NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, along with its affiliated medical schools Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, today celebrated the start of construction on the new Center for Autism and the Developing Brain at the Hospital's Westchester campus in White Plains. Developed in collaboration with the New York Center for Autism, the 11,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility is slated to open in early 2013. The Center's mission is to provide cutting-edge research, education, and comprehensive services to people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at every stage of life, from infancy through adulthood.

Ultrasound is transforming the way arthritis is diagnosed and treated, making evaluation and treatment quicker and more accurate. The new approach is dubbed fast arthritis sonographic evaluation and treatment, or FAST, by rheumatologists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center who are leading its development.

In the spirit of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, NewYork-Presbyterian recognizes some of our patient-athletes who overcame great odds to stay in the game.

A nationwide, federally funded study has found that testing a developing fetus' DNA through chromosomal microarray (CMA) provides more information about potential disorders than does the standard method of prenatal testing, which is to visually examine the chromosomes (karyotyping). The results of the 4,000-plus-participant clinical study are being presented at the 32nd annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Dallas on Feb. 9, 2012. The study was recently published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Nationwide ambulance use by patients suffering from a stroke has not changed since the mid-1990s, even though effective stroke treatments are now available. In a study published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center found that the number of stroke victims transported via ambulance has remained relatively static over the years, highlighting the need for more education about stroke symptoms and the importance of early intervention.

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons has been elected by the membership of the American Psychiatric Association to be the next president-elect. His term as president-elect and then president will begin May, 2012 and extend through April 2014.

Two researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have deciphered a mouse's retina's neural code and coupled this information to a novel prosthetic device to restore sight to blind mice. The researchers say they have also cracked the code for a monkey retina-which is essentially identical to that of a human —and hope to quickly design and test a device that blind humans can use.

On March 28, leading experts across multiple disciplines will convene at the 2nd World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes to review the latest research on bariatric surgery as a treatment option. The three-day meeting, hosted by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, will bring together physicians, scientists and policymakers representing 60 countries. The Congress director is Dr. Francesco Rubino, one of the world's leading authorities on bariatric surgery for diabetes.