Americans will receive an estimated 100 million electrocardiograms (ECGs) this year to diagnose heart disease -- including heart attack, acute angina, and hypertrophy (enlarged heart). A new study finds that computer-based rhythm interpretation -- a standard feature of most modern electrocardiograms -- is often inaccurate, and without physician intervention, could lead to a false heart rhythm diagnosis. The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center study is published in last month's Journal of Electrocardiology.

Traditionally when a baby was born with a malformation of the lung or esophagus, they had to undergo open surgery involving a large chest incision with risk for serious complications. Now, pediatric surgeons at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian are one of only a few in the United States to offer the corrective surgery using innovative minimally invasive techniques -- with benefits including reduced pain, risk for complications and visible scarring.

Dr. Lisa Kern and her colleagues found that screening for osteoporosis with bone density scans was associated with 36% fewer hip fractures over six years compared with usual medical care. The study will be published in the February 1 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Timothy C. Wang, M.D. has been named chief of the division of gastroenterology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In his new role, Dr. Wang will also serve as chief of the division of digestive and liver diseases within the Department of Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

A perspective article in the December 22 New England Journal of Medicine by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center's Dr. Anne Moscona explores why personal stockpiles and improper use of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) may cause drug-resistant strains of influenza to surface. This report is troubling news as Tamiflu, one of only two neuraminidase inhibitors available to combat seasonal as well as avian influenza, is beginning to appear less than infallible.

Adults and children in need of mental health care are now treated by bilingual psychiatrists and psychologists experienced in cultural diversity in eight primary care sites of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's Ambulatory Care Network. The first and largest of its kind in New York City, the Integrated Mental Health Primary Care Program (IMP), has helped close the gap between primary care and mental health services.

A research study by a NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center neurosurgeon demonstrates that surgeons who use an endoscope to biopsy or resect intraventricular brain tumors in patients without hydrocephalus achieve equal if not better results than similar cases where hydrocephalus is present -- demonstrating that the field of minimally invasive brain surgery is advancing. Minimally invasive surgery, where possible, is generally preferred to open brain surgery because it is associated with less morbidity, less scarring, and shorter recovery time.

Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and the Ambulatory Care Network (ACN) of NewYork-Presbyterian have been awarded a $2 million grant from Merck Childhood Asthma Network Inc. (MCAN) to improve asthma care for children in the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods of New York City. The four-year grant will fund a new program called WIN for Asthma (WIN stands for Washington Heights/Inwood) that will work to reduce asthma-related emergency-department visits, hospitalizations, and school absences by 25 percent, and by 50 percent for high-risk children.