Grand Central Terminal will be the site of a 24-hour spin-a-thon on Friday, as riders mount 100 stationary bicycles to raise money for a health education program in public schools.

The “Saints & Sinners” event will benefit HealthCorps, a program founded by a New York heart surgeon, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is known for his frequent appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Organizers said chef Rocco DiSpirito and fashion designer Donna Karan, among other celebrities, are expected to attend.

Starting at 7 a.m., some 2,400 riders are expected to take turns on the bicycles. To participate, riders must pledge $100 an hour. Founded three years ago, HealthCorps places volunteers in public schools to educate students about healthy eating. The program currently operates in 28 New York City public schools.

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PACE TO OFFER NEW NURSING DOCTORATE

Pace University will offer a new doctorate of nursing practice degree starting this fall, joining a growing number of schools nationwide that are raising educational standards for nurses.

Pace hopes to attract 24 students to the three-year program, the third of its kind in New York. Columbia University and the University of Rochester also offer DNP degrees.

The dean of Pace’s Lienhard School of Nursing, Harriet Feldman, said nurses need to be better educated to deal with the sicker patients that are being treated in today’s hospitals.

In 2004, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing endorsed a shift to doctoral-level training for advanced nurses. Most nurses seeking advanced training obtain master’s degrees. With doctoral degrees, Ms. Feldman said, graduates of the program would be able “to tackle other types of practice issues and ideas that someone prepared at a master’s level is not prepared to do.”

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NEW YORK INSURERS LAUNCH “MEDICAL HOME” PROJECT

Two New York health insurance carriers are launching a program to provide patients with a “medical home.”

Group Health Incorporated and the Health Insurance Plan of New York are recruiting primary care physicians to the program, which tasks doctors with coordinating their patients’ care with the goal of providing comprehensive medical treatment. So far, GHI and HIP have recruited 100 physicians and 20,000 patients to the medical home initiative.

“In this project, we are committing to helping groups of physicians transform their practices,” GHI’s president, Aran Ron, said in a statement.

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COLUMBIA RESEARCHERS RECEIVE $10.4 MILLION TO STUDY ASTHMA

The Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health has received a $10.4 million federal grant to study the impact of the environment on childhood asthma.

The center, affiliated with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, was one of three institutions nationwide to receive a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences through its DISCOVER initiative, which aims to combine environmental research with patient studies. Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Washington in Seattle also received grants.

Columbia researchers previously linked asthma to children’s exposure to air pollution. Columbia scientists plan to conduct four studies with a goal of improving prevention and treatment of childhood asthma.

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HOSPITALS AIM TO REDUCE HEART ATTACKS AMONG PATIENTS

On the heels of a national study that found hospital staff members are too slow in responding to heart attacks among patients, New York hospitals said they are working to reverse that trend.

Last week, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found a link between survival rates and “delayed” treatment, which researchers defined as taking place more than one minute after the onset of an emergency.

According to the Greater New York Hospital Association, 35 hospitals in the metropolitan area have implemented “rapid response systems” in their intensive care units since 2006.

The systems help to identify high-risk patients so that clinicians can respond to early signs of heart attacks.

“Without question, lives are being saved,” GNYHA’s vice president of quality and patient safety, Terri Straub, said.

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ST. BARNABAS HIRES EXECUTIVE FROM SHUTTERED ST. VINCENT’S

A former executive at St. Vincent’s Midtown Hospital, which closed in September, has found a new position at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.

Leonard Walsh was named executive vice president and chief operating officer at St. Barnabas, a 379-bed community hospital. Most recently, Mr. Walsh served as senior executive at St. Vincent’s Midtown, which closed under directives handed down by the Berger Commission.

Previously, Mr. Walsh worked at several New York City healthcare facilities, including NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, and Bellevue Hospital Center.

Mr. Walsh holds a master’s degree in public administration from New York University, and he has held faculty positions at NYU and at Lehman College.

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HEALTHCARE TRUSTEES OF N.Y. ELECTS NEW CHAIR

The Healthcare Trustees of New York State, a nonprofit organization of hospital lay leaders, has elected Richard Hawks Jr., as its new chairman of the board.

Mr. Hawks, who is treasurer and chairman of the finance committee of the board of directors of Thompson Health, succeeds Steven Albertalli.

The board of HTNYS, an affiliate of the Healthcare Association of New York State, also elected Neboysha Brashich, a past board chairman of Eastern Long Island Hospital, as vice chairman.

Sarah Schermerhorn, a trustee at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, N.Y., was elected secretary-treasurer.

esolomont@nysun.com