Sanford Weill, chairman of the Board of Overseers, commends the Medical College on its many successes during the past year.
Uris Auditorium was packed on Friday, January 20, as the Cornell University Board of Trustees and Weill Cornell Medical College Board of Overseers held their annual meeting. Hosted and moderated by Dean Antonio Gotto, the meeting included welcomes and introductions by Cornell University Interim President Hunter Rawlings and Chairman of the Board of Overseers Sanford Weill.
As the provost for medical affairs for Cornell University, Dean Gotto presented his yearly report on research, clinical and educational highlights, and accomplishments from 2005, and on the general health of the Medical College. Special presentations followed on obesity and weight control, advances in burn and wound care at Weill Cornell's William Randolph Hearst Burn Center, and a collaborative initiative between Weill Cornell and Cornell-Ithaca on innovative approaches to wound care. The program concluded with a dynamic video compilation of press coverage received by the Medical College in 2005.
Kudos from Board of Overseers Chairman Sanford Weill
Board of Overseers Chairman Sanford Weill announced that he was pleased that Dean Gotto has agreed to head the Medical College for five more years. He pointed out, under the Dean's aegis, the successful completion of the $750 million Advancing the Clinical Mission capital campaign. Among other major accomplishments in 2005 are the topping-out of the Medical College's new Ambulatory Care and Medical Education building, the centerpiece of the capital campaign, and the hiring of Stephen Cohen as Weill Cornell's new executive vice dean and associate provost for administration and finance.
On the global front, Mr. Weill remarked upon the strength of the medical education at Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar, including plans to build a specialty teaching hospital with an $800 million endowment; the Weill Cornell-Tanzania agreement just signed to build a new medical center in Bugando to bring medical care and education to a country that has only one doctor for every 35,000 people; and the affiliation with the Methodist Hospital in Houston that will broaden our relationships throughout the United States and provide an eventual link to Latin America.
Success of Capital Campaign
Dr. Gotto opened his report by highlighting the enormous success of the Medical College's capital campaign. He reviewed the history of Phase I of the three-phase Strategic Plan investing $316.6 million in faculty recruitment (30 researchers have been recruited); capital projects, including major lab renovation and construction, housing acquisition and upgrades, and core services and equipment; and endowment. He noted that the first 17 of the new recruits (all junior scientists) have brought in $327,000 in grants funding in just three years. "That's more than twice the research funding projected," Dr. Gotto pointed out.
Weill Cornell's Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center, the Whitney Labs, and the Weill Auditorium and problem-based-learning labs were among other achievements resulting from Phase I monies. The dean concluded his review of Strategic Plan I by noting the accomplishments of Dr. Shahin Rafii, director of the Ansary Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics and only the second Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in the history of the Medical College.
In summarizing the just-completed $750 million Strategic Plan II, known as Advancing the Clinical Mission, Dr. Gotto noted the Plan's overall goal to recruit 64 new faculty (28 recruited and 6 in progress) and 10 department chairs (neurological surgery, pediatrics, ob/gyn, urology, surgery, and otorhinolaryngology already aboard; medicine and ophthalmology still to come). The cornerstone of Strategic Plan II is the Ambulatory Care and Medical Education building, for which construction is half-completed, the building having just been entirely enclosed. Target completion is winter 2006.
The new Ambulatory Care and Medical Education building on York Avenue is scheduled for completion for winter 2006.
Other accomplishments from Phase II included several newly renovated labs and facilities, such as the Friedman Family Pediatric Labs, the newly named Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Division of Cardiology, and donor commitments for 40 new clinical scholars awards, a new endowment program for outstanding junior faculty members in a variety of departments and programs.
Southtown Boom
The dean emphasized Roosevelt Island's new Southtown residence for our faculty and postdocs, which opened in November 2003 with 125 of 136 units, or 90 percent, occupied as of December 2005. Families have flourished since its opening, with more than a dozen of its female residents having given birth and a number of currently expecting mothers as well. A second residence, Riverwalk, provides additional units for occupancy by newly hired faculty and postdocs.
Southtown Residence on Roosevelt Island
Education Highlights
In the area of education, Dr. Gotto highlighted Weill Cornell's new updated Hippocratic oath, first administered to the graduating class of 2005. He also congratulated Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar—observing that performance outcomes for first-year medical students in New York and Doha were virtually identical. The dean also noted the establishment of the Office of International Initiatives, headed by Steven Rosalie, associate provost and executive vice dean. And he identified several global initiatives in development, including projects in China, South Africa, South Korea and Tanzania. Significant educational and research collaborations are also underway in the United States, including those between Weill Cornell and the Methodist Hospital in Houston, and between Weill Cornell and Cornell-Ithaca. Several seed grants for collaborative research among these institutions have already been awarded.
In Weill Cornell's collaboration with The Methodist Hospital in Houston, the dean highlighted several important new appointments: Dr. Dirk Sostman as chief academic officer and chief medical officer; Dr. Richard Robbins as the new chair of medicine; and Dr. Barbara Bass as the new chair of surgery. New possibilities for collaboration between Methodist and Weill Cornell include an Institute for Medical Education, Center for Performing Arts Medicine, a Department of Family Medicine, and an Institute for Imaging Science.
Several collaborative initiatives between Weill Cornell and Methodist faculty in Houston are already underway.
The Dean concluded his remarks on a high note, declaring that "people make the institution," including students, faculty, chairs, board members and staff; that "excellent people deserve the best resources," including the best buildings, equipment and funding. "It's been nine years of raising the bar, but we are not done yet!"
Special Presentations
Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome and New Initiatives to Assist Patients with Weight Control
Dr. Louis Aronne, clinical professor of medicine at Weill Cornell and director of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell's Comprehensive Weight Control Program, led the special presentation on obesity. He observed the depth and breadth of what can now surely be termed an epidemic, focusing on the relationship of obesity to diabetes, heart disease and other conditions (the metabolic syndrome), and examining new initiatives to assist patients in losing weight. He detailed several paradigms on the science, rather than the behavior, behind the difficulty in losing and controlling weight.
Dr. Naina Sinah
Other contributors to the obesity presentation included Dr. Timothy McGraw, professor of biochemistry, who discussed other aspects (including the role of insulin resistance) of the weight loss and diet control research paradigm; Dr. Michel Gagner, director of Weill Cornell's Weight-Loss Surgery Program and chief of its Division of Bariatric Surgery, who noted that 15 million Americans are candidates for bariatric surgery when weight cannot be controlled by diet and medication; and Dr. Naina Sinah, assistant professor of medicine in endocrinology, who detailed the potential side effects of bariatric surgery including those on bone metabolism. Rounding out the obesity presentation were two patients of Dr. Gagner who told their own stories of successful bariatric surgery.
The William Randolph Hearst Burn Center Advances in Burn and Wound Care
Dr. Roger Yurt, director of the Burn Center, and Dr. Palmer Bessey, its associate director, discussed the team approach to the burn-injured patient involving everyone from physicians, surgeons and nurses, to therapists, social workers, psychologists and chaplains. The long and difficult road of recovery and rehabilitation was discussed, including the "Battle Against Scar," the long-term outcome of burn injury. The presentation concluded with two heart-warming and miraculous patient stories—one of a firefighter and one of a young boy.
A Weill Cornell Collaborative Venture: Innovative Approaches to Wound Care
Dr. Roger Yurt
Dr. Yurt also hosted the program's third and final presentation, involving the collaborative initiatives between Weill Cornell and Cornell-Ithaca in wound care. Dr. Suzanne Schwartz, assistant professor of surgery, and first-year medical student Michelanne Rothrock, from Weill Cornell, joined Dr. Abraham Stroock, from the College of Engineering in Ithaca, and Dr. Chih-Chang Chu, from the College of Human Ecology, to tell the fascinating story of developing actual new products for healing wounds. Drs. Schwartz and Stroock discussed an innovative microfluidic wound dressing, a special spongy material to carry fluids to the healing wound. And Drs. Chu and Yurt detailed the development of a therapeutic, drug-eluding, biodegradable polyester-amide material, a kind of "artificial skin" that releases drugs locally to promote wound healing of burn victims. This last innovation provides an outstanding example of the Cornell Seed Grant Program, which, through a partnership between Weill Cornell and Cornell-Ithaca, seeks to develop modern technologies that ultimately can come to clinical reality.
Photos by Weill Cornell Art & Photo.