Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian

MONDAY, Sept. 23, 2024 -- Kids born during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have no higher risk of autism, even if they were exposed to COVID in the womb, a new study finds. The study offers reassurance to doctors and parents who’ve been worried about the developmental health of children born during the pandemic, said senior researcher Dr. Dani Dumitriu , an associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City. “Autism risk is known to increase with virtually any kind of insult to mom during pregnancy, including infection and stress,” Dumitriu explained in a university news release. “The scale of the COVID pandemic had pediatricians, researchers and developmental scientists worried that we would see an uptick in autism rates.” “But, reassuringly, we didn’t find any indication of such an increase in our study,” Dumitriu added. For the study, researchers tracked the health of nearly 2,000 children born at two NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and Allen Hospital, between January 2018 and September 2021. Parents filled out screening questionnaires designed to help pediatricians assess a toddler’s behavior and development. Researchers found no difference in autism screenings between children born before and after the onset of the pandemic. “COVID is still quite prevalent, so this is comforting news for pregnant individuals who are worried about getting sick and the potential impact on autism risk,” Dumitriu noted. Based on these results, Dumitriu thinks it’s unlikely an uptick in autism related to COVID will occur. “Children who were in the womb early in the pandemic are now reaching the age when early indicators of autism would emerge, and we’re not seeing them in this study,” Dumitriu said. “And because it’s well-known that autism is influenced by the prenatal environment, this is highly reassuring.” It is important to note that the study didn’t look directly at diagnoses of autism, only at the risk of autism assessed by the screening questionnaires, Dumitriu added. “It’s too early to have definitive diagnostic numbers,” she said. “But this screener is predictive, and it’s not showing that prenatal exposure to COVID or the pandemic increases the likelihood of autism.” Previous studies of babies born in the wake of other pandemics, natural disasters, famines and wars have shown that developmental conditions like autism can be potentially triggered by a mom’s exposure to stress, researchers noted. Those conditions often don’t emerge until the teen years or even young adulthood. “We need to acknowledge the unique experience and environment of children who were born during the pandemic -- including parental stress and social isolation -- and continue to monitor them for potential developmental or psychiatric differences,” said lead investigator Morgan Firestein , an associate research scientist in psychiatry at Columbia. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

NEW YORK, July 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NewYork-Presbyterian today announced a $35 million gift from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation to address the youth mental health crisis through the expansion of its behavioral health services for children and adolescents. With the support of this transformative gift, NewYork-Presbyterian will expand child and adolescent inpatient units and create a state-of-the-art ambulatory behavioral health center at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health in White Plains; build upon its telepsychiatry services; and develop programs to increase awareness and access to youth mental health care and resources in the community. The gift positions NewYork-Presbyterian to respond to the growing youth mental health crisis, as rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions soar. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading health organizations declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health in 2021. In the 10 years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness increased by about 40% in young people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The crisis escalated as children and teens experienced loss, social isolation, academic disruption, and other stressors during the pandemic. "This generous gift from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation reflects our mutual commitment to help young people facing mental health challenges through innovative and compassionate behavioral health care," said Jerry Speyer, chair of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's Board of Trustees. "We look forward to expanding our services to connect more young people with timely, world-class care." For those in need of inpatient services, the gift supports the renovation of the children's inpatient unit and the unit that serves adolescents, as well as the creation of a second adolescent unit, increasing inpatient capacity by 25 percent. The gift will also allow the hospital to refurbish an existing building to create a new ambulatory care center to stabilize and diagnose young people in crisis and connect them with ongoing care. The building will be designed to be a welcoming, healing environment for patients and family members with individual and group therapy rooms, activity areas and comfort rooms. "With the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation's visionary gift, NewYork-Presbyterian will lead the way in providing vital care and support to young people and their families when they need it most," said Dr. Steven J. Corwin, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian. "We are deeply grateful to the Foundation for their partnership in transforming the way we deliver behavioral health care." "Access to high quality behavioral health treatment is so important for children and teenagers," said Alex Cohen, president of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation. "We are proud to partner with NewYork-Presbyterian as they work to address the devastating youth mental health crisis and help make a difference in the lives of young people and their families." As part of the gift, NewYork-Presbyterian will also leverage technology and innovation so NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health experts can provide urgent crisis assessment via telehealth for emergency departments throughout the NewYork-Presbyterian enterprise. It will also expand the reach of its care through the Bridge to Care program, which will help the hospital form partnerships with community-based providers, school-based health centers, and faith-based organizations to increase access to mental health services in Brooklyn, Queens, Lower Manhattan, and other underserved neighborhoods across the city. "We thank the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation for the opportunity to expand, enhance and evolve our renowned child and adolescent psychiatry care," said Dr. Philip J. Wilner, senior vice president for Behavioral Health and chief operating officer of NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health. "We are grateful for this extraordinary gift to expand the treatment we can provide to young people and their families." The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation has also supported the creation of the NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to providing exceptional, individualized care to pregnant women and their newborns before, during, and after childbirth, and the Alexandra & Steven Cohen Pediatric Emergency Department at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. NewYork-Presbyterian NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the nation's most comprehensive, integrated academic healthcare systems, encompassing 10 hospitals across the Greater New York area, nearly 200 primary and specialty care clinics and medical groups, and an array of telemedicine services. A leader in medical education, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the only academic medical center in the nation affiliated with two world-class medical schools, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. This collaboration means patients have access to the country's leading physicians, the full range of medical specialties, latest innovations in care, and research that is developing cures and saving lives. Founded 250 years ago, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has a long legacy of medical breakthroughs and innovation, from the invention of the Pap test to pioneering the groundbreaking heart valve replacement procedure called TAVR. NewYork-Presbyterian's 48,000 employees and affiliated physicians are dedicated to providing the highest quality, most compassionate care to New Yorkers and patients from across the country and around the world. For more information, visit and find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. SOURCE NewYork-Presbyterian

None Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week. Vanderbilt University Medical Center Dara Mize has been named chief medical officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In her new position, Mize will sit on the HealthIT executive team as the primary liaison to clinical leadership. She will lead the team of clinical directors to work with HealthIT experts in order to optimize the use of technology and its impact on patients. Mize began with the medical center in 2012 while completing her fellowship in endocrinology. In 2016, she began her work in health IT in the EpicLeap Project which designed and implemented how clinicians would be trained in the electronic health record system, eStar. Upon taking on her new role, Mize will participate in ongoing efforts to reduce the burden of clinicians, nurses and other staff through novel tech usage. She will also help address capacity challenges. Boston Children’s Hospital Wendy Chung joins Boston Children’s Hospital as the next chief of the department of pediatrics. Chung’s responsibilities will include the overall strategy and oversight of the department of pediatrics and steering the department's goals toward the priorities and mission of Boston Children's, the Physician's Organization and Harvard Medical School. She will also serve as the Mary Ellen Avery professor at Harvard Medical School and president of the Children's Hospital Pediatric Associates. Chung comes to Boston by way of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. She most recently served as chief of the division of clinical genetics within the department of pediatrics, the associate director for education at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, the medical director for the Columbia Genetic Counseling Graduate Program and the Precision Medicine Resource Leader at the Irving Institute. She holds two decades of experience as a clinical and molecular geneticist including directing NIH-funded research programs. Inland Empire Health Plan Lorena Rodriguez Chandler hopped on board with the Inland Empire Health Plan as its first chief health equity officer. Chandler will work to implement policies, procedures and programs to improve health equity as it applies to race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation and access to care and positive health outcomes. Part of her work will include improving and providing culturally appropriate services and initiatives to address health disparities. Most recently, Chandler was the director of Medicare growth strategy and associate vice president of strategic planning and performance at Blue Shield of California. She also helped develop a Medicare Advantage Plan for Latino seniors in Los Angeles County. She previously served as the director for the Center for Latino Community Health at the country's largest Hispanic civil rights organization, Unidos US. Vista Staffing Solutions Andrea Nelson will lead Vista Staffing Solutions as its new president.  Nelson has over two decades of healthcare leadership under her belt including time as chief operating officer for the healthcare staffing solution. In the new role, she will work to garner top NPS scores, develop new business pipelines and ensure an optimal employee experience.  In her previous work at Vista, Nelson helped the company launch new service lines to address the demand for healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic and address the lack of seasoned professionals in healthcare deserts.  Nelson most recently helped aid in Vista's acquisition of Ingenovis Health.  > Ria Health, a telehealth provider specializing in alcohol use disorder treatment, tapped Aimee Peters as chief clinical officer.  > MetroPlusHealth, an affordable health plan for New Yorkers, appointed Dahlia Philips as medical director of the plan's partnership in care special needs plan. > IncludeHealth, a provider of musculoskeletal technology solutions, added Grant Koster to its board of directors and Ray Shealy as its new chief operating officer. > PersonalRX, the home delivery pharmacy, welcomes Prudhvi Kopparapu as its vice president of pharmacy operations. > VillageMD announced that Bryan Becker will join the organization as a national medical director of the Texas region. > VyncaCare, a serious illness management platform, unveiled Angela Poppe Ries as chief medical officer. > Holon Solutions, a health IT company, appointed Brad Nichols as its new chief customer and digital officer. > Garnet Health System announced that Andrey Dovletov joined the organization as corporate compliance officer and director of audit and HIPAA privacy. > Velentium, an engineering firm specializing in medical devices, hired Mario Garcia as vice president of manufacturing. > Alice L. Walton School of Medicine welcomed Sharmila Makhija as the founding dean and chief executive officer. > Goodroot, a healthcare startup accelerator, has promoted Liz Chasse to chief marketing officer, Ben Callaghan to vice president of launch and Scott Wilson to vice president of product development and strategic alliances. > Nuwae Health, a health solution provider aimed at decreasing drug prices, has appointed Ralph Pisano to president. > RemedyOne, a rebate optimization company, has promoted Kim Laurazon to general manager. > Sola Health, a health benefits consultant, appointed Steve Palma to president. > Tell Health, the creator of health-focused social media app Tell, announced the first five members of its medical advisory board: Heather Giannini, Peter Kahn, Vivek Moitra, Marilynn Parker and Christopher Worsham. > SelectHealth, the nonprofit insurance arm of Intermountain Health, has named Rob Hitchcock as president and chief executive officer. > AdventHealth Carrollwood has named Amalie—a 6-month-old Australian Labradoodle puppy—its new chief happiness officer.