Charged with achieving better “translation” between clinical research and patient care, Weill Cornell Medical College has received $49 million from the National Institutes of Health to establish and lead a collaborative effort among New York City medical institutions.

The new Clinical and Translational Science Center will include a consortium of Upper East Side hospitals, including NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Hospital for Special Surgery, among others.

The collaboration will target multiple clinical areas, including cancer, diabetes, AIDS, heart disease, and women’s health. The funding represents the largest federal grant ever awarded to Weill Cornell, the medical school said.

“There is a pressing need for broad-based multidisciplinary collaborations that can fulfill the incredible promise of recent research advances,” the president of Cornell University, Dr. David Skorton, a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, said.

Other collaborators include Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences; Cornell University Cooperative Extension in New York City; Hunter College School of Nursing; The Center for Study of Gene Structure and Function of Hunter College, City University of New York, and six additional hospitals affiliated with Weill Cornell.

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BETH ISRAEL OPENS DIABETES INSTITUTE

Beth Israel Medical Center has opened a new diabetes institute designed to supplement primary care among diabetic patients.

The Gerald J. Friedman Diabetes Institute aims to augment care for patients with diabetes by offering nutritional counseling, community outreach, and medical research. Established with $5 million from the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman New York Foundation for Medical Research, the institute will offer specialized programs for deaf patients, those with gestational diabetes, and patients with mental illness.

After quietly opening its doors in recent weeks, the institute has enrolled 500 patients. It aims to serve up to 3,000 individuals over the next year.

“At the Institute, patients see nurses, educators, and nutritionists, who then consult with the patients’ primary care physicians to create an individualized program,” the director of Beth Israel’s Diabetes Management Program, Dr. Leonid Poretsky, said.

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HUD INSURES LOAN TO NEW YORK-PRESBYTERIAN The Department of Housing and Urban Development has insured a $278 million supplemental mortgage loan to finance construction at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, HUD announced yesterday.

The hospital will combine the loan commitment with another $211 million to finance renovation and expansion. Recent construction includes the Milstein Family Heart Center in Washington Heights, as well as expanded emergency and diagnostic space, and additional operating rooms, at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

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MONTEFIORE CITED FOR QUALITY, SAFETY

Montefiore Medical Center was one of 41 hospitals nationwide included in the Leapfrog Group’s 2007 Top Hospitals List, an annual survey based on hospital quality and safety. The 1,122-bed Bronx medical center was the only hospital in New York City to make the list, which is based on data from 1,285 hospitals that responded to the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey. “The Leapfrog survey is valuable because it is a very comprehensive assessment of an organization’s overall commitment to quality and patient safety,” Montefiore’s chief quality officer, Dr. Rohit Bhalla, said in a statement.

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WEILL CORNELL APPOINTS A DEPARTMENT CHAIRMAN

Dr. Andrew Schafer has been named chairman of the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the school announced yesterday. Dr. Schafer, a prominent hematologist, succeeds Dr. Ralph Nachman, who was elected to the position in 1991.

Previously, Dr. Schafer served as chairman of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, a position he held since 2002. He currently serves as president of the American Society of Hematology.

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ONE-THIRD OF SPAM IS HEALTH-RELATED

Nearly a third of all spam e-mails are health-related, a new study has found.

The study, conducted by researchers affiliated with the University of Toronto and published last week in the peer-reviewed journal, Public Library of Science, evaluated 4,153 spam messages sent to three e-mail accounts over the course of a month. Of those messages, 1,334, or 32%, were health-related.