War is hell, as the old saying goes -- with loss of life and limb, destruction of infrastructure and the environment, and devastating costs. Recent biomedical research has shed light on another pernicious consequence of military conflict: psychological and neurological conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. At the same time, researchers have worked to uncover some of the motives and meanings of war.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, in affiliation with the New York State Psychiatric Institute, announced the creation of an integrated eating disorders center. Opening today is a key clinical component of this new center — The Outlook at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division in White Plains. The only specialized inpatient eating disorders program in New York state, The Outlook will provide treatment for adolescents and adults with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, as well as binge eating and other eating-related disorders.

A simple test could reinvent how scoliosis is cared for in adolescents. NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital is among the first centers nationally to offer ScoliScore™, a new DNA-based molecular test that helps predict the risk of spinal curve progression. In other words, the test provides doctors with actionable information about the likelihood that an abnormal spine curve will get significantly worse or stay the same.

In honor of the centennial celebration of The Neurological Institute of New York, part of Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, a daylong neuroscience symposium is being held on Friday, Sept. 25, 2009.

As the number of women having twins has increased, so has the odds of developing a serious pregnancy complication called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). This disorder affects as many as 15 percent of identical twin pregnancies, and results in uneven blood flow between the fetuses. Until recently the outcome was usually death or disabilities for the surviving babies.

Laparoscopic surgery has been used in the treatment of intestinal disorders for close to 20 years, but its benefits have only recently begun to be extended to people with rectal cancer. In a prospective study of 103 patients who underwent straightforward or "hand-assisted" laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer, a team of colon and rectal surgeons at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center has shown that the minimally invasive approach can be as effective as traditional open surgery in treating rectal cancers.

Lawrence H. Schwartz, M.D., a radiologist best known for advancing the use of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in oncologic imaging, has been named chair of the Department of Radiology of Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and radiologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

Dr. Basil S. Hetzel is the recipient of the 2009 Pollin Prize in recognition of his discovery that maternal iodine deficiency can cause brain damage in newborns, and for orchestrating an effective global campaign in support of salt iodization programs aimed at eradicating iodine deficiency disorders.