Doctors Take to the Airwaves

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Doctors at NYU Medical Center are hitting the airwaves.

Under a new partnership with SIRIUS Satellite Radio, a group of NYU physicians will host “Doctor Radio,” a new station devoted to health and wellness.

The channel, to air on SIRIUS channel 119, is expected to launch in early 2008.

The station will offer nonstop programming, with discussions about new medical research, and doctors offering advice on health topics such as drug-resistant staph infections, heart disease, and attention deficit disorder. Hosts are expected to share stories from the emergency room, debunk myths from television’s medical dramas, and walk listeners through the sports injuries sustained by professional athletes.

The programming “represents the wave of the future for personal medical advice and knowledge,” NYU’s CEO, Dr. Robert Grossman, said in a statement.

* * *

NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN’S CARDIAC CENTER ALMOST COMPLETE

Construction of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s new $50 million cardiac center is nearly complete.

Last week, the final steel beam was installed atop the Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center, a six-story structure situated at the hospital’s Washington Heights campus.

The 143,000-square-foot building is expected to open in 2010, and it will offer comprehensive heart-care services, the hospital said.

The hospital broke ground on the project in April 2006.

The Milstein’s endowment represents the largest single gift in the hospital’s history.

* * *

BETH ISRAEL’S DIABETES CENTER OPENS

Beth Israel Medical Center will celebrate the reopening of its diabetes institute tomorrow, coinciding with World Diabetes Day. The Gerald J. Friedman Diabetes Institute will provide comprehensive patient care, with an emphasis on nutritional counseling, exercise education, and teaching patients to control their blood sugar levels.

The institute, which opened in 1999, closed a year later under financial pressure. Insurance companies typically do not cover the types of preventive service the hospital offered, a spokeswoman said.

Last year, the hospital received a $6 million gift from the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman New York Foundation for Medical Research to reinstate the institute. About $15 million has been earmarked to cover patient care this time around, a hospital spokeswoman said.

According to the city’s health department, nearly 800,000 New Yorkers have diabetes.

* * *

MONTEFIORE TO LAUNCH PERFORMANCE-BASED CARDIAC CARE

Montefiore Medical Center has received a $2.4 million grant to initiate a pay-for-performance program in cardiac care.

Funded by the state Department of Health, the incentive program will take into account 60 performance measures in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

For example, a physician treating an outpatient who is at risk for heart disease could earn an income bonus for meeting certain standards, such as checking weight and providing nutritional counseling. In inpatient settings performance measures will also include the number of readmissions and patient satisfaction survey scores.

The hospital will use its existing clinical information system to measure performance standards starting early next year.

“Most pay-for-performance experiments are conducted by insurers, not providers,” Montefiore’s chief quality officer, Dr Rohit Bhalla, said.

“We’ve tried to raise the bar by focusing on a number of things,” he told The New York Sun. “We hope that by implementing it in a broad-based way, we as an organization can improve care, and evaluate just how effective it is in each of these spheres.”

* * *

HISPANIC PATIENTS: WORSE VASCULAR SURGERY OUTCOMES THAN WHITES

Hispanic patients have higher rates of amputation, and in some cases are at a greater risk for death following certain types of vascular surgery, a study has found.

The study, published this month in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, is based on an analysis of patient records in New York and Florida between 2000 and 2004 Research was conducted by physicians at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, and Weill Cornell Medical College.

Researchers also found that Hispanic patients spent more time recovering in the hospital, and that they were two times more likely than white patients to seek care only after developing advanced illnesses.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use