News and Highlights
November 2009
Lectures, Presentations, and Events
Dr. Heather Gold Speaks at American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network
Heather Taffet Gold, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Health Policy, spoke on comparative effectiveness research in two presentations at the American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network in Chicago. Dr. Gold was asked to present in conjunction with the organization’s establishment of a new web-based database to collect health information at their 109 U.S. clinics that treat patients with blood disorders.
Dr. Nathaniel Hupert Presents on Influenza at Medical College and Abroad 
Nathaniel Hupert, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, presented with other physicians and researchers at a recent Medicine Grand Rounds and at the Rogers Colloquium. On September 8, he, Dr. Anne Moscona, Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Immunology, and Dr. Stephen Jenkins, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, discussed “Emergence of Swine Origin H1N1 Influenza: A Multidisciplinary Perspective,” at the Department of Medicine Grand Rounds. On September 9, he and Dr. Jaclyn Van Lieu Vorenkamp, Assistant Professor of Clinical Public Health and Medicine, presented ”Swine Flu and You” at the Rogers Health Policy Colloquium.
Dr. Hupert participated in the first meeting ever to be held on Modeling Pandemic Influenza at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on September 24-25, 2009, in Stockholm, Sweden. On October 21, 2009, he gave a presentation on modeling resource requirements for the Fall wave of pandemic influenza A(H1N1) at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany.
Recent Research Presentations by Dr. Alvin I. Mushlin
Alvin I. Mushlin, MD, ScM, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Public Health, presented an abstract titled “Clinical Trials in Orthopedics Research: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Alongside Clinical Trials Presentation,” at a May meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Orthopedic Research Society. In June, Dr. Mushlin presented “The Spectrum of Research at the Weill Cornell Medical College. CERT: Focus on Medical Devices,” at CERTs Government Day. (Also see Appointments and Honors section for mention of his recent talk at the American Clinical and Climatological Association.)
Dr. Joseph Fins Speaks at IXth National Spanish Bioethics Congress
Joseph J. Fins, MD, FACP, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Medicine in Psychiatry, was the featured international speaker at the IXth National Spanish Bioethics Congress held October 22-24 in Murcia, Spain. Dr. Fins presented his remarks in Spanish. One talk was on research ethics from a North American perspective and another on the nascent concept of bioethicist as clinical investigator, reflecting on his own role as a co-investigator on the study of deep brain stimulation in the minimally conscious state. The Congress was attended by 300 Spanish bioethicists and leading figures in the field such as Dr. Diego Gracia Guillen - pictured with Dr. Fins- Professor and Chairman of the History of Medicine and Bioethics at The Complutense University in Madrid.
Dr. Inmaculada de Melo-Martín Presents on Varied Topics in Medical Ethics
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, PhD, MS, Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, gave a talk called “Informed Consent: It Ain’t Just a Form,” at a Research Community Forum of the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The forum, which was held September 11, 2009, at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, focused on specific applications and interpretations of federal regulations protecting human subjects in biomedical and behavioral research. It was jointly sponsored by OHRP, CUNY, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the Research Foundation of CUNY.
Dr. de Melo Martín spoke on “Defending Human Enhancement Technologies: What Are We Missing?” at the 2009 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, titled “Converging Technologies, Changing Societies,” held at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, July 7-10, 2009. She also gave a presentation called “Evidence for Use: The Case of the HPV Vaccine,” with Dr. Kristen Intemann of Montana State University , at The Second Biennial Conference of the Society for the Philosophy of Science in Practice, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 18-20, 2009.
Dr. Ravinder Mamtani Co-Hosts Presentation on H1N1 
In September, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar hosted an information session on the H1N1 virus. The talk focused on characteristics of the flu and preventative measures. It was led by Dr. Abdullatif Al-Khal, head of the communicable disease unit at Hamad Medical Corporation, and Dr. Ravinder Mamtani, Professor of Public Health and Acting Associate Dean for Student Affairs at WCMC-Q. The event was covered by Zawya.com, MedicalNewsToday.com, and News-Medical.net.
Dr. Heather Taffet Gold Presents at SMDM Meeting
Heather Taffet Gold, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Health Policy, and Mary Katherine A. Hayes, MD, Associate Attending Radiation Oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, were co-authors of an abstract entitled "Cost Effectiveness of Accelerated Partial Breast Radiotherapy versus Whole Breast Radiotherapy: Impact of including patient perspective," presented by Dr. Gold at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) October 18-21, 2009, in Hollywood, California. Their findings were from a pilot project of the Weill Cornell Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERT) grant, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Drs. Yan Ma and Madhu Mazumdar Present at Joint Statistical Meeting
Yan Ma, PhD, MA, MS, Instructor of Biostatistics in Public Health, and Madhu Mazumdar, PhD, MA, MS, Professor and Chief of the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, gave a presentation titled “Multiple-Outcome Meta-Analysis Methods: Application to Orthopedics Research,” at the Joint Statistical Meeting in Washington, DC, in August. Their work on this project was supported by the Weill Cornell Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERT) grant, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Dr. Bruce Schackman and Jared Leff Present Buprenorphine Research
Bruce Schackman, PhD, Chief of the Division of Health Policy, and Jared Leff, MS, Research Coordinator, presented their research on the cost-effectiveness of long-term outpatient buprenorphine treatment for opioid dependence at two recent conferences: the 31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) held October 18-21, 2009, in Hollywood, California; and the Addiction Health Services Research Conference held October 28-30, 2009, in San Francisco. The authors found the treatment to be a cost-effective alternative to no treatment at a $100,000/QALY (quality-adjusted life-year) threshold, because the results were sensitive to assumptions about quality of life on and off buprenorphine; further research on this topic is necessary and will have economic value. Their work was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Dr. Victor Sidel Gives Two Presentations in Kansas City
Victor W. Sidel, MD, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College, gave a talk on Social Injustice and Public Health for two departments (Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine) of the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City on October 19, 2009. Dr. Sidel outlined many of the ideas discussed in his book of the same name. (Barry S. Levy and Victor W. Sidel, ed. Oxford University Press, 2006; paperback edition, 2009). He described the many ways that social injustice is evidenced by inequalities in access to preventive health care and treatment and the effects of un- or under-insurance, and he proposed a solution including equitable organization and financing of medical care as well as the alleviation of related forms of social injustice.
Dr. Sidel also gave the keynote presentation at a forum, “Healthcare/Warfare: We Pay. Who Profits?” held October 18, 2009, at the Community Christian Church in Kansas City. His talk was titled “Healthcare vs. Warfare.” Dr. Sidel is one of the founders of Physicians for the Social Responsibility and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), and he was co-president in the 1990s of IPPNW, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Dr. Sidel is also the co-editor of War and Public Health (Barry S. Levy and Victor W. Sidel, ed. Oxford University Press, 1997; second edition, 2008).
