New Yorkers are getting fatter — again.

According to a new report, New York is the 37th most obese state, and the state’s adult obesity rate last year grew to 23.5% from 22.4% the year before.

In a comparison of state obesity rates, Mississippi ranked first on the list, with a 37.5% rate. Colorado was last, at 18.4%. The obesity rate did not decline in any state, according to the report, “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America,” published by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The report is based on a Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rankings are based on data from between 2005 and the end of 2007.

“Despite widespread acknowledgement that obesity is endangering the health of millions of Americans, the country is still failing to respond clearly or comprehensively,” the president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, said in a statement.

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Montefiore Starts Liver Transplant Program

Montefiore Medical Center has established a liver transplant program, the first of its kind in the Bronx, hospital officials said.

Bronx residents suffer from high rates of liver disease, hospital officials said. The new center will be linked to the liver center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

There are nearly 2,000 people in New York registered on a waiting list for liver transplantation that is maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing. Montefiore officials said about 120 Bronx residents were on the waiting list for a liver last year.

“The number of hospitalizations for liver-related diagnoses in Bronx-area hospitals has increased substantially, magnifying the importance of having an easily accessible local liver transplant center in the Bronx,” the medical director of Montefiore’s Liver Transplant Program, Dr. Paul Gaglio, said in a statement.

Montefiore doctors also perform heart, kidney, and bone marrow transplantations.

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Evidence-Based Medicine Guru Hired

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has named Dr. Brendan Reilly executive vice chairman for clinical affairs in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Reilly, who was featured in “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, is a known advocate for evidence-based medicine. In “Blink,” Mr. Gladwell describes Dr. Reilly’s implementation of evidence-based criteria for diagnosing heart attacks, which were originally developed by the dean of Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Lee Goldman, hospital officials said.

Previously, Dr. Reilly served as chairman of the Department of Medicine and physician in chief of Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He also held the C. Anderson Hedberg Endowed Chair in medicine at Rush University Medical College.

esolomont@nysun.com