Public Health Professor Appointed to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. William Borden, assistant professor of Public Health and the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Public Health/Prevention, was appointed senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
Dr. William Borden, assistant professor of Public Health and the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Public Health/Prevention at Weill Cornell
Since his appointment began in February, Dr. Borden spends 80 percent of his time with the Department of Health and Human Services, where he meets with members from a wide spectrum of agencies as well as researchers, physicians and hospital groups from across the country to implement various aspects of the Affordable Care Act. While on assignment in Washington, D.C., he remains a Weill Cornell faculty member in the Department of Public Health with 20 percent of his time continuing health services research in collaboration with colleagues here.
In his government role, Dr. Borden is focused specifically on value-based purchasing, which aims to improve the quality and efficiency of health care, and on building data infrastructure that will facilitate patient-centered outcomes research.
This is Dr. Borden's first appointment to a federal agency. He says he finds the work challenging but extremely gratifying.
"As a cardiologist and health policy researcher, I apply much of my Weill Cornell experience with patients and research to the policies that we work on at the Department of Health and Human Services," said Dr. Borden. "It is truly an honor for me to be able to contribute to improving health care in this country at this exciting time of implementing the Affordable Care Act."
Dr. Borden has established himself as an expert when it comes to health care policy reform with research he performed both in the Weill Cornell Department of Public Health and when he was in the Division of Cardiology. Along with his research in value-based purchasing, last year, Dr. Borden completed 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 found that even after the release of such a well publicized trial, that little change is made on the clinical side.
Additional Awards and Honors:
Dr. Palmer Bessey, professor of Surgery and associate director of the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, was named the Aronson Family Foundation Professor in Burn Surgery. This honor has been accorded to Dr. Bessey because of his contributions as a faculty scholar who has contributed significantly to patient care, education and research in burn surgery.
Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, the Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery at Weill Cornell and surgeon-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, was invited to serve as associate editor of the Annuals of Surgical Oncology. Additionally, Dr. Michelassi maintains editorial appointments on five other prestigious journals, including: The Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Surgery, The British Journal of Surgery, Digestive Surgery and Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology.