Twice as many African-American patients infected with the most difficult-to-treat form of chronic hepatitis C successfully cleared the virus when given a weight-based dose of REBETOL® (ribavirin, USP) rather than a flat dose, in combination with PEG-INTRON® (peginterferon alfa-2b). The new findings, involving nearly 400 African-American patients from the large multicenter WIN-R study, are significant because African-Americans are known to have generally lower rates of response to hepatitis C therapy, and efforts are underway to improve outcomes for these patients.

With the help of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell scientists, a couple now have a healthy baby boy, free of a disfiguring genetic ailment that has plagued the father and his family for generations.

For heart failure patients who are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest, state-of-the-art combination defibrillator and pacemakers implanted inside the patient's heart helps them keep the beat. The stopwatch-sized devices, called Concerto™ and Virtuoso™, recently approved by the FDA, are now available at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is one of the first hospitals in the United States to train surgeons in the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing™ System, a new option for patients suffering from hip pain who do not want to give up their active lifestyle. Recently approved by the FDA, the procedure, an alternative to hip replacement, involves shaving and capping the worn surfaces within the hip joint, helping to preserve bone and joint stability for young or active patients.

Lung cancer can be detected at its very earliest stage in 85 percent of patients using annual low-dose CT (computed tomography) screening, and when followed by prompt surgical removal, the 10-year survival rate is 92 percent. These results, to be reported in the October 26 New England Journal of Medicine, would dramatically decrease the number of deaths from lung cancer -- the number one cause of cancer deaths among both men and women in the U.S.

The Division of Nursing at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center has named six Physicians of the Year. The second annual awards recognize physicians who consistently practice with nurses in a collaborative and collegial manner.

Dr. Scott Hammer of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center has led the development of two important new guidelines for treatment of HIV. He is lead author and chair of the panel of the International AIDS Society -- USA's (IAS-USA) recommendations for treatment of the disease in developed nations -- presented on Aug. 13 at the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto and published in the Aug. 16 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). And he is chairman of the writing committee of new guidelines published by the World Health Organization (WHO) for public health response to the disease in developing nations.

With decades of distinguished academic, clinical and administrative achievements to his credit, Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum has been appointed the new Chief of Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion.