Weill Cornell Science Briefs is an electronic newsletter published by the Office of Public Affairs that focuses on innovative medical research and patient care at Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The newsletter is sent electronically to journalists and available to all on this Web site.

Dr. Lawrence P. Casalino has been named chief of the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research in the Department of Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Division focuses on evaluating the quality and efficiency of clinical care and of organized interventions to improve care, with the goal of developing sound health care systems and policies.

A leader in global health care initiatives, Dr. Kenneth Ouriel, former chairman of the Division of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and CEO of the Clinic's Sheikh Khalifa Medical City project in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, will join NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on June 2 as senior vice president for International Operations, a newly created position.

The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) will name the main building of its New York State Psychiatric Institute in honor of Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, and former director of the Psychiatric Institute.

How and when to share clinical trial data for heart studies — including when to suspend a study — is vitally important to physician-scientists and regulators as an increasing number of clinical trials evaluate new treatments. This issue is explored in the April 9 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in a commentary article authored by Dr. Jeffrey S. Borer of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Drs. David J. Gordon and Nancy L. Geller — both of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

An international authority on advanced laparoscopic surgical techniques, Dr. Alfons Pomp has been named chief of Laparoscopy and Bariatric Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Leon C. Hirsch Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.

In the aftermath of a heart attack, the body's own defenses may contribute to future heart failure. Authors of a new study believe they have identified a protein that plays an important role in a process that replaces dead heart muscle with stiffening scar tissue. The researchers are hopeful that the findings will lead to the development of new therapies to prevent this damage.

Dr. John A. Clements is the recipient of the 2008 Pollin Prize in recognition of his seminal contributions to our understanding of how lungs hold air, and to the development of a lifesaving treatment for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in infants. Once this country's largest contributor to infant mortality, neonatal RDS now causes very few deaths.