A supporter and champion of biomedical research, Dr. Herbert Pardes, executive vice chairman of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Board of Trustees, has established and endowed a prestigious award that will be presented annually to a physician-scientist whose research exemplifies the very best in scientific advancement and innovation.

For the twelfth straight year, NewYork-Presbyterian has more physicians listed in New York Magazine's prestigious "Best Doctors" annual survey than any other hospital. The magazine lists 198 NewYork-Presbyterian physicians — representing 17 percent of the 1,160 New York metro-area doctors listed.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the recipient of a five-year grant, totaling up to $900,000, from the New York State Department of Health to reduce the asthma burden in New York City.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is the first hospital in the New York metro area to offer breast cancer survivors an at-home method for tissue expansion in preparation for breast reconstruction surgery. Patients use a remote control to gradually create a space within their chest wall for a breast implant.

Physicians at three transplant centers have found in a pilot study that a majority of children who receive liver tissue from a parent can eventually stop using immunosuppression (anti-rejection) medications safely. These drugs, which tamp down natural immune function, have been linked to a bevy of complications, including cancer, diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure.

During a regular annual physical exam, blood is usually drawn to check the health of a person's heart, kidneys and liver. Now, researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center say a blood test that detects the early development of emphysema -- well before symptoms occur -- may someday also be offered.

Dr. Herbert Pardes, President and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, the nation's largest nonprofit, non-sectarian hospital, called for increased attention to health care reform efforts that may inadvertently damage the nation's academic medical centers, which provide the bulk of medical innovation and new life-saving techniques to patients across the country. His remarks were delivered in a Newsmaker Lecture Event at the National Press Club here today.

The New York State Department of Health has announced that NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is a designated Inherited Metabolic Disease Specialty Center -- one of only nine in the state.