Advances in Care NewYork-Presbyterian

Dr. Jason Hawksworth, Dr. Tamatha Fenster, and Dr. Arnar Geirsson come from different specialties, but one thing unites them: the implementation of surgical robotics to advance their practices. In this episode, the doctors discuss how robots are revolutionizing the fields of hepatobiliary, gynecological, and cardiac surgeries–and what’s coming next for the future of medicine.

Dr. Robert Christian and Dr. Samuel Van de Velde are orthopedic surgeons with two different specializations, but one common goal: alleviating pain and preserving their patient’s native hip function for as long as possible. With Dr. Christian’s sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery background, and Dr. Van de Velde’s expertise in periacetabular Ganz osteotomy, the uniquely qualified pair run a combination clinic focused on hip preservation - one of few in the country to offer this type of collaborative treatment approach.

Dr. Mario Gaudino set out early in his career to study the difference between doing coronary artery bypass surgery through veins versus arteries but when he started to review the research findings he noticed something strange: there was no data on how coronary bypass surgery was different for women and people of color. As a matter of fact, the only thing doctors knew about coronary bypass surgery in women was that they had worse outcomes. Dr. Gaudino decided that needed to change and has since launched multiple studies focused on understanding the health outcomes of women and people of color undergoing coronary bypass surgery as well as working to define an improved, patient centric approach for clinical research.

Dr. Dena Goffman believes that better maternal care requires a proactive, system-wide approach and is making her vision a reality at NewYork-Presbyterian. How? She focuses on implementing guidelines that standardize care across all of NewYork-Presbyterian’s hospitals. Dr. Goffman has also aided in FDA approval and adoption of a new, ingenious anti-hemorrhage tool and embraced simulations to train and improve the skills of healthcare professionals throughout the labor and delivery process. Her work across the hospital system has helped to set goals and create quality standards making labor and delivery safer for patients.

Dr. Andrew Chan, Co-Director of Minimally Invasive Scoliosis Surgery at Och Spine at NewYork-Presbyterian, saw the future of spinal surgery eight years ago when he joined a colleague in a minimally invasive lumbar procedure. Since then, Dr. Chan has dedicated himself to performing and teaching minimally invasive spinal surgeries, improving the quality of life of his patients and educating his residents in how to perform these procedures that minimize postoperative pain.

When Dr. Conor Liston first began mapping the brains of people suffering from major depression he noticed something strange. In depressed brains certain networks were expanded and, as a result, had pushed into other networks. This finding made Dr. Liston think that the expanded network could explain why depression presents differently from patient to patient. His work mapping the brain could be the key to effectively using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to help patients with treatment resistant depression.