Nanette Laitman Scholarship Program
The Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholars Program in Public Health is funded by a $3 million gift from the Laitman family and a $1 million matching gift from Weill Cornell Medical College’s “Advancing the Clinical Mission” capital campaign. For this the Department is deeply grateful to Nanette Laitman, as well as to the College. The Clinical Scholars Program provides funding for clinicians to engage in research in the areas of prevention (with a focus on women’s health), clinical evaluation, community health, and quality of care research.
William B. Borden, MD, Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior, is the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Public Health (Prevention and Women’s Health). Dr. Borden earned an MD from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He completed his residency and chief residency in Medicine and a clinical fellowship in Cardiology at the University of Chicago, where he also completed postdoctoral research training in outcomes research and patient oriented research, specializing in preventive cardiology. For his scholarship, Dr. Borden has developed health policy projects evaluating aspects of cardiovascular primary and secondary prevention related to the delivery of care. These include studying the impact of intense media coverage about medical research studies on medication adherence, studying the impact of a proposed Medicare pay-for-performance policy on locationally disadvantaged hospitals, and evaluating whether patients in a real-world registry receive the medical secondary prevention of coronary artery disease shown to be effective in clinical trials. Dr. Borden completed a groundbreaking analysis of the effects of the 2007 landmark study known as COURAGE, which found procedures such as stents and angioplasty offered no survival advantage over preventive drug treatments in patients with stable coronary artery disease. Dr. Borden's research, which was published in JAMA, found that even after the release of such a well-publicized trial, little change has been made in clinical practice. Dr. Borden has been recognized with awards including the Young Hearts Award for Achievement in Cardiovascular Science and Medicine from American Heart Association Young Professionals and he is frequently sought out for television appearances and media commentary. He is currently serving as senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
Carla Boutin-Foster, M.D., M.S., Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Professor of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Community and Public Health Programs, and Associate Attending Physician, is the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Community Health. She is also the supervisor and faculty advisor for Weill Cornell Community Clinic-Medical student free clinic and Co-Director of the Office of Multicultural and Minority Health. She is also Director of Diversity in Medicine and Science of the Medical College's Office of Faculty Diversity in Medicine and Science. Much of her research focuses on cross-cultural, community, and preventive medicine. As part of her role as Laitman Scholar, Dr. Boutin-Foster is engaging in research and initiatives targeted at communities that are hardest to reach but that experience the highest burden of health disparities. She focuses especially on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and mental health. Specifically, she is developing academic partnerships within communities in New York City that have the poorest health profiles. These projects identify social, cultural, and political barriers to the effective dissemination of health messages in these communities and develop and evaluate community-based strategies such as curricula, conferences, or workshops that improve dissemination of health messages. Dr. Boutin-Foster is Director of a Comprehensive Center of Excellence in Disparities Research and Community Engagement (CEDREC), a consortium between Weill Cornell Medical College, Hunter College School of Nursing, City University of New York, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center; and the Center for Healthful Behavior Change at New York University School of Medicine. The Center is supported by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD).
Tara Bishop, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Assistant Attending Physician, is the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Public Health/Clinical Evaluation. Dr. Bishop studies factors that influence physician decisions, the effects of these decisions on health care utilization and quality, and the effects that policies have on changing physicians’ behaviors. She also investigates how structural reform can improve the practice of primary care and realign payment incentives with primary care workloads. Her recent publications include an article in JAMA which found that the number of paid malpractice claims for events in the outpatient setting was similar to the number in the inpatient settings. This study, which received enormous attention worldwide, points to a great need to improve patient safety though means such as better coordination of care within and between doctors’ offices and proper use of electronic health records. Dr. Bishop was also the lead author of an article in Archives of Internal Medicine on the trend of physicians to accept fewer and fewer patients with health insurance. The article discusses how this trend may end up hampering access to health care, despite the fact that many more people will gain health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Dr. Bishop was also the lead author of a recent article in the American Journal of Managed Care examining the association between physician quality improvement incentives and ambulatory quality measures. In addition, she wrote an Op-Ed piece for USA Today, titled “Medicare needs sustainable ‘doc fix’,” which received the most prominent placement in the opinion section of the newspaper. Dr. Bishop earned her BS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her MD from Weill Cornell Medical College. Before joining the Department, she was based at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, where she was an intern and resident in the Department of Medicine (and received the Richard Gorlin Award for Resident Humanitarianism), and a fellow in the Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Care and in the Division of General Internal Medicine.She completed a Masters in Public Health from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in September 2010.
Matthew J. Press, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Assistant Attending Physician, is the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Public Health/Quality of Care Research. The scholarship is helping support his studies on hospital readmissions, which are often an indicator of deficiencies in the healthcare system. His projects examine what puts patients most at risk for readmission, how best to measure readmission rates, and how we can most effectively reduce their occurrence (when appropriate). He also studies other aspects of health care quality that relate to coordination of care, both on the system and individual level. Dr. Press received an AB degree in Public Policy, and then an MD, both from Brown University. He completed an Internship and Residency in Categorical Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to Weill Cornell Medical College, he was a Clinical Scholar with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania, a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Ambulatory Care Special Fellow at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. He also completed an MSc in Health Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Press is a Diplomate in Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine. He currently hosts the “Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Health Policy Podcast,” a monthly interview series with health policy experts (available at http://rwjcsp.unc.edu/resources/podcast/index.html). In addition, he was chosen to serve on the Ad Hoc Communications Committee for the Society of General Internal Medicine. He is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics of the University of Pennsylvania.
Nanette Laitman is the daughter of William and Mildred Lasdon, now deceased, who were generous benefactors to Weill Cornell Medical College, and for whom Lasdon House, the Medical College dormitory, is named. Ms. Laitman has followed in her parents’ footsteps as a major philanthropist. She has a special interest in public health. She previously endowed the position of the Chairman of the Department of Public Health. The Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholars Program is the largest endowment for junior faculty in any department within the Medical College.
