News and Events

It is hard to imagine a more powerful economic message than the one sent last Monday night when the Westchester County Board of Legislators voted unanimously to approve a 99-year lease of 60 acres of county-owned land adjacent to the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla that will allow the creation of the $2.1 billion Westchester BioScience & Technology Center. This shining example of bipartisanship sent a resounding message: Westchester stands ready to build on the burgeoning bioscience cluster that has already taken root and to take a leadership role regionally and nationally in the high tech, high-growth life and bio sciences arena.

New York Medical College and Westchester Medical Center have reached a multiyear academic affiliation agreement, the medical college’s chancellor and CEO Dr. Edward C. Halperin announced in an alumni email Wednesday. New York Medical College, which is part of the Touro College and University System, has partnered with Westchester Medical College on short-term agreements that had to be renewed every few months for 14 years before yesterday’s deal, according to the letter. Halperin said he has sought to rectify that situation with a long-term deal since he arrived at the college in 2012.

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

Working closely with the private-sector and in a bi-partisan manner, County Executive Robert P. Astorino and Board of Legislators Chairman Michael Kaplowitz today announced that Westchester County is moving forward with plans to build a major bioscience and technology center on vacant land next to the Westchester Medical Center.

When I entered college, I took a course in introductory economics. Human wants are unlimited, I learned, but resources are limited. Therefore, we have to make choices about what we spend money on. That, I was told, was what economics was all about — how we make choices and allocate resources. My economics textbook illustrated the point by quoting from Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels who said: “We can do without butter, but, despite all our love of peace, not without arms. One cannot shoot with butter, but with guns.” It was about trade-offs, my professor taught us. There is a trade-off between a nation’s investment in military and civilian goods. In simplistic terms, a nation has to choose between buying guns (invest in the military) or butter (invest in civilian goods). It is, of course, not that simple but as a 17- year-old, I got the point. A government budget has to balance priorities.

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

Nephrologist, distinguished Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College, passed away on March 29, 2017. Dr. Goodman is survived by his wife of 60 years and five children: Nadine Goodman, Derek Goodman, Danielle Sayet, Leslie Monieson, and Reva Cotter, as well as 14 grandchildren, and one great- grandchild.

NYMC Mention: Alvin I. Goodman, M.D., professor emeritus of medicine

NY Medical College chancellor and CEO talks good, bad and the changes that are needed

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

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

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