Michael G. Vitale, MD, MPH, of Brooklyn, New York, was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Dr. Vitale was one of 549 new Fellows inducted during ceremonies at the Academy's 72nd annual meeting in Washington, DC.

Dr. Marc Bessler has been appointed director of the Minimal Access Surgery Center (MASC) at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, where he is also surgical director of Laparoscopic Surgery and director of the Center for Obesity Surgery. He is assistant professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Renowned preventive cardiologist and tri-athlete Dr. Lori Mosca offers her prescription and inspiration on how to make healthy lifestyle choices that fit today's busy lifestyles: choices that involve and improve the health of the whole family.

The late Dr. Steven Z. Miller, the much beloved and respected associate professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of Emergency Medicine at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, has been honored with the 2005 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Education Award. Presented at the AAP National Conference and Exhibition (NCE) in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2005, the award recognizes Dr. Miller's lifelong commitment to and legacy of substantially improving medical student education and humanism across the United States. Dr. Miller was a fellow of the AAP. The late Dr. Richard T. Sarkin of the State University of New York at Buffalo will also receive this year's award. Dr. Miller and Dr. Sarkin, both Arnold P. Gold fellows, promoted the concepts of humanism and professionalism in medicine around the country. They died in a plane crash on October 19, 2004, en route to making a presentation to Kirksville Osteopathic School in Kirksville, Ohio.

Final results of the WIN-R trial, the largest hepatitis C study conducted in U.S. patients, showed that weight-based REBETOL® (ribavirin, USP) in combination therapy with PEG-INTRON® (peginterferon alfa-2b) achieved significantly higher rates of sustained virologic response (SVR) and lower rates of relapse compared to the combination therapy using a flat dose of ribavirin. The study also showed that, for patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 2 or 3, a shorter, 24-week course of therapy was as effective as the standard 48-week course, with better tolerability. These results from WIN-R (Weight-Based Dosing of PEG-INTRON and REBETOL), a community-based access trial involving more than 4,900 patients at 225 centers across the United States, were reported in an oral presentation today at the 56th annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and Hallym University Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, have entered into an affiliation agreement to begin a unique international collaboration to enhance patient care, clinical and biomedical research, medical education, and training. The international four-way affiliation grows out of an existing clinical and research relationship between Hallym and Columbia University.

The NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and White Plains Hospital Center announced today participation in a national public education initiative to attack the problem of underage consumption of alcohol beverages through parent-child communications. The program is funded by a three-year, $600,000 grant from Heineken USA and marks the first time a major medical institution has joined with an alcohol beverage company on a program to reduce underage drinking.

Varicoceles, an enlargement of the veins of the spermatic cord, are the most common cause of male infertility. A new study by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center finds that fathers, sons, and especially brothers of men with varicoceles are at greater risk for varicoceles themselves. Published recently in the journal Urology, the study is the first ever to shed light on the inheritance patterns of this condition.