Dressed to Cure

c1-c1WCMwinter10 2/3/10 2:55 PM Page c1 weillcornellmedicine THE MAGAZINE OF WINTER 2009/10 WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE AND WEILL CORNELL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF Inside: MEDICAL SCIENCES Dressed Update on Weill Cornell’s response to to Cure the crisis in Haiti What’s the prognosis for the white coat? c2-c2WCMwinter10 2/3/10 2:55 PM Page c2 Campaign Initiatives Cancer Advancing science, enhancing health Cardiovascular Disease Building on excellence Children’s Health Adding 30 new scientists Diabetes, Metabolic Disorders and Obesity Doubling our research space Global Health and Infectious Disease Transforming bench-to-bedside research Molecular Therapeutics Neurodegenerative- Neuropsychiatric Diseases, and Aging Stem Cell, Developmental Biology, Reproductive and Regenerative Medicine Rendering of new Medical Research Building planned for East 69th Street For more information, please contact Lucille Ferraro, Campaign Director. P: 646-962-8721 E: [email protected] Please write to us at: Privacy Office, Weill Cornell Medical College, 1300 York Avenue, Box 303, New York, NY 10065, if you wish to have your name removed from lists to receive fund-raising requests supporting © redsquare, inc. for Polshek Partnership Architects Weill Cornell Medical College in the future. 01-02WCMwinter10toc 2/3/10 2:23 PM Page 1 weillcornellmedicine THE MAGAZINE OF Joey Alsberge ’13 20 WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE AND WEILL CORNELL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES WINTER 2009/10 FEATURES 34 20 THE WIDE WORLD BETH SAULNIER With many students eager to train abroad, the field of global health is taking off. At Weill Cornell, half of the first-year class has signed up for a new global health curriculum—on top of their usual course load. The department has Joanne Bruno ’13 launched a comprehensive website to showcase its offerings, with opportunities to study at sites from Munich to Mwanza. •Twitter: @WeillCornell 34 BE WELL •facebook.com/WeillCornell 28 COAT OF MANY MEANINGS MedicalCollege SHARON TREGASKIS •youtube.com/WCMCnews BETH SAULNIER Forget the stereotype of overworked doctors who It has been the physician’s uniform for more tell their patients to adopt healthy habits but than a century. But with the AMA reviewing a don’t practice what they preach. As it turns out, For address changes proposal to ban the white coat as a disease vec- physicians are more likely to eat well and exercise and other subscription inquiries, please e-mail tor—and some doctors-in-training decrying it as than other highly educated professionals—and us at outmoded and uncomfortable—is the venerable even with the pressures of medical school, many [email protected] garment on its way out? Weill Cornell Medicine Weill Cornell students are passionate advocates asks faculty and students to weigh in. of healthy living. WINTER 2009/10 1 01-02WCMwinter10toc 2/8/10 1:03 PM Page 2 weillcornellmedicine THE MAGAZINE OF WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE AND WEILL CORNELL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES www.weill.cornell.edu Published by the Office of Public Affairs Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences WEILL CORNELL SENIOR ADMINISTRATORS Antonio M. Gotto Jr., MD, DPhil The Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean, Weill Cornell Medical College; Provost for Medical Affairs, Cornell University David P. Hajjar, PhD Dean, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences Myrna Manners Vice Provost for Public Affairs Larry Schafer Vice Provost for Development WEILL CORNELL DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS Michael Sellers 8 WEILL CORNELL EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Andria Lam DEPARTMENTS Earthquake victims seek aid at Haiti’s GHESKIO Weill Cornell Medicine is produced by the staff clinic. of Cornell Alumni Magazine. 3 LIGHT BOX PUBLISHER Jim Roberts Move it! EDITOR Beth Saulnier 4 DEANS MESSAGES Comments from Dean Gotto & Dean Hajjar CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Chris Furst Adele Robinette 8 SCOPE Sharon Tregaskis Help for Haiti. Plus: Sanford and Joan Weill win Carnegie EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Medal, a first in brain tumor treatment, power plant goes Tanis Furst green, eating disorders center reopens, Dr. Javaid Sheikh ART DIRECTOR named dean of WCMC-Q, and NYP’s Pardes to retire. Stefanie Green ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR 12 TALK OF THE GOWN Lisa Banlaki Frank Kitchen confidential Plus: Cutting-edge prosthetics, waste not, ACCOUNTING MANAGER chemical warfare memories, unmasking “Dr. Anonymous,” Barbara Bennett grad school recruitment, and one passionate cardiologist. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES 40 NOTEBOOK 401 E. State St., Suite 301 News of Medical College alumni and Graduate School Ithaca, NY 14850 Cover photograph by alumni (607) 272-8530; FAX (607) 272-8532 John Abbott 46 IN MEMORIAM Alumni remembered Weill Cornell Medicine (ISSN 1551- 48 POST-DOC 4455) is produced four times a year by Recalling “a passion for life, learning, and service” Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 E. State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850-4400 for Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. Third-class postage paid at New York, NY, and additional Printed by The Lane Press, South Burlington, VT. mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send Copyright © 2010. Rights for republication of address changes to Public Affairs, 525 all matter are reserved. Printed in U.S.A. E. 68th St., Box 144, New York, NY 10065. 2 WEILL CORNELL MEDICINE 03-03WCMwinter10lightbox 2/3/10 3:14 PM Page 3 Light Box JOHN ABBOTT On the move: Third-year medical student Nakesha King (center, in striped sweater) attends an exercise session in East Harlem as part of the Movement Against Childhood Obesity (MAChO), a volunteer group that encourages inner-city kids to eat right and exercise. For more, see page 38. WINTER 2009/10 3 04-05WCMwinter10deans 2/3/10 2:36 PM Page 4 Deans Messages Training for an Uncertain Future Antonio M. Gotto Jr., MD, DPhil, Dean of the Medical College Madelon Finkel, PhD JOHN ABBOTT he words “health care” and “reform” health policy clerkship—taught by Madelon seem nearly inseparable these days. Finkel, PhD, for more than ten years—that offers When one appears, the other is sure an overview of the non-clinical side of practicing to follow. medicine and exposes them to some of the issues TWhile many agree that a reevaluation of the they may be facing as they treat patients. This current health-care model is long overdue, there is includes the confusing, and at times conflicting, little agreement about how reform should be restrictions placed on physicians and patients administered. Some people argue for greater alike. “With the current debate among policy- involvement from the federal government. Others makers and others about how our health-care say Washington already plays too large a role and system should be reformed, it is ever more Americans would be better off choosing their own important to give our students the skills neces- health-care options. Many doctors worry that sary to navigate the increasingly complex health- Medicare reimbursements, already on the decline, care system,” says Dr. Finkel, who is a professor will continue to fall, forcing them to take on even of clinical public health and director of the greater patient loads and further stressing all Office of Global Health Education at Weill aspects of the health-care process. New legislation Cornell. (For more on global health, see page 20.) seems likely, but the debate will hardly end there. Student response has been enthusiastic. “The Whatever the immediate outcome, Weill health policy course forced us to step back from Cornell Medical College is not taking a passive our basic science and clinical courses and put our role. Change is coming to health care, and as we training into a real-world context,” says Anthony train the next generation of physicians and Rosen ’10. “We met industry experts who shared researchers, it is our mission to ensure that the their often dramatically differing viewpoints on doctors and scientists of tomorrow not only keep health care. The timing for the course was per- pace with the shifting world of medicine, but fect, as we were discussing these issues as the also continue to push the boundaries of discov- health-care reform debate unfolded. I think that ery and patient care. understanding health policy will be invaluable Our fourth-year students take a two-week for me as a practicing physician.” 4 WEILL CORNELL MEDICINE 04-05WCMwinter10deans 2/3/10 2:36 PM Page 5 Productive Partnerships David P. Hajjar, PhD, Dean of the Graduate School of Medical Sciences cience and medical research are Students who are interested in com- cology, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, highly collaborative endeavors. bining the strengths of the field of psy- imaging, and genomic and transgenic At the Weill Cornell Graduate chology and cognitive science in Ithaca approaches within animal models and spe- School of Medical Sciences, our and the neuroscience program in Man- cific clinical populations. IMAGINE stu- Sstudents work closely with faculty mentors hattan are encouraged to consider the dents receive exceptional training in both and fellow students as well as with re- IMAGINE program (Ithaca Manhattan how to choose and design research ques- searchers and scientists from neighboring Graduate Initiative in Neuroscience). In tions and how to apply this skill in clinical institutions. In a stretch of First Avenue no Ithaca, the program specializes in basic settings with the most current and power- longer than a mile, one encounters some of analysis of perception, cognition, com- ful techniques. the finest medical and research facilities in munication, and decision making, No great milestone in medicine or sci- the world: NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill grounded in developmental and evolu- ence was achieved alone. The work can Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, the tionary perspectives, with a strong com- often seem solitary—all those days and Rockefeller University, and Hospital for putational emphasis. The Graduate nights in a lab—but it helps a great deal to Special Surgery.

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