Mendel Goldfinger, MD, and A. James D’Silva, MD, both specialists in the treatment of patients with cancer, recently joined NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital’s Division of Hematology/Oncology.

Internationally renowned neuro-oncologist Dr. Howard A. Fine of Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian will receive a five-year, $6 million National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award for brain cancer research. Established in 2004, NIH Director’s Pioneer Awards, part of the NIH Common Fund, will provide nearly $1.2 million annually for five years to a single principal investigator who has demonstrated exceptional creativity and is pursuing a bold new research strategy against a major biomedical challenge.

On October 4, NewYork-Presbyterian is celebrating Organ Donor Enrollment Day by launching a new campaign to educate New Yorkers about the need for organ donations and encourage people across the state to become organ donors. The campaign comes at a time when New York ranks 50th out of 50 states with regard to the percentage of residents registered as organ donors. As the region’s leader in performing the highest volume of solid organ transplant surgeries, NewYork-Presbyterian is taking this opportunity to dispel common myths that can sometimes prevent people from becoming organ donors.

Dr. Roshni Rao, a renowned expert in breast care, has been appointed chief of the Breast Surgery Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, effective October 3. She will also serve as associate professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital has opened The Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Infant Cardiac Unit. The new, state-of-the-art, 17-bed unit is solely dedicated to infant cardiac care (0-3 months old) and is the first of its kind in the United States. Its construction was made possible by a $5,000,000 gift in dedication to Vivian and Seymour Milstein by their grandchildren, including Joshua, Toby and Laurence.

On Monday, August 21, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital opened the doors of a new pediatric practice site at 621 Degraw Street. The space is replacing the Hospital’s shuttered pediatric practice at One Prospect Park West.

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) recently unveiled a state-of-the-art mobile testing unit in a push to reduce blindness-causing eye diseases across the city. The unit, called The Tele-Ophthalmology Unit, is the first of its kind in the country, targeting communities where residents are most vulnerable to four major sight-threatening conditions: glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

Dr. Anthony Hollenberg, a leading physician-scientist specializing in endocrinology, has been appointed chairman of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, effective February 1.