NYMC reacts to COVID with research and on-campus changes

“The New York Medical College is actively working on the problem and actively involved in the development of clinical studies,” is all Edward C. Halperin, chancellor and CEO of New York Medical College (NYMC) in Valhalla, was able to say when asked by the Business Journal about NYMC”™s involvement in the global effort to develop therapies and a vaccine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Halperin cited nondisclosure agreements and other restraints regarding his inability to discuss what may be happening in its laboratories.

“New York Medical College has a very extensive history of doing research on viruses,” he said. “We have in-house experts on coronavirus and we have a high level biocontainment laboratory for studying dangerous viruses, which can be put into use in situations like this.”

Halperin characterized NYMC”™s staff of experts and on-going research in virology as one of its great strengths.

“If you ever wonder who helps design the influenza vaccine every year, well, it”™s been us for 50 years. We are the ones who develop it. If you were to walk the floors of the laboratories, you”™ll notice we have a lot of eggs, chicken eggs, in incubators, because you grow the virus in chicken eggs” Halperin said.

NYMC”™s current influenza laboratory was established by internationally respected professor of microbiology and immunology Dr. Edwin Kilbourne who was a member of the college faculty from 1992 until his retirement in 2002 and was professor emeritus in microbiology and immunology from 2002 until his passing in 2011.

Kilbourne donated a catalog of nearly 200 variations of the influenza virus to the National Institutes of Health, which was named the Kilbourne/New York Medical College Archive. The flu vaccine must be revised each year to remain effective in attacking surface proteins of the virus, which are altered by changes in the virus”™ genetics.

Halperin said that the college has a large inflammation science group studying “the inflammation caused by the virus, which causes a lot of mischief of the virus.”

In serious cases, COVID-19 attacks cells deep in the lungs, commonly leading to severe pneumonia and the need for a patient to be put on a ventilator before the body”™s organs begin to fail from lack of oxygen.

“We will be participating in some of the upcoming clinical studies for therapies for inflammation caused by the virus in the lung,” Halperin said.

Because of the need to adopt social distancing, which is at the core of efforts to slow the spread of the virus, NYMC has had to make changes on its campus. Vital research and experiments continue as before but classes and lectures at the School of Medicine, Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Health and Sciences and Practice, the Touro College of Dental Medicine at NYMC and the Touro College of Health Sciences”™ nursing program have been impacted.

“We have done what most of the physical therapy, speech pathology and medical and dental schools have done in this region, which is taken the students out of lecture halls so we don”™t have 200 young people sitting elbow to elbow in a lecture hall, but moved the lecture online, moved a lot of the teaching experience to virtual experiences with simulations,” Halperin said.

“The third and fourth year medical students who were on the wards (in training at hospitals) were asked by many hospitals to come off the wards because of the shortage of surgical masks and other equipment. The medical interns are moving into support roles, helping out with contact tracing (who COVID-19 patients may have been in contact with) and helping out with the drive-thru coronavirus testing.”

Halperin described the transition from being on-campus centric to online as having been “pretty smooth, even for an old guy like me. I”™m teaching two courses this semester: introduction to cancer for students of dentistry and introduction to the history of medicine for students of medicine,” he said, adding that he had delivered 2Â½ hours worth of lectures to medical students and dental students online over two days.

“The technology is such that you load your lecture slides up onto your computer,” Halperin explained. “You open up the correct piece of software. You go ”˜click, click, click”™ and then you see in the upper box 57 people are listening, 83 people are listening and then they put a computer to your left and it says ”˜chat.”™ And you say, ”˜well good morning ladies and gentlemen, can you hear me?”™ and suddenly the computer on your left goes ”˜yes, yes sir, we”™re listening, OK, go ahead”™ and then you start lecturing and then you say, ”˜well now we”™ve covered this topic, are there any questions?”™ ”

Halperin described how a student asks a question, he repeats the question so he”™s sure everyone knows what it is and then he gives the answer. He said at the end of a recent lecture, after expressing hope that the students found it helpful, emojis of hands applauding started popping up on the computer screen.

Halperin said NYMC has decided to shift to the internet a ceremony at which fourth-year medical students find out where they are going to do their internships and residencies.

“The last thing we should be doing is having 210 medical students, mommy and daddy, boyfriend and girlfriend and aunt Loretta all coming to hug and squeeze and cry when they get their envelopes,” Haperin said. “So, we”™re going to do it virtually. They”™ll find out where they are matched online. There will be a speech from the dean online. They”™ll be chatting back and forth online. They won”™t have the experience of hugging but they won”™t have the risk of getting infected by hugging, either.”

With the college”™s commencement ceremony about eight weeks away, Halperin told the Business Journal it had not decided on the specifics of how it will be handled.

Halperin suggested that “Pomp and Circumstance” can be played, speeches delivered, the Hippocratic and other oaths administered and those students going into the military sworn in.

“I”™m betting a bunch of creative people who work hard and think out of the box can do a pretty fair job of having a commencement,” he said. “This college has made it through the Civil War, two world wars, the Spanish-American War, the Great Depression, Legionnaires”™ disease, HIV and 9/11. We”™ll make it through a virus and figure out how to do a commencement if we have to.”

Halperin said the steps taken to react to the COVID-19 pandemic may help develop new teaching techniques for the future.

“To think otherwise would be to neglect medical history,” Halperin said.

He pointed to medical colleges reacting to the needs of World War II by turning out the doctors the military needed in three years instead of the traditional four years. Halperin also suggested that the reason the U.S. was able to build the Panama Canal when others couldn”™t was because of American ingenuity.

“We will figure out things we haven”™t figured out before and we”™ll be better because of it,” Halperin said. “I believe in the future and the best way to predict the future of medicine is to invent it ourselves.”