leadership skills and knowledge necessary to work with and on behalf of children with disabilities and  their families.

NYMC Mentions:
Susan W. Fox, Ph.D., associate professor of health policy and management and director of the Center on Disability and Health
MegAnn McGinnis, M.P.H. student in behavioral sciences and health promotion, Surbhi Arora, M.P.H. student in behavioral sciences and health promotion, Amanda Apa, M.S. in speech-language pathology Class of 2017, and Jennifer Sparano, M.S. in speech-language pathology Class of 2017.

Twenty six trainees graduated from Westchester Institute for Human Development’s LEND program this past week, adding to the growing number of individuals educated with the leadership skills and knowledge necessary to work with and on behalf of children with disabilities and their families.

NYMC Mentions: 

Susan W. Fox, Ph.D., associate professor of health policy and management and director of the Center on Disability and Health
MegAnn McGinnis, M.P.H. student in behavioral sciences and health promotion, Surbhi Arora, M.P.H. student in behavioral sciences and health promotion, Amanda Apa, M.S. in speech-language pathology Class of 2017, and Jennifer Sparano, M.S. in speech-language pathology Class of 2017

They’ve been called the ”must-have office toy” by Forbes. Some teachers and parents love them; others loathe them. Fidget spinners are toy-like devices that sit on a ball bearing and spin easily on your hand or a hard surface. By keeping your hands busy, they are supposed to ease stress, manage fidgeting and help people with ADHD (attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder) focus. Prices range from as little as a dollar to several hundred for the more elaborate designs. Matthew Lorber, MD, a child psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, says many parents of children with ADHD are asking his opinion about the popular toy and how it works. He shared the most common questions he hears with WebMD.

NYMC Faculty: Matthew Lorber, M.D., M.P.A., clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences

Fidget spinners may be the latest must-have kids' toy, but claims that the gizmos help students pay attention aren't backed by science, experts say. Some retailers market the devices as a way to help kids with anxiety, autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) keep themselves calm and focused in the classroom. The claims likely are based on small-scale studies that show kids with ADHD pay better attention if they are allowed to fidget, said Dr. Matthew Lorber, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "They actually perform better because it indirectly forces the brain to work harder to focus on the task at hand," Lorber said.

NYMC Faculty: Matthew Lorber, M.D., M.P.A., clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences

The race for the Mount Pleasant Town Board is heating up as three Republicans are seeking the party’s nomination for two council seats while a Democrat recently announced he was entering the fray. In recent years, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and New York Medical College has expanded its facilities and North 60 would be “a project that’s not only good for Mount Pleasant, it’s good for the area,” Smalley said. “I think we’re on the precipice of something really good here in Mount Pleasant. We’re moving forward,” she said. 

Bending the Arc, Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos’s documentary about doctors working in a rural Haitian village, will serve as the opening film at the 3rd annual Greenwich International Film Festival, which runs from June 1-4 in Greenwich, Conn.  The film will screen on June 2, followed by a Town Hall Panel Q&A moderated by Barbara Pierce Bush with Ophelia Dahl (Partners in Health), writer/producer Cori Stern, Joia Mukherjee (Partners in Health) and Rifat Latifi  M.D. from Westchester Medical Center, discussing the state of global healthcare.

NYMC Faculty: Rifat Latifi, M.D., professor of surgery 

NYMC Faculty: 

Kira A. Geraci-Ciardullo, M.D., M.P.H., adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics
Andrew W. Grose, M.D., assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery
Howard J. Luks, M.D., assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery
Daniel Zelazny, M.D.,  assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery
Jeremy Mangion, M.D., instructor of orthopaedic surgery
John Galeno, M.D., assistant professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery
David E. Asprinio, M.D., professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery and chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Richard Magill, M.D., assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery
Damon DelBello, M.D., assistant professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery

While most kids at 16 are learning how to drive and worried about what to wear to prom, Stephanie Gallagher of Pompton Plains NJ is going through menopause and worried about her fertility.

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

The Heart and Vascular Institute, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), recently celebrated the opening of its first Long Island practice, which brings cardiac care to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients living in the area.

NYMC Faculty: Julio A. Panza, M.D., professor of medicine

Westchester Medical Center
Phelps Memorial Hospital Center
Calvary Hospital

Most people consider maternal mental health to be synonymous with postpartum depression. However, there are many other similar disorders, collectively described as perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). One such disorder is postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder. While PTSD as a whole used to be characterized as an anxiety disorder in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), it is now in a new chapter in DSM-V titled “Trauma- and Stress-Related Disorders.” 

NYMC Faculty: Ami S. Baxi M.D., instructor of psychiatry & behavioral sciences

Westchester Institute for Human Development