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Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and The Methodist Hospital in Houston jointly announced today that they have entered into an historic medical affiliation that will benefit residents of New York and Texas. Under the terms of the 30-year agreement, The Methodist Hospital's primary affiliation will be with Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Physicians at The Methodist Hospital can choose to have faculty appointments at Weill Cornell Medical College.

The affiliation will enable the three internationally renowned institutions to collaborate in providing high-quality patient care, cutting-edge clinical and biomedical research, and the most innovative medical education and training of future physicians and biomedical scientists.

Today marks an important, historic milestone for The Methodist Hospital,with the announcement of this new primary affiliation, said John Bookout,chairman of the Methodist Board of Directors. This new affiliation establishes new heights of collaboration and recognizes the strengths of all three partners. This relationship is the first of its kind and furthers our shared missions of excellence in patient care, research, and teaching.

With 1,269 beds, The Methodist Hospital is one of the largest general hospitals in the southwest, and one of the country's largest private not-for-profit hospitals. The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, with 2,397 beds, is the largest hospital in the northeast and is also the anchor of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, the largest, not-for-profit, non-sectarian health-care system in the country. Weill Cornell Medical College is among the top-ranked medical education, clinical, and research centers in the country with over $245 million in NIH-funded research grants, and has long been committed to promoting scientific collaboration across geographic lines.

In undertaking this unprecedented collaboration, Weill Cornell Medical College, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and The Methodist Hospital in Houston become a truly transnational academic medical center, said Jeffrey S. Lehman,president of Cornell University. Scientists from the University in Ithaca and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York are engaged in a number of collaborative programs at the cutting edge of medicine. We look forward to the opportunity to begin new collaborations with our new Weill Cornell faculty in Houston to the benefit not only of patients in our local communities but ultimately throughout the world.

Weill Cornell Medical College is forging a leadership role in the future of medicine for the 21st century not only in the globalization of medical excellence through the new Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, but now through this historic partnership with the preeminent Methodist Hospital in Houston, said Sanford I. Weill, chairman of the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell.

Building a medical and scientific bridge between the North and South, this alliance offers unique opportunities to enhance health care for diverse patient populations and for fostering new initiatives across the spectrum of academic medicine, including clinical trials, international medicine, national health-care policy, outcomes research, and graduate medical education, noted Mr. Weill.

Our relationship with Weill Cornell and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a leap forward in the way we provide medical care to our patients. Together,we will have the facilities, the resources, and the people to rapidly bring our research to the patient's bedside, said Ron Girotto, president and CEO of The Methodist Hospital System. When three strong institutions work together to be even stronger, it is good for the nation, our community, the Texas MedicalCenter, and our patients.

This new affiliation is expected to accelerate the launch of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, a collection of researchers and physicians devoted to rapidly translating research into treatment for patients. Weill Cornell and NewYork-Presbyterian also will assist The Methodist Hospital in establishing an expanded residency program and a new physician organization.

Advances in medical education, research, and clinical care depend on our willingness to discover new ways of doing things that broaden our vision, making us better able to fulfill the vital missions of an academic medical center, said Dr. Antonio Gotto, dean of Weill Cornell Medical College. This partnership offers many exciting opportunities for collaboration that will benefit the patients, students, physicians, and researchers of The Methodist Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Weill Cornell Medical College as well as our broader national and international communities.

Our three institutions share the highest commitment to providing the best care for our patients as well as the best training for young physicians through our residency programs for graduate medical education, said John Mack, chairman of the Board of Trustees of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Patients served by The Methodist Hospital in Houston and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital will receive the benefits of this collaboration in many important areas, including increased opportunities in research and ongoing development of the best clinical practices.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital enthusiastically welcomes this new affiliation with The Methodist Hospital, said Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. We look forward to exploring the many ways that our partnership can expand our ability to provide the most advanced, as well as the most compassionate, medical care to patients in New York and in Texas.

The Methodist Hospital

The Methodist Hospital, based in Houston, Texas, is one of the nation's largest private, non-profit hospitals with 1,269 beds. Dedicated to providing the highest level of patient care, Methodist is the site of numerous medical breakthroughs, such as the world's first multiple-organ transplant in the 1960s, gene therapy for prostate cancer, and the first islet cell transplants in Texas. The Hospital is named among the country's top hospitals for heart and heart surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, urology, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, gynecology, psychiatry, orthopedics, and nephrology in US News World Report's annual guide to America's Best Hospitals. Methodist was recently named one of Solucient's top 15 major teaching hospitals, and Methodist also is consistently ranked as most preferred by National Research Corporation's annual public opinion survey. Methodist has been recognized by Hospitals and Health Networks as one of health care's 100 Most Wired for its use of the Internet to connect patients, physicians and nurses, employees, suppliers, and health plans. Methodist's medical staff includes hundreds of physicians listed in The Best Doctors in America, who, along with other health professionals, offer expert preventive services, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care in virtually every medical specialty.

The Methodist Hospital is part of The Methodist Hospital System, which consists of three other hospitals: Methodist Sugar Land Hospital, Methodist Willowbrook Hospital, and San Jacinto Methodist Hospital. Methodist is a charter member of the Texas Medical Center, which is made up of 42 not-for-profit medical institutions. It is also affiliated with the Visiting Nurse Association of Houston; The Menninger Clinic, a national specialty psychiatric and behavioral hospital; and 24 international hospitals. The Hospital is also affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Founded in 1898, Weill Cornell Medical College has long ranked among the leading medical schools in the U.S. From the start, the medical college has followed an educational philosophy that emphasizes the importance of combining a strong basic foundation in the medical sciences with extensive clinical training in patient care.

Weill Cornell physicians and scientists are engaged in both basic and clinical research in the cutting-edge areas of genetics and gene therapy, neuroscience, structural biology, cardiovascular medicine, AIDS, cancer, and psychiatry, among many others. Weill Cornell's biomedical investigators are delving ever deeper into the realms of cellular and molecular biology, which hold the secrets both to the normal functioning of the body and the malfunctions that lead to serious medical disorders.

In 2001, Cornell University established the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, becoming the first American university to establish a medical school branch outside the United States. With the same admissions and academic standards of the Medical College in New York, Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar will confer Cornell University's M.D. degree to its first graduating class in 2008.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital based in New York City is the largest not-for-profit, non-sectarian hospital in the country, with 2,369 beds. It provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory, and preventive care in all areas of medicine at five major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, The Allen Pavilion, and the Westchester Division. One of the largest and most comprehensive health-care institutions in the world, the Hospital is committed to excellence in patient care, research, education, and community service. It consistently ranks as one of the top hospitals in the country in US News World Report's guide to America's Best Hospitals, in New York Magazine's Best Doctors issue, and in many other leading surveys. The Hospital has academic affiliations with two of the country's leading medical colleges: Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Columbia University College of Physicians Surgeons.

The NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System which includes acute-care and community hospitals, long-term care facilities, ambulatory sites, and specialty institutes is committed to providing high-quality, cost-effective, and conveniently accessible care to communities throughout the tri-state metropolitan region. The System serves one in four patients in the New York Metropolitan area.