Columbia P&S students experience this cross-cutting focus from their very first day of class. Since 1994, the &#Science Basic to the Practice of Medicine” course has synthesized basic science with clinical subjects, while at the same time incorporating health policy and societal issues into the curriculum. The 94-hour first-year program in neural sciences, based on Nobel laureate Eric Kandel’s seminal “Principles of Neural Science,” is perhaps the most fully realized, integrated approach to the early study of neurology in research and practice anywhere in the country. Medical education at Columbia P&S is constantly evolving to become more interdisciplinary: This year, a new cultural competency curriculum is being developed in partnership with the nursing, dental, and public health schools.

Partnership opportunities can be found in unexpected places. What does journalism have to do with medicine? In a high-tech world, more than you might think. To take advantage of the latest technological advances in education, such as multimedia instructional environments and simulation tools, P&S faculty and faculty from the other schools are collaborating with the Center for New Media in Teaching and Learning, part of the Graduate School of Journalism. Using these resources, the faculties of nursing, medicine, and dentistry are working together to develop a new online resource to help students understand the basis of the comprehensive physical exam. The online system will integrate basic examination maneuvers with their schematics and overlays of the physiology that goes with each maneuver. Self-testing and virtual examinations will better prepare students for the hands-on portion of the exam.

New collaborations in teaching, research, and clinical care are also coming together in several state-of-the-art, integrated facilities. One of the most exciting to open in 2002 is the New York Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) Integrated Imaging Center, a technologically impressive brain imaging research program that takes advantage of tools such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, and 2-photon microscopy to advance our understanding of how the brain works—and to help us better understand what happens when it doesn’t. Leading radiologists, neurologists, neuroscientists, and bioengineers have been recruited to join the center, which will collaborate with pharmaceutical and medical instrumentation companies to develop sophisticated new tests and treatments for neural disorders.

MORGAN STANLEY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL SOUTH, 2ND FLOOR Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital have many joint programs, centers, and interests. Research, however, has traditionally been the domain of Columbia. The pediatric oncology research program led by Dr. Mitchell S. Cairo is an example of the medical school and the hospital joining forces to benefit patients at the medical center and elsewhere. A 2,000-square-foot pediatric oncology research laboratory in Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, launched jointly by P&S and New York-Presbyterian, brings 20 pediatric cancer researchers under one roof to pursue research meant to translate from the lab to the bedside. Dr. Cairo is professor of pediatrics, medicine, and pathology.

In New York-Presbyterian’s Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, a new 2,000-square-foot pediatric oncology research laboratory, launched jointly by P&S and New York-Presbyterian, brings some 20 pediatric cancer researchers under one roof to pursue translational research. The new laboratory will pursue genetic approaches to childhood lymphomas and develop new methodologies of treatment in immunology and stem cell transplantation.

For patients with less well-known disorders, Columbia P&S provides unique combinations of clinical knowledge and research resources. At the new Celiac Disease Center, for example, comprehensive medical care for patients with the disease is integrated with clinical and epidemiological research and patient and physician education.

As new centers broke ground this year, others continue to reach for the sky. The Irving Cancer Research Center, the third building in the Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park, &#topped out” on Feb. 22, 2002. The state-of-the-art building will bring basic scientists and clinicians investigating cancer, genetics, and cell biology together in one site. The Irving Center will double available laboratory space for cancer research and help realize the strategic plan’s vision for an expanded genetics program.

In Audubon’s second building, the Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion, a new Islet Cell Resource Center augments the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, New York’s most comprehensive diabetes research and treatment initiative. Using a revolutionary experimental therapy called islet cell transplantation, designed to replace insulin-producing cells destroyed by diabetes, surgeons, nephrologists, and endocrinologists hope to give diabetes patients the ability to produce insulin again, freeing them from daily injections and potential long-term damage to their vital organs. Ultimately, the center’s research may also provide a model for the use of cellular transplantation as a treatment for other diseases.

This year marked the 10th anniversary of Columbia-New York-Presbyterian’s groundbreaking Office of Clinical Trials, the first multi-institutional office of clinical trials in the country. It proved to be the most successful year in the office’s history, with new contracts valued in excess of $51.5 million, a 38 percent increase over last year. The types of trials funded are evenly split among industry, NIH studies, and investigator-initiated research. Through its unique Clinical Trials Network, now just three years old, the clinical trials office has reached out into the health system to include physicians in private practice at more than 50 locations as partners in research teams. Indirect costs associated with clinical trials get reinvested dollar-for-dollar to support the infrastructure for all types of research, not just clinical trials. This system has enabled the office to direct more than $40 million back into the medical center, funding everything from grants to young investigators to postdoctoral programs in human studies for master’s candidates in public health.

Underscoring all of medical practice—research, education, and teaching—is the Hippocratic admonition: “First, do no harm.” A new Columbia-wide initiative, “Reporting Systems and Learning: Best Practices,” focuses on making that statement not just a pledge, but a reality, by addressing and eliminating the causes of medical errors. Columbia P&S researchers, collaborating with practitioners from New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago Hospitals and Healthsystems, will expand the voluntary Medical Event Reporting System for Transfusion Medicine (MERS-TM) to other areas to create a culture in which all health-care professionals feel comfortable reporting both errors and near misses. Researchers will use a federal grant to study the initiative’s effectiveness in preventing errors and educating practitioners.

Advances in biomedical research and clinical practice also underscore the need for rigorous attention to bioethical issues. Columbia’s new Center for Bioethics takes an interdisciplinary approach to this fundamental need, offering a coordinated, university-wide approach that brings together students, scientists, and others grappling with questions related to stem cell research, cloning, informed consent, and privacy. Guided by a 28-member council of representatives from all Columbia schools and an external advisory board of nationally recognized leaders, the center sponsors a series of symposia and working lunches, a film series, and, ultimately, courses in bioethics.

MORGAN STANLEY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL SOUTH, 2ND FLOOR Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital have many joint programs, centers, and interests. Research, however, has traditionally been the domain of Columbia. The pediatric oncology research program led by Dr. Mitchell S. Cairo is an example of the medical school and the hospital joining forces to benefit patients at the medical center and elsewhere. A 2,000-square-foot pediatric oncology research laboratory in Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, launched jointly by P&S and New York-Presbyterian, brings 20 pediatric cancer researchers under one roof to pursue research meant to translate from the lab to the bedside. Dr. Cairo is professor of pediatrics, medicine, and pathology.