Year in Patient Care

Additional Stories 

• New Columbia Podcast Offers Children’s Health Advice for Parents: A new podcast from the Columbia Department of Pediatrics and Edith Bracho-Sanchez, MD, offers parents simple and relatable advice for keeping kids of all ages healthy and happy.

• Virtual Urgent Care at Columbia Meets Patients Where They Are: Virtual urgent care at Columbia is expanding to provide care for patients in new ways, 365 days a year.

• Epilepsy: Minimally Invasive Surgery Can Provide Lasting Seizure Control: A study led by Brett Youngerman, MD, has found that MRI-guided laser ablation is a viable treatment that can provide lasting seizure control for people with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy. The study is published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 

• Columbia Fertility Takes Pain and Stress Out of Frequent Blood Draws: At Columbia’s fertility center, blood can now be drawn painlessly at home, thanks to an innovative laboratory test developed by Zev Williams, MD, PhD. 

• Columbia Receives $6.5 Million Gift to Expand the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center: With a transformational gift of $6.5 million, the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center at Columbia University will launch its second decade of excellence in clinical care, research, and education. 

• Opioid Disorder Treatment: First Three Weeks Forecast Success: A newly developed prediction model, created by Sean X. Luo, MD, PhD, may be able to calculate the risk of opioid relapse among individuals in the early stages of medication treatment—as early as three weeks into therapy. The study was published in JAMA Psychiatry. 

• Care Packages for Chemotherapy Patients: The Department of Radiology's breast imaging program and the Department of Surgery’s breast care program collected items to create care packages for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. 

• Reinterpreting Established Science to Find Better Breast Cancer Drugs: Neil Vasan, MD, PhD, brings the perspectives he's gained from classical singing and structural biology to his search for new breast cancer treatments. 

• New Center Aims to Lessen the Consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury: Columbia’s chief of pediatric critical care and hospital medicine, Hülya Bayır, MD, is researching ways to prevent disability or death after a child suffers a head injury. 

• Columbia University Selected as a Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence: The center at CUIMC, funded by the NIH, will support research to reduce pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality while promoting equity. 

• Mindfulness Intervention Shows Promise for PTSD in Cardiac Arrest Survivors: Maja Bergman, PhD, is leading a pilot feasibility study to assess a new therapy, addressing a critical gap in treatment options for a high-risk patient population with unique emotional needs. The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 

• Patients Living with a Heart Pump Benefit from Aspirin-Free Regimen: A new study led by Nir Uriel, MD, shows that omitting aspirin from an anti-clotting regimen can improve outcomes for people living with a heart pump by reducing hospitalizations without increasing the risk of blood clots. The study was published in JAMA. 

• For Metastatic Prostate Cancer, Immunotherapy May Have Unexpected Potential: A new trial led by Aleksandar Obradovic, MD, PhD, found that metastatic prostate tumors contain a rich variety of immune cells that can potentially be roused by immunotherapy attacking the cancer. The study was published in Cancer Cell. 

• First CRISPR Therapy Approved for Sickle Cell: Columbia patients and physicians, including Monica Bhatia, MD, and Markus Mapara, MD, were essential in demonstrating the effectiveness of the world’s first CRISPR gene-editing therapy, now approved for use in the United States. 

• A Heart Valve That Grows: An expanding artificial heart valve being developed by David Kalfa, MD, PhD, and Jeffrey Kysar, PhD, could simplify treatment for many kids born with congenital heart disease. The team is now building prototypes with improved materials and preparing to test their designs in animal models. 

• New Columbia Center Will Leverage AI to Enhance Patient Care: Despina Kontos, PhD, will lead the new Center for Innovation in Imaging Biomarkers and Integrated Diagnostics. The center will be dedicated to developing and integrating quantitative imaging and non-imaging biomarkers for disease prediction, particularly in cancer. 

• No Spike in Overdoses with Take-Home Methadone: A study led by Arthur Robin Williams, MD, indicates that patients who receive methadone take-home doses are no more likely to overdose or drop out of care than those whose methadone is delivered at government‐approved opioid treatment programs. The findings, published in Lancet Regional Health Americas, suggest more flexible policies for methadone access could improve access to this life-saving treatment. 

• The State of Care: Historical, Contemporary, and Forward-Moving: VP&S faculty—today's Whipples, Apgars, and Drews—are working to forever change health care like their illustrious forebears. 

• New Discovery Could Land One-Two Punch Against Cancer: A study from Alberto Ciccia, PhD, and Giuseppe Leuzzi suggests drugs targeting the SMARCAL1 protein could strike a double blow against many cancers and make immunotherapy even more effective. The study was published in Cell. 

• Anticoagulants Fail to Prevent Unexplained Strokes: A study led by Mitchell Elkind, MD, and Cornell researchers finds that anticoagulants do not prevent recurrent strokes in people with one type of heart condition. The study was published in JAMA. 

• Can You Get Over Trauma with EMDR?: Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EDMR) may help reduce the intense emotions and thoughts associated with trauma. Adrian Jacques Ambrose, MD, explains how the therapy works. 

• Columbia Launches Garrett Isaac Neubauer Center for Cardiovascular Innovation 

  A new center for pediatric cardiovascular innovation, made possible through a gift by Lawrence Neubauer, aims to improve outcomes for patients through groundbreaking research and care and to define the next cures for and future practice in congenital heart disease (CHD)—here and across the world.  

• Assessing the Impact of Fast-Track Drug Approval Programs: Based on an analysis of withdrawn drugs that gained approval through the FDA's fast-track program, researchers Susan Bates, MD; Tito Fojo, MD, PhD; and George Mellgard, MD, argue that such programs have positively contributed to drug development. The commentary was published in Nature Cancer. 

• Columbia Awarded $15 Million to Create Medicines for Ultra-Rare Forms of ALS: Neil Shneider, MD, PhD has been awarded a $15 million grant from the NIH’s Ultra-rare Gene-based Therapy Network to design tailor-made gene-based therapies for nine people with rare forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 

• ARPA-H Awards Columbia Researchers Nearly $39M to Develop a Living Knee Replacement: A team of researchers from CUIMC and Columbia Engineering, led by Nadeen O. Chahine, PhD, and Clark T. Hung, PhD, has been awarded up to a $38.95 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to build a living knee replacement from biomaterials and human stem cells, including a patient’s own cells.  

• Revitalizing Vision: Metabolome Rejuvenation Slows Retinal Degeneration: Stephen Tsang, MD, PhD, and Nicholas Nolan are designing a CRISPR-based gene therapy with the potential to prevent blindness in anyone with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition caused by more than 80 different genes. The study was published in Cell Reports Medicine.  

• Prenatal Testing Offers a Window for Finding Maternal Cancer Risk: A study led by Shayan Dioun, MD, found that including BRCA1 testing with prenatal carrier screening could identify people at risk of breast, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer. The study was published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 

• When a Nosebleed Isn't Just a Nosebleed: Columbia's HHT Center for Excellence, led by Vladimir Sheynzon, MD, and Charles Murphy, MD, is working to increase awareness of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, a rare condition that causes frequent nosebleeds and more serious complications.

• Fabric Necklace Monitors "Kangaroo Care" of Infants: Joey, a lightweight sensing fabric designed by Columbia engineers, can be worn by caregivers to monitor Kangaroo Mother Care practices with their babies. Interviews with eight pediatricians in the Division of Neonatology at CUIMC confirmed the clinical usability of Joey’s sensing fabric for infant skin.  

• New Device Inspired by Python Teeth Doubles Strength of Rotator Cuff Repairs: A team led by Stavros Thomopoulos, PhD, uses biomimicry to create a device that may reduce the risk of re-tearing a rotator cuff after it has been repaired. The study was published in Science Advances

• Study Suggests Way to Improve Treatment of Hereditary Breast Cancer: PARP inhibitors have improved the survival of breast cancer patients with BRCA1/2 mutations, but the cancer eventually returns. A Columbia study by Swarnali Acharyya, PhD, and Anup K. Biswas, PhD, has now identified a drug that may prevent that relapse. The study was published in EMBO Molecular Medicine. 

• Columbia to Establish David Koch Jr. Glomerular Kidney Center: The new center, launched with a $20 million gift from the David Koch Jr. Foundation, aims to advance research, education, and care for patients with glomerular kidney disease.