Promise Program Helps Children with Learning Disabilities
The Promise Program in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, provides an educational path for underserved children who struggle with learning disabilities. It offers comprehensive, state-of-the-art neuropsychological evaluations that otherwise would be unobtainable for this population. These evaluations provide accurate diagnoses and help assure that appropriate educational interventions and services are given to each child.

New Prenatal Genetic Test Is Much More Powerful Than Standard Chromosome Test at Detecting Fetal Abnormalities
A nationwide, federally funded study has found that testing a developing fetus’ DNA through chromosomal microarray (CMA) provides more information about potential disorders than does the standard method of prenatal testing, which is to visually examine the chromosomes (karyotyping). The results of the 4,000-plus-participant clinical study were presented at the 32nd annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Dallas on February 9, 2012. The study, which was recently published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, was led by Ronald Wapner, MD, director of Reproductive Genetics at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and vice chairman for research and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. For more information, click here.

Columbia Cerebral Palsy Center ‘Bridges Care for People with Cerebral Palsy’
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has announced the opening of the Columbia Cerebral Palsy Center. The first of its kind on the East Coast, the new Center, under the direction of David P. Roye, Jr., MD (photo), helps to transition patients with cerebral palsy (CP) from pediatric to adult care, provides education and training for the medical community to work with these patients, and delivers the support to help maximize the potential of these individuals to lead productive lives at all ages. For more information, click here.

Pilot Study Shows Many Children with Liver Transplants from Parents Can Safely Stop Using Anti-Rejection Drugs
Physicians at three transplant centers, including Steven J. Lobritto, MD, Medical Director of Pediatric Liver Transplantation at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital (photo), 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. For more information, click here.

New Leadership Joins NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center
Three prominent pediatric specialists are joining NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center to lead programs in pediatric cardiology, critical care medicine and nephrology. Dr. Richard A. Friedman has been named chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology; Dr. Steven G. Kernie, chief of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine; and Dr. Fangming Lin, director of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology. All are members of faculty of the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

NewYork-Presbyterian Is Only NY Metro-Area Hospital on the U.S. News Best Children's Hospital Honor Roll
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the only tri-state-area hospital listed on the 2011-2012 U.S. News Media Group Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll, and the hospital ranks eighth in the country in pediatric care. NewYork-Presbyterian, where the world's first six-organ pediatric auto-transplant surgery was performed, is ranked in all 10 clinical specialties, which include Cancer, Cardiology and Heart Surgery, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Neonatology, Nephrology, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology and Urology.