New York Medical College, WMC sign affiliation agreement

Michael D. Israel, seated at left, Westchester Medical Center Health Network president and CEO, and Dr. Edward C. Halperin, New York Medical College chancellor and CEO, sign hteri institutions’ long-term affiliation agreement on May 17. looking on are, from left, Herman Geist, Westchester County Healthcare Corp. board member; Julie Switzer, WMC executive vice president and general counsel; Dr. Mark Hasten, board chairman of Touro College and University System and New York Medical College; Mitchell Hochberg, board chair of Westchester County Healthcare Corp;; Dr. Alan Kadish, president of New York Medical College, and Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino.

New York Medical College (NYMC) and Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMC) officials on May 17 signed a 12-year academic affiliation agreement that both organizations believe will strengthen their academic medicine programs, clinical care and research practices.

“This (agreement) renews our commitment to a continued partnership with WMCHealth and its affiliated hospitals as our primary academic sites,” said New York Medical College Chancellor and CEO Dr. Edward C. Halperin.

Under the agreement, Westchester Medical”™s Valhalla campus hospitals will be used as teaching sites for the clinical education of New York Medical College students.

The college will facilitate the expansion of that education to other hospitals in the WMC network. Both organizations will collaborate to foster clinical research.

On any given day, more than one-fourth of the college”™s third- and fourth-year medical students complete their clinical clerkships at WMC hospitals, along with students in other clinical disciplines, Halperin said.

“With a shared faculty and jointly conducted research and educational activities, there is a great deal of partnership between our two organizations,” he said. “This agreement codifies our already long-standing relationship. Contrary to prior short-term agreements, this arrangement will allow for a continuous and synergistic relationship between both organizations.”

Founded in 1860 in New York City, New York Medical College is a health sciences school with more than 1,400 students on its Valhalla campus.

”WMCHealth hospitals have a history of academic cooperation with New York Medical College, and we”™re happy this agreement will keep this relationship strong for more than a decade,” said Michael D. Israel, president and CEO of the 1,700-bed Westchester Medical Center Health Network. “Developing the advanced care specialists of tomorrow is part of our mission and in collaboration with New York Medical College, we are a lead center on many clinical trials from which results will impact generations to come.”