Dr. Herbert Pardes, President and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, has been elected to a three-year term, effective immediately, on the Board of Directors of the Markle Foundation. With the foundation, Dr. Pardes has been Executive Vice Chair of the Markle Foundation's Connecting for Health Steering Group.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center has established the Cornell Institute of Robotic Urological Surgery within the Brady Department of Urology. Robotic prostate surgery for prostate cancer patients will be the centerpiece of the new program.

Physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital at the campuses of NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell are presenting a number of papers and poster sessions at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO) 40th Annual Meeting in New Orleans on June 5-8.

Parkinson's patients who underwent implantation of embryonic cells had better motor performance following the surgery than patients who didn't receive the cells, according to a paper published in the June issue of The Archives of Neurology by researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

Two years ago, Dr. Bruce McCandliss, a psychologist at the Sackler Institute of Developmental Psychobiology of Weill Cornell Medical College, introduced a reading program he co-developed into some of New York City's public elementary schools. The program, known as Reading Works, uses computer-based reading lessons, and as students have learned from the curriculum, scientists have used brain scans and other methods to monitor how their brains are changing.

The Division of Vascular Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has announced the opening of two new state-of-the-art surgical facilities dedicated to the minimally invasive treatment of atherosclerosis and other conditions of the vascular system. The facilities are located at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System has announced that, together with OR International, a New York-based developer of specialty surgical hospitals, it will help develop a specialty surgical hospital in Somerset, England.

Researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have released final findings of a Phase I trial of an investigational drug, radiolabeled J591, in patients with advanced prostate cancer. J591 is a de-immunized monoclonal antibody therapeutic that was developed at Weill Cornell Medical College. In this trial, published in the July 1 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology, the antibody delivered radiation directly to prostate cancer sites. The treatment was well tolerated and demonstrated anti-tumor activity.