Daisy Soros welcomes guests to the "Information Please" breakfast on "Drug Interactions: Beyond the Warning Label."
On Feb. 26, Board of Overseers member Daisy Soros hosted the "Information Please" breakfast on "Drug Interactions: Beyond the Warning Label." Nearly 40 friends and supporters of Weill Cornell gathered to learn about this timely subject at the Griffis Faculty Club. Mrs. Soros is a vice chair for the Medical College's capital campaign, "Advancing the Clinical Mission."
Dr. Antonio Gotto, dean of the Medical College, introduced the two keynote speakers: Dr. Joseph Hayes, the Irene F. and I. Roy Psaty Distinguished Professor of Clinical Medicine and medical director of clinical information systems at the College, and Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, clinical assistant professor of medicine and medical director of the Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine.
The forum addressed the increasingly complicated topic of drug interaction, which can occur with prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs, certain foods and beverages, and the growing use of herbal and plant remedies.
Keynote speakers Dr. Joseph Hayes (left) and Dr. Mitchell Gaynor (right) with Dr. Antonio Gotto, dean of the Medical College.
Dr. Hayes spoke to the extremely high number of potential drug interactions and described it as a difficult problem for doctors and health-care professionals to tackle. He presented some of the measures being taken at the NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center to avoid negative drug interactions, including a new computer system that will allow all interaction measures and warnings to be fully automated by the end of 2002.
Dr. Gaynor introduced the role of nutrition in fighting cancer. He pointed out that until recently doctors and scientists have not stressed nutrition when studying and treating cancer. Largely due to work done at Weill Cornell, the field of nutritional oncology has come to the fore.
Dr. Gaynor shared information on the work of the Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, highlighting the center's biodiversity labs in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) and the Peruvian Amazon. Dr. Gaynor argued that a wealth of information is available in these plants, which have been used for centuries by local populations, and stressed that as rain forests become depleted, many compounds that may be highly effective in fighting disease are lost.
The next Information Please breakfast will be held on May 21 on the subject of advances in medical imaging technologies.