News Archive
April 2008 News Flashes
FACULTY AND STAFF NEWS
Health Information Technology Evaluation Collaborative Holds Quality Metrics Meeting
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On April 7, 2008, the Health Information Technology Evaluation Collaborative (HITEC) held a meeting to address some of the aims of a grant, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), for “Developing, Evaluating and Employing Quality Metrics for Health Information Technology and Health Information Exchange in the Ambulatory Setting.” The meeting was organized by HITEC Director Rainu Kaushal, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health; Deputy Director Lisa Kern, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor of Public Health; and Rina Dhopeshwarkar, M.P.H., Research Coordinator in the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research.
HITEC is a multi-institutional academic collaborative, comprised of Cornell University, Columbia University, the University of Rochester, SUNY Buffalo and SUNY Albany. HITEC was formed to conduct rigorous evaluations of New York State initiatives in health information technology (health IT) and health information exchange (HIE). Health IT refers to the use of electronic methods to store and process patient data, particularly clinical data in a single health care setting, whereas HIE refers to electronic sharing of clinical data across providers in different health care settings.
J. Emilio Carrillo, M.D., M.P.H., To Speak at White Coat Ceremony
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Dr. J. Emilio Carrillo, Associate Professor of Clinical Public Health and Clinical Medicine, President and Chief Medical Officer of the NewYork-Presbyterian Community Health Plan, and Vice President of Community Health Development, was asked by Carlyle H. Miller, M.D., Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Equal Opportunity Programs, to be the speaker at this year’s White Coat Ceremony for the Class of 2011. This important symbolic event, in which incoming medical students are first given the white coats they will wear as doctors, will take place August 26, 2008. Dr. Carrillo was requested to prepare a speech to inspire students in areas concerning bedside manner, ethical considerations, and other doctor-patient relationships--areas in which students have identified Dr. Carrillo as being trusted and familiar.
Dr. Joseph Fins Presents on Brain Injury Ethics
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This past March, Joseph J. Fins, M.D., Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Medicine in Psychiatry, gave two presentations concerning brain injury. In conjunction with the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration, he spoke on “Responding to the Call: Traumatic Brain Injury and the Ethic of Non-Abandonment” at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on March 17.
On March 19, he gave the Bruce Hedges Memorial Lecture as part of the Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds at the Payne Whitney Clinic of NewYork Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Fins talk was titled “What the Injured Brain Can Teach Us About Ourselves.”
Dr. Alvin Mushlin Speaks at Cardiology Grand Rounds
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Alvin I. Mushlin, M.D., Sc.M., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Public Health, presented at the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine Grand Rounds on March 10, 2008. The title of Dr. Mushlin’s talk was “Clinical Experience and Outcomes with Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators.” In it, he described the preliminary results of one of the ongoing studies of the Weill Cornell Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERT). The Weill Cornell CERT, part of a network of CERTs established by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, focuses on medical and orthopedic devices.
Dr. Heejung Bang Gives Distinguished Speaker Seminar
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Heejung Bang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, gave a Distinguished Speaker Seminar on April 10 at the University of Texas Southwestern. The title of her talk was “Blinding Index for Clinical Trials.” On April 9 she taught a short course on “Analysis of Censored Cost Data.”
Dr. Victor Sidel Included in Book on How 60 of the World’s Greatest Minds Envision the Future
 Victor W. Sidel, M.D. |
Victor W. Sidel, M.D., Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, and Adjunct Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, is one of the “60 of the world’s greatest minds” to share their visions of the next half century in a new book edited by Mike Wallace called The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today (2008: Thomas Nelson). In Dr. Sidel’s chapter, “A Physician’s View of the Future,” he discusses two issues that have been the focus of much of his professional life: providing excellent medical care equitably to all people and preventing war, especially nuclear war, while promoting a culture of peace. He emphasizes that the choices we make today have the potential to send us on widely divergent paths.
Dr. Marcus Reidenberg Receives Lifetime Pharmacology Award
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Marcus Reidenberg, M.D., Professor of Pharmacology, Public Health and Medicine, was selected by the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) to receive the 2008 Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award in Therapeutics at its annual meeting on April 5 in Orlando, Fla. The award honors individual scientists for outstanding lifetime contributions to clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. Dr. Reidenberg will also present a lecture entitled "From Adverse Drug Reactions to Drug Disposition to WHO and Essential Medicines to Our Discipline of Clinical Pharmacology." (Dr. Reidenberg has served on the World Health Organization's Expert Panel and Expert Advisory Committee on Essential Medicines since 1989.) He has contributed to ASCPT in a number of leadership roles throughout his 40 years of membership, most notably as its president in 1984 and as editor of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the official journal of the ASCPT, from 1985 through 2001. He was also the recipient of the ASCPT Rawls-Palmer Progress in Medicine Award in 1981 and the Henry W. Elliott Distinguished Service Award in 1999.
Philip Barie, M.D., Appointed President of the Society of Critical Care Medicine
 Philip Barie,, M.D. |
Dr. Philip Barie, Professor of Surgery and Public Health and Chief of the Division of Critical Care and Trauma at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, has been installed as the President of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). The SCCM comprises over 14,000 members in 80 countries and includes a diverse group of highly trained professionals who provide care in specialized care units and work toward the best outcome possible for seriously ill patients.
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Joseph J. Fins, M.D., Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Medicine in Psychiatry, has been awarded a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation for his project entitled “Sustaining and Building Research Infrastructure for the Study of Disorders of Consciousness.”
FACULTY AND STAFF PUBLICATIONS
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Bruce Schackman, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Health Policy and Associate Professor of Public Health, was the lead or senior author of several recently published articles. “Quality-of-Life Tradeoffs for Hepatitis C Treatment: Do Patients and Providers Agree?” (Medical Decision Making, March-April 2008) examines differences between how patients and providers evaluate the quality-of-life tradeoffs associated with HCV treatment in computer-assisted interviews. The researchers interviewed 92 treatment-naive HCV patients at gastroenterology, methadone maintenance, and HIV clinics at 3 hospitals in New York City and 23 physicians or nurses experienced in treating HCV at other hospitals in New York City. Co-authors included Paul Teixeira, Dr.P.H., formerly a researcher in the Department of Public Health, Alvin Mushlin, M.D., Sc.M., Chairman of the Department, and Ira Jacobson, M.D., Medical Director for the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C at Weill Cornell Medical College. An article based on the same study entitled “ Can urban methadone patients complete health utility assessments?” by Drs. Teixeira and Schackman was published in Patient Education and Counseling (May 2008). “The cost of antiretroviral therapy in Haiti” (Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation February 14, 2008) was written by researchers from the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the GHESKIO Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Weill Cornell Department of Medicine faculty Daniel Fitzgerald, M.D., and Jean Pape, M.D.; and Dr. Schackman. It determined direct medical costs, overhead costs, societal costs, and personnel requirements for the provision of antiretroviral therapy to patients with AIDS in Haiti. “Sexually active HIV-positive patients frequently report never using condoms in audio computer-assisted self-interviews conducted at routine clinical visits” was published in AIDS Patient Care and STDs (February 2008). In addition to Dr. Schackman, the article’s co-authors included Mark Callahan, M.D., formerly Chief of the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research in the Weill Cornell Department of Public Health; and Quan Hong Ni, M.S., and Zubin Dastur, M.S., M.P.H., both former staff members of the Department. “Racial differences in virologic failure associated with adherence and quality of life on efavirenz-containing regimens for initial HIV therapy: results of ACTG A5095” was published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (December 15, 2007). For this article, Dr. Schackman was the lead author and Roy Gulick, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell, was the senior author.
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Heejung Bang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, was the lead author of the article, “Validation and comparison of a novel screening guideline for kidney disease: KEEPing SCORED,” published in the February 25, 2008, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. The article builds on her previous study that developed a simple questionnaire to suggest which patients should be screened for chronic kidney disease (CKD). The current study compares this questionnaire, called SCORED (Screening for Occult Renal Disease), with the current National Kidney Foundation clinical practice guidelines, the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP). The researchers found SCORED to be more accurate and better able to predict individuals at high risk for CKD than KEEP. Co-authors included Madhu Mazumdar, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Lisa Kern, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor of Public Health, and Phyllis August, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Medicine and Public Health -- all of Weill Cornell Medical College; and David Shoham, Ph.D., and Abhijit Kshirsagar, M.D., M.P.H., both of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Dr. Shoham is now at Loyola University in Chicago.) A Weill Cornell Medical College press release about the study has been replicated in PR.hankyung.com, Huliq.com, and the New York City Department of Education Medical Update. Dr. Bang has also been interviewed for an article in Duke Medicine Health News.
 Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Ph.D., M.S. |
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Ph.D., M.S., Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, was the lead author of an article published in the March 2008 issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics called “Beyond informed consent: the therapeutic misconception and trust.” This article explores often-neglected aspects of the therapeutic misconception, an ethical problem that can occur in clinical research studies when subjects mistakenly believe they will necessarily receive optimal medical care. Discussions about the therapeutic misconception have usually focused on whether it invalidates informed consent. But Dr. deMelo-Martín and her co-author Dr. Anita Ho of the Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, argue that this focus doesn't capture the ethical complexity of the problem. Equally significant are negative consequences to subjects, researchers, and others resulting from misplaced trust, especially if this trust is exploited in order to recruit and retain subjects.
Dr. de Melo-Martín was also the lead author of “Beyond risk: A more realistic risk-benefit analysis of agricultural biotechnologies.” This article appeared in the April 2008 issue of EMBO reports, the journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization. Dr. de Melo-Martín and her co-author, Dr. Zahra Meghani of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Rhode Island, discuss the importance of including ethical and social concerns when performing risk analysis of agricultural biotechnologies that use genetically modified organisms. They conclude that because risks assessments give answers that involve not only scientific values but also ethical and social ones, then in a democratic society these normative issues must not be left to scientific experts alone, but should be subjected to proper public deliberations.
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“Electronic Result Viewing and Quality of Care in Small Group Practices,” published in the April 2008 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, analyzes the relationship between electronic viewing of laboratory results and quality of care in primary care physician practices in the Taconic IPA in New York. The lead author was Lisa Kern, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor of Public Health, and the senior author was Rainu Kaushal, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics. Other authors included Yolanda Barrón-Vaya, M.S., Senior Research Biostatistician in the Department of Public Health, Mark Callahan, M.D., formerly Chief of the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, and representatives from Taconic IPA and MVP Health Care. The study showed that use of an electronic portal for laboratory result viewing was associated with higher ambulatory care quality for 15 quality measures in the areas of preventive care, chronic disease management, and patient satisfaction. The work was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
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Franklin G. Miller, Ph.D., Bioethicist in the Department of Clinical Ethics at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell, was the lead author of a Perspective in the February 21, 2008, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine called “Quality-Improvement Research and Informed Consent.” Dr. Miller and his co-author, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of the NIH Department of Bioethics, argue that informed consent should not be necessary in studies that use existing data in which subjects can not be identified and that do not carry any risk. Dr. Miller discussed this topic in his March 6 presentation at the Department of Public Health’s Medical Ethics Seminar Series.
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Tia Powell, M.D., Executive Director of the New York State Task Force on Life & the Law and Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, was the lead author of “Allocation of Ventilators in a Public Health Disaster,” an article published in the March 2008 issue of Disaster Medicine & Public Health Preparedness. The authors discuss the complex issues involved in making rationing decisions in the event that there aren’t enough ventilators necessary during a crisis, and the need for public health agencies to develop plans that are publicized and applied consistently. Dr. Powell has made several presentations at Weill Cornell Medical College on this subject, and her recent article was publicized in The New York Times.
Mary Simmerling, Ph.D., has been appointed Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics. Dr. Simmerling is also currently the Assistant Dean for Research Integrity at Weill Cornell Medical College. She comes to the Medical College from Chicago, where since 1994 she has had academic positions in a number of departments both at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. In addition to directing programs for research integrity at both institutions, she has also held appointments as a Senior Fellow and Instructor in the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and Research Associate for Ethics in the Department of Surgery at the University of Chicago. Her many publications and presentations have dealt with ethical issues surrounding organ transplantation, human subject research ethics, and research integrity. Dr. Simmerling holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Chicago. She completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago's MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.
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Sara Wicks, L.M.S.W., has joined the Division of Community and Public Health Programs as a counselor in the Employee Assistance Program Consortium (EAPC). Ms. Wicks previously worked as a counselor in the EAPC during the summer of 2004, after completing a year-long internship there as a clinical social work student. Her most recent position was as the Clinical Manager of Online Client Services at CancerCare, a nation-wide non-profit that provides social services to anyone affected by cancer. Her experience also includes positions as a social worker at the Center for Special Studies at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (an interdisciplinary outpatient health and mental health clinic for adults living with HIV/AIDS), and internships in the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Psychiatric Emergency Room and Bailey House (formerly the AIDS Resource Center). Ms. Wicks holds an M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University and a B.A. in Art History from New York University. She has postgraduate training from the Ackerman Institute for the Family.
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Eugenia Curet, Ph.D., Instructor in Public Health in the Division of Community and Public Health Programs, is retiring from the Medical College and Hospital after 16 years of service. She will retain an adjunct position in the Department. Dr. Curet has been the Administrative Director of the Adult Services Clinic since 1992 and assumed administrative responsibility for the Adolescent Development Program as well when the administration of the two programs was merged in 2004. A licensed social worker in both New York State and Puerto Rico, Dr. Curet has over 20 years of experience in the field of mental health and substance abuse treatment. During her years directing the clinics, she made immense contributions to researching and implementing patient centered care initiatives. She will be missed by her colleagues and patients for her enthusiasm, dedication, and creativity. Dr. Curet will be moving to Texas, where she will be a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Texas in Brownsville. In this position she will serve as the Director of the Students' Health and Wellness Center.
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The article in Addictive Behaviors by Jennifer A. Epstein, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Public Health, and Gilbert J. Botvin, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior and Professor of Psychology in Public Health and Psychology in Psychiatry, entitled “Media resistance skills and drug skill refusal techniques: What is their relationship with alcohol use among inner-city adolescents?” was the subject of a recent Medical College press release. The press release was picked up by MedicalNewsToday.com, Physorg.com, Huliq.com, ThaIndian.com, newswise.com., sciencedaily.com, socialworktoday.com, in.yahoo.com, healthnewsdigest.com and other web sites. An article on the study appeared in amNewYork (April 8, p.24). Dr. Epstein was also interviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services for a radio program.
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An article published February 19, 2008, on ABC7Chicago.com on health issues that increase a woman’s risk of heart disease refers to last year’s study by Linda M. Gerber, Ph.D., Professor of Public Health in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, about the association of hot flashes and high blood pressure. Dr. Gerber’s study in Menopause found that systolic blood pressure was significantly higher in women who were experiencing hot flashes, whether they were pre-menopausal, menopausal or post-menopausal.
Upcoming Department Seminars and Conferences
All divisions of the Department sponsor seminars in which current or prospective research is discussed. The departmental grand rounds, the Medical Ethics seminars, the Biostatistics and Epidemiology conferences, and the Outcomes and Effectiveness Research in Progress seminars have been approved for Continuing Medical Education credit. Unless otherwise noted, the following presentations will take place in the third floor conference room of the Kips Bay Building, 411 East 69th Street. Please call Maritza Montalvo at 746-1264 for more information. For more upcoming events, please see the Department of Public Health Academic Calendar.
April 10, 2008, 3 - 4 p.m.
Outcomes & Effectiveness Research/Health Policy Research-in-Progress Seminar
Andrew Vickers, Ph.D.
Associate Attending Research Methodologist in the
Division of Health Outcomes at
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Associate Professor of Public Health
Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Weill Cornell Medical College
"How Do We Know Whether a Predictive Model is of Clinical Value? How Do We Know Whether a Molecular Marker is Worth Measuring? A Discussion of Some Simple Decision Analytic Methods"
April 17, 2008, 3 - 4 p.m.
Biostatistics and Epidemiology Research Seminar
Yuelin Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Attending Behavioral Statistician
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
“Growth Mixture Modeling for Quality Of Life and Survival Endpoints”
April 21, 2008, 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Community and Public Health Programs Clinical Rounds
Marshall Glesby, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health
“HIV/AIDS Update and Treatment Issues”
May 1, 2008, 12 – 1 p.m.*
Outcomes & Effectiveness Research/Health Policy Research-in-Progress Seminar
Sandy Saintonge, M.D.
Fellow in General Preventive Medicine
Department of Public Health
“Implications of Vitamin D Guidelines in a Multiracial U.S. Adolescent Population: Data from NHANES III”
*Note time change
May 5, 2008, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Community & Public Health Clinical Rounds
Scott Kellogg, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, New York University
“The Addiction Treatment Roundtable: A Report”
*Note time change
May 15, 2008, 3 – 4 p.m.
Biostatistics & Epidemiology Research Seminar
Jaya Satagopan, Ph.D.
Associate Attending Biostatistician
Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
“Sampling Issues in Biomarker Studies of Nevus Phenotypes”
May 20, 2008, 12 – 1 p.m.
Public Health Grand Rounds
Carl Nathan, M.D.
R.A. Rees Pritchett Professor of Microbiology
Chairman, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Weill Cornell Medical College
“Restructuring Drug Development and Patent Systems to Bring Lifesaving Medicines to the World’s Poor”
May 22, 2008, 3 – 4 p.m.
Outcomes & Effectiveness Research/Health Policy Research-in-Progress Seminar
Hassan Ghomrawi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Instructor in Public Health
Division of Health Policy
“Impact of Recovery Expectations on Functional and Satisfaction Outcomes in Total Joint Replacement: Developing a Research Proposal”
May 22, 2008, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
Medical Ethics Seminar Series
D. Micah Hester, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medical Humanities & Pediatrics
University of Arkansas Medical School
“Purpose, Participation, and Practice: The Promises and Perils of 'Pragmatic Bioethics'”
*Note time change
May 29, 2008, 1 - 2 p.m.
Prevention & Health Behavior Research-in-Progress Seminar
June 5, 2008, 3 – 4 p.m.
Outcomes & Effectiveness Research/Health Policy Research-in-Progress Seminar
Rainu Kaushal, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics
Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research
June 11, 2008, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Medical Ethics Seminar Series
Menschel Audit (Co-Sponsored by the Hospital for Special Surgery)
Howard Brody, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Institute for the Medical Humanities
Professor, Family Medicine
University of Texas Medical Branch
“Power, Narrative and Meaning in Healthcare”
*Hospital for Special Surgery
535 East 70 th Street, 2 nd floor
June 12, 2008, 3:30 – 5 p.m.
Medical Ethics Seminar Series
Mary Simmerling, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Public Health
Assistant Dean for Research
Weill Cornell Medical College
“On the Cutting Edge: The Ethics of Surgical Innovation”
June 17, 2008, 12 – 1 p.m.
Public Health Grand Rounds
Matthew E. Fink, M.D.
Vice Chair and Professor of Clinical Neurology, Dept of Neurology,
Weill Cornell Medical College
Title to be determined
June 19, 1 – 2 p.m.
Prevention & Health Behavior Research-in-Progress Seminar
June 19, 3 – 4 p.m.
Outcomes & Effectiveness Research/Health Policy Research-in-Progress Seminar
Bruce Schackman, Ph.D.
Chief, Division of Health Policy
Department of Public Health
