Our division provides over 35,000 ambulatory care visits a year. More than 30 full-time physicians cover the in-patient Rheumatology service at HSS and provide the Rheumatology consultation service for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell Division, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Rockefeller University In-Patient Service. Faculty members of the Division of Rheumatology and Department of Medicine at HSS have academic appointments at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) and hospital appointments at the East Campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The Rheumatology Program is complemented by the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University (WGSMSCU) Program in Immunology which has 30 faculty, including 6 based at HSS in Rheumatology (*) and the WGSMSCU (**) Program in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research, which has 12 faculty including 9 affiliated with HSS. All physician faculty members are Board Certified in Rheumatology.
Our division provides a three year Fellowship in Rheumatology, with two to three Fellows added each year. The first year is largely clinical, the second both clinical and research-based, and the third year largely research-based. Our division is committed to training the future leaders in Rheumatology and in providing the optimal experience in basic and clinical research which will provide our Fellows with the training that will lead to future success. We meet the Rheumatology and Immunology educational needs of the Residents at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell Division, and those of the medical students at Weill Cornell Medical College.
We are committed to the training of our Fellows in basic and clinical research methodology, and to state-of-the-art, ongoing research which will advance the care of patients with rheumatic disease, now and in the future. We have eleven full-time physician researchers, along with 15 clinically-based Rheumatologists, along with PhD scientists producing high-level contributions to the medical literature. We have an active clinical research program, testing the latest innovations in treatment.
Our division provides a large number of community programs to educate and assist patients. We give numerous community lectures on Rheumatologic topics. We supervise patient self-help groups, e.g., in rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and myositis. Our website (www.hss.edu) has a portion dedicated to patient education. Numerous services are provided to our Rheumatology clinic population, including the Voices program, which provides free assistance with dealing with insurance issues and extensive availability of social workers.
Understanding rheumatologic diseases
The joint is a complex organ of the body that functions at its best when all of its parts are working well and in unison. However, there are many disorders that can damage its many components either singly or all at once, including cartilage, bone, ligaments, and tendons. Osteoarthritis, the most common type, causes cartilage and bone abnormalities that can lead to joint damage, and, in the worst case, the need for joint replacement. We are now studying new medications that can actually modify this disorder and, hopefully, prevent the advancement of the joint dysfunction. Significant advances in the treatment and prevention of osteoarthritis are available at HSS. Rheumatoid arthritis, which occurs in approximately 1% of the population, has a greater potential for causing irreversible joint damage in many parts of the body. It is an autoimmune disorder in which the body's immune system wages battle on itself and is probably triggered by some environmental factor such as a viral infection. The greatest research and therapeutic advances have been made in this disorder and we now, daily, reverse the ravages of this disorder with advanced drugs that safely reset the immune response and turn off its destructive personality. Along with these disorders, HSS rheumatologists are considered the experts in the care of other disorders such as:
Experience Counts
The high volume of patients seen by our HSS rheumatologists, as well as complexity of patient cases, makes the level of care provided extraordinary and unique. Because many rheumatic diseases tend to be chronic, patients who come to HSS benefit from developing long-term and close relationships with their rheumatologist. These knowledgeable and compassionate physicians understand the illnesses that they treat and bring the most modern and optimal treatments to their patients. Their association with the foremost academic medical center in the world brings the best medical care to each doctor-patient interaction. We focus our efforts on caring, trust, communication, and the appreciation of what state-of-the-art medicine is.
World Class, Integrated Rheumatologic Care
On a day-by-day basis, the HSS rheumatologists interact closely with many other essential health care professionals necessary to improve our patient's lives and rid them of the limitations imposed upon them by arthritis. This includes our world class Orthopaedic surgeons, physical and occupational therapists, radiologists, anesthesiologists, and clinical and basic research scientists.
As an academic medical center we are dedicated to putting ourselves out of business through research. We are constantly defining the main clinical issues that affect our patients and then going back to the laboratory to find the reason they exist and find a cure for it. The National Institutes of Health, the Federal Government, and innumerable Foundations have lauded the research performed at HSS as the best there is, and supported our research for the past fifty years.
The Bright Future
We not only look forward to a time when our patients no longer have their lives altered by arthritis, but we are working tirelessly towards that goal. Our modern clinical and research facilities are poised to find the causes and cures of arthritis and autoimmune disorders. As a Musculoskeletal Center of Excellence, we offer a unique medical environment in which improvement of our patients' lives is an everyday occurrence and the cure of all disease is a goal that is just on the horizon.